The Best Mistakes

The other day I was reflecting on some of the ‘mistakes’ I’d made in life that I no longer see in a negative light. Instead, I now feel pretty lucky that some of these things happened, and I’m sure if other people took a look back on the events that led them to where they are today, they might come to the same conclusion that I did. Odds are you can trace plenty of your mistakes and regrets to successes and opportunities later on.

What mistakes have you made that ended up resulting in something surprisingly positive a ways down the road?

The first person I thought of was my dad. He used to regret not working harder in high school, since this led to missing his shot at an impressive college education. However, the misstep also resulted in him being so frustrated with his subpar post-high school jobs that he started learning to think for himself and became a successful serial entrepreneur.

Here’s another example: My good friend’s parents could only afford to send her to community college. Although it was hard for her to accept at the time, she became determined to make the most of it, excelled in her classes, made connections with professors, got a huge scholarship, and then created a successful business around motivational speaking to community college students.

The bottom line is that most success stories(regardless of how you define success) start with regrets. Here are some from my own life:

• Feeling like I didn’t fully take advantage of my time in high school led to a decade of taking chances and living outside my comfort zone- with dating, singing, music, writing, taking leadership positions, and making sure I didn’t regret a moment of my twenties.

• As college was ending, I believed I had ‘missed my calling.’ I had always regretted not majoring in Education, since I had secretly wanted to teach since the days of ‘playing school’ with my little sister. Then once I started taking grad school classes, I learned that I still had opportunities to get teaching experience at the college level, so I jumped at the chance and ended up teaching at the level that probably suits me best.

• My early twenties and a streak of bad boyfriends led to a love of writing music, and resulted in writing a number of songs that I’m proud of, and that have helped some good friends get through rough times.

• I moved to Orlando, Florida to attend graduate school based on plans I had with my college boyfriend (and then, naturally, we broke up two months into the semester). However, I stayed in Orlando, and this is where I met my now husband.

• The final ‘misstep’ I’ll share here is adjunct teaching. Instead of looking for more traditional jobs, I decided that I’d make teaching teaching work because I loved it so much, even if I wasn’t making much money. However, living on a budget as an adjunct led to learning more about saving money, enjoying the simple things, appreciating (free) outdoor activities, and teaching efficiently for multiple schools- leading to books, helping other instructors find jobs, and the Happy Professor brand.

Life is full of moments, opportunities, and the best mistakes you can make, so love every minute of it.
Happy learning and happy living :).