There is magic in mistakes. The Japanese art of Kintsugi teaches us that there is beauty in the cracks. Broken pottery is restored using gold, giving it a profound beauty. The quote “The wound is where the light enters you” can be attributed to Rumi and similar variation to Leonard Cohen. It symbolizes awakening, growing, illumination finding its way in.
When we reframe from sadness, mistakes, or failures this way, the world opens before us, revealing possibilities we couldn’t see before. Recently, I found myself listening to songs with the word “magic” in them, realizing a lot of them were from my childhood. As I rediscovered these songs, certain lines in the middle of them called me back to a simple truth: growth is painful. After shedding a few tears, something shifted. Lightness filled my heart, bringing quiet illumination.
We spend so much of our lives avoiding pain. But I’ve noticed something beautiful: when a child falls these days, instead of rushing over with “Oh my goodness, are you hurting?”, many parents respond with “Wasn’t that fun!?” They make it playful, helping the child see stumbles not as failures but as natural parts of progress.
It’s never too late to relearn these truths. How we approach each day can change everything. Imagine if phrases like “the joys of failure” became popular. What if we made this a goal in life? Life is a series of failures (hopefully small ones), and between those failures are the lessons we’re here to collect.
One of my most meaningful lessons came while polishing my empathy skills. I learned something profound about myself and others. I’ve always loved deadlines and decisiveness. I thrive on knowing the plan. It’s the “judging” aspect of Myers-Briggs. The opposite of this? Going with the flow (called perceiving in Myers-Briggs). I was once accused of not being spontaneous, which stung me more than I’d like to admit.
One day, while complaining about a colleague who couldn’t seem to decide, a friend gently showed me something I’d never considered. Just as I needed to know where I was going and felt anxious without clear deadlines, this other person felt the exact same distress when pressured to decide too quickly.
Mind blown.
I hated that feeling of frustration and uncertainty, but I’d never realized someone with the opposite trait could feel identical frustration when forced to commit.
Mind blown.
I never wanted anyone to feel that way. My empathy for people who love to live in an open-ended way began to grow. And magically, the benefits of that approach to life also became clear, little by little.
When you’re comfortable enough to not know exactly where you’re going, when you’re ready for genuine exploration, the world will surprise you. The wonder you experienced as a child can return, no matter your age.
This is where small failures begin. This is where growth starts. Learning to see the world with fresh eyes requires us to let go of what we think we know. It asks us to be wrong about the familiar, to fail at our assumptions, to stumble into new perspectives. Just as I had to release my rigid need for decisiveness to understand others, we can all practice releasing our certainty about the everyday world around us.
Here’s an invitation to practice this kind of gentle failure: Today, take ten minutes and step outside. Look around and try to catch something new in the everyday scenery. Challenge yourself to be wrong about what you thought you knew. Then experiment with your other senses. Taste your coffee as if for the first time, willing to discover you’ve been missing something. Listen to the sounds of your street as a visitor might, letting go of your usual interpretations. Smell freshly laundered sheets and do not describe them the same old way.
Each of these small experiments is a tiny failure of your old beliefs. Each one cracks open a new possibility for light to enter. Using all your senses to experience the world differently, exploring hidden aspects of yourself, trying on new perspectives and letting them feel uncomfortable at first… this is how you open your world. This is how you collect those lessons tucked between life’s failures.
Practice this daily, and watch what happens. Your perspective will expand. Your horizons will broaden. Your creativity will flourish. And perhaps, just perhaps, you’ll even develop a deep appreciation for those beautiful “failures” that keep teaching you how to grow.
If you’d like some support on this journey, I’d love to explore how coaching might help you move forward. Book a complimentary call – no pressure, just a conversation about what’s possible for you: https://L2BAppointments.as.me/IntroWebsite
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