22 September 2019 / Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , / By Julia / 55 comments

All throughout our lives we are making mistakes. It is just part of being human. Even though we often perceive others to be better or wiser or even perfect, once you look behind the surface you will discover that each and every one has his/ her faults.

We just all learn how to put on a mask so that we will be in disguise in order to not having to show our vulnerability. We prefer not to show our true selves because we believe that we are the only ones who are dealing with a specific issue. And that all the others don´t have those problems.

We even start to bring up our kids like this when we hide our failures from them and appear to be the all-knowing perfect grown up who knows everything or at least who knows everything better. By doing this we give our kids the impression that making mistakes is wrong and that you should know everything without trial and error. We punish our kids for their mistakes instead of teaching them that the only way to learn and grow is by making mistakes.

It is essential that we lead by example. We must not hide behind a mask of pretend perfection. We should let our kids know when we have made a mistake and show them how to get up and rise after a challenge or bad period in our life. It is about learning to thrive and about resilience, about not giving up when facing something difficult. How should our kids learn how to do that if we don´t lead by example? Why do we think that by hiding our vulnerability and by not admitting mistakes we would help ourselves and our kids?

I realized many times that as soon as I open up and tell my story, people open up to tell me theirs. By this we can share experiences, we find out that each and every one of us has his/ her struggles and no one is perfect. I learned that life is about learning, about sharing experiences in order to see other perspectives. It is about facing your fears and challenges and then growing from what you learned. And I found out that you have to find your own way. You won´t help the butterfly if you cut open the caterpillars cocoon. It needs to struggle in order to become what it is supposed to become.

So we should guide our kids and other people in general through bad times by supporting them, but not trying to go through the struggle for them. We should share our vulnerability so that others can see that they are not alone and that if you can do it they can do it, too.

Be open to make mistakes, learn from your challenges and be willing to share your vulnerability. You will grow from it and so will others and – BE YOUR BEST SELF!