“All men make mistakes, but only fools repeat them.”

If this statement is true, then most of us are fools, because I am yet to come across anyone who, at some point of time or another, has not made the same mistake twice.

In an ideal world, it would be possible to learn from every mistake that we make, and never repeat them. In fact, in a perfect world it would be possible to learn from the mistakes that others make. But, unfortunately, the world we live in is hardly perfect.

For a variety of reasons, we are not even able to learn from our own mistakes every time. But, if we make a conscious effort, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of repeated mistakes.

i) Recognise and Accept mistakes. The first and the foremost thing is to be able to recognise that we have made a mistake. Many a times we are repeating our mistakes without even realising that we are making one. For example, a student who does not get good results consistently is likely to blame bad luck, or some such thing, for her bad performance. There is a good chance, however, that there is something wrong in the way the student is preparing for the exams. If the student never realises that she is making a mistake, she can never stop repeating it.

Sometimes, even when we realise that we have made a mistake we do not want to accept it, because accepting a mistake is likely to cause a loss of face in front of friends and peers. But, if we are not even ready to accept that we have made a mistake, there is hardly any chance that we will not repeat it.

ii) Pay attention to what others say about you. Most of the time, when others criticise us, we choose to ignore the criticism. We feel that we know ourselves best, and others have no right telling us what to do and what not to do.

Research has, however, proved that there is a part of us that even we don’t know exists. We should endeavour to know and understand this part of us as much as we can. Paying attention to what others say about us is a good way of doing that. We don’t have to take everything others say about us to heart, but if there is something that a lot of people are saying about us, we need to look into the reason for that. Maybe we are doing something wrong and not even realising it.

iii) Keep an eye out of missed opportunities. Before you let bygone be bygone, introspect and try to work out the other options you had when you made a mistake.

In management terms, this is called the opportunity cost. When you pick one decision over another, you are also letting go of the advantages that you could have gained if you had picked the other decision. If you keep an eye out for all the opportunities that present themselves, you will not only be able to avoid repeating your mistakes, but even make better decisions than your earlier ones.

iv) Learn from others mistakes. The following line is from Bernard shaw’s play, Saint Joan:

“Must then a Christ perish in torment in every age to save those that have no imagination?”

One can only understand the true extent of pain by actually feeling the pain. But, it is possible to empathise with others without actually having to suffer as they do. Therefore, empathising with others and learning from the mistakes of others is a smart thing to do, as it can help you avoid making the same mistakes..

In every culture and every society, there are people who suffer greatly because they fall prey to drugs, and even then newer people become victims of the menace every day. It is only because people do not pay enough attention to the mistakes of others, and allow themselves to commit the same mistakes.

v) Live in the present. Lastly, you have to live in the present. The fact that you made a mistake once does not mean that you are going to keep making the same mistake over and over again. If you fail once, you may feel scared, and you you may feel that you will fail again, but every attempt should be treated as a new attempt and the past should be left where it belongs – in the past.

Everyday is a new day, and everyday brings with it opportunities and chances that you can grab hold of to achieve your dreams. Don’t let anything stop you from doing that.

How do you think can we avoid repeating our mistakes?

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Ideas are strange beings, and usually with a life of their own.

Sometimes, an idea will take control of you completely until you are forced to act on it, and at other times an idea will flit across your mind so quickly that you won’t be able to understand what it was.

I have always wondered about the origin of ideas. I also feel that no idea is original. Every idea that we have has its origin in something we have read, heard, seen or felt at sometime or the other in our life.

Even the best of us cannot create anything, not even ideas, out of thin air. There has to be something to work with and work upon. In the case of ideas, the tool that we are working with is our brain and to generate great ideas we need to provide the tool with great raw material.

The raw material for ideas is the lives we lead.

The books we read, the stuff we watch on TV, the things we do with our friends, the things we do when no one is watching us – all these things define the direction our thoughts take, and ultimately determine the ideas that come to our minds.

In order to ensure that we have great ideas, or even the right ones, it is a prerequisite that we lead great lives, or at least a life where we expose ourselves to as many new and novel experiences that we can. It is also important that we lead a life where we do more right than wrong, and where the people we are surrounded with, real or virtual,  do the same.

I guess if we do that we should be able to generate quite a few ideas and some of them will be good too.

 What do you think?

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The most common advice that you can expect from any motivational speaker is this : Do what you are passionate about.

If everyone knows that, it should be easy. Right?

Only it isn’t.

Very few are able to identify what they are passionate about – for the rest, the search for passion is a lifelong exercise. Sometimes, by the time a person knows for sure what he is passionate about, it is too late to do anything about it.

Before I continue, let me tell you a story I heard as a boy.

There was once a famous sage, called Narad, who used to take the name of the Lord all the time. One day, proud of his devotion, he went to the Lord and asked Him who his favourite devotee was.

Narad was sure that the Lord would name him.

But, the Lord said, “A blacksmith who lives in a remote village is my greatest devotee.”

Narad was greatly disappointed, and a little angry.

The Lord, sensing Narad’s anger and disappointment, smiled at him and asked, “Am I wrong?”

Narad said, “How can you be wrong, my lord, but I am always taking your name and yet you don’t think I am your greatest devotee.”

The Lord told Narad to perform a task for him to prove his devotion. God asked Narad to carry a pot of water, filled up to its brim, around the world without spilling a single drop of water. Narad eager to prove his devotion set about doing the task and completed it successfully. Then, he went to the Lord with a triumphant smile on his face.

God smiled at him and asked, “So, how many times did you take remember me while you were doing your task?”

Narad’s face fell and he was ashamed. In his eagerness to finish the task assigned to him, he had completely forgotten to take the name of the Lord.

“Now you know,” the Lord said, “why that blacksmith is my greatest devotee. All his life – through all the pain, the suffering and the joy – he has never missed to remember me twice a day.”

This story tells us what passion is.

Passion is not something that we think we are good at or that we think we can be good at. Passion is that thing without which we can not live. The thing that we do everyday without fail, day after day.

No matter how busy we are, no matter how little time we have, if there is something that we want to do even when weighed down by life and work, then that thing is our passion.

If you have something like that, then, my friend, I would urge you to hold on to it till the end of time. For that is what you are passionate about, and that thing is what will help you add meaning to your life.

So, do you know what you are passionate about?

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Let’s say  you want to start something new. Something you have never done before.

What do you do?

You read a few “how-to” books on the subject, you seek help from friends who are already doing it, and you visit a few websites that deal with the subject at hand. Chances are if you are serious about doing the thing, whatever it may be, you will soon be doing it well enough.

But, what if you want to get better at it?

You can do almost anything thing well enough if you know how to do it, but you can do it better if you know why it is done the way it is. The knowledge of the “how” enables you to do the thing, but the knowledge of the “why” helps you in understanding the mechanics behind doing the thing.

Once you know what is going on behind the scenes, you can adapt the techniques of doing the thing to suit your style and persona. This, I feel applies to almost everything in life, including writing.

Wouldn’t you agree?

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Quotes have always been around, but in the age of Twitter and Facebook, they have become ubiquitous. Over the past couple of years, I am sure you must have come across many great quotes too – shared by your friends on Twitter or posted by them on Facebook.

Here is a list of ten great quotes about writing that I have come across over the years. I hope you like them as much as I do.

Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts. – Larry L. King

It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way. – Ernest Hemingway

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is… the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. – Mark Twain

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. – Anton Chekhov

You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write. – Saul Bellow

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. – Henry David Thoreau

It is impossible to discourage the real writers – they don’t give a damn what you say, they’re going to write. – Sinclair Lewis

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut. – Stephen King

Write the way you talk. Naturally. – David Ogilvy

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. – Richard Bach

What are some of your favourite quotes about writing?

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