Making mistakes is a huge part of life. Everyone we know, even and especially the wisest people you’ve ever met, have made mistakes in their lifetimes. It’s hard to accept.

On a personal level, I lie awake at night thinking about the mistakes I’ve made. It can lead to insomnia, anxiety, continuous stress, leading to other health issues. It feels like the worst thing in the world, and I know it’s regret. People may say (and make big jokes) about the saying “no regrets,” but they always exist. I regret the choices I’ve made, and I’ll try to repair them sometimes. Other times, I don’t have the confidence to fix the mistakes I’ve made. I’ll struggle with them nonstop. 

It’s taken a long time to realize that these mistakes aren’t always the worst things that could have happened. It’s easy to overreact to things I’ve done wrong, especially with underlying anxiety. The truth is, no one is perfect. 

I look up to my mother more than anyone else in my life. I also know that she’s a normal person, just like the rest of us. She’s made mistakes in her life, and she has turned out to be the strongest, most incredible woman I’ve ever known. Even though she’s made mistakes, she’s carried herself with grace and dignity. She holds her head up and makes her way through life like the incredible woman she is.

How can she do that? Why doesn’t she lay awake at night thinking about mistakes, as I do? She’s realized and accepted that mistakes are part of life. She’s talked to me and talked to me through the mistakes I’ve made. She’s been my comforting source during these times, understanding that my anxiety can rule me and helped bring me to a safer level.

Bluntly, even the mistakes I’ve made were meant to be. They’re part of exactly what makes me into me. My mistakes have made me learn to be me – they’ve made me realize I can and will be a better person. I’m a stronger person from the mistakes I’ve made.

There are people I know that I’ve hurt, and while some have forgiven me, others haven’t. That’s okay. I don’t need their forgiveness to carry on with my life. I know that my mistakes are just that – they were mistakes. My mistakes are part of me. They can change my life, and they can change the lives of people surrounding me.

It’s strange to admit, but some of the so-called mistakes I’ve made led me down a better road in the past. They’ve helped me get rid of toxic friendships. They’ve helped me realize what type of person I absolutely don’t want to be. These mistakes have helped me realize that I don’t need to think so negatively.

A mistake doesn’t always need to have a negative connotation. Yes, by definition, a mistake is an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong. What I’ve done to get to this point may have been wrong and misguided, but it’s actually helped me. 

Your mistakes may help you if you look back. The way you handled something may have been misguided, you may have gone about it the wrong way, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t led you to a better path than you were on. The people you’ve hurt with mistakes will disagree, and that’s obvious.

They’re the ones that were hurt by the mistake, not always, but sometimes, a mistake can change your life for the better. Maybe the mistake you’ve made was meant to be. Your life isn’t perfect. No one in life is ever perfect. Everyone you look at, even the person you look up to the most in life, has made mistakes like me with my mother.

They are where they are because they’ve made mistakes, and they’ve learned. Mistakes are part of you, they’re part of me, and they’re part of all of us. Even your mistakes were meant to be. Don’t hold on to regret. Hold on to yourself, your strength, and keep pushing forward. Even your mistakes are part of life. Even your mistakes were meant to be.