Don't let History repeat itself

Learning from the mistakes you've made in the past is a very discussed model.

“How to not make the same mistakes over and over again?” And, it isn’t really that easy.

This article tilts toward questions related to making mistakes, making amends with them, avoiding them, and even reverting.

But, in order to understand how to not let history (which in our case is 

undesirable) repeat itself, we need to understand what mistakes truly are.

Can we define them?

Mistakes are actions or decisions that are incorrect or produce unintended results. They can be the result of a lack of knowledge, carelessness, or misunderstanding of a situation. Mistakes can also be the result of taking risks or trying new things, which can lead to learning and growth. It is important to recognize mistakes, reflect on them, and try to learn from them to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.(Source: ChatGPT-3)

Although the program has answered more than we've asked for, we'll try to take out the best chunks possible and truly, dive deep into the understanding to -

• What mistakes truly mean,
• How to avoid them?
• And, how to conclude when we've made one.

What mistakes truly mean

Since, the beginning of humankind, it has made tonnes of mistakes and recovered successfully and will keep on making those mistakes in the future.

At times, you can't help when history keeps on managing to repeat itself.

The most common example we have is the financial crisis that we keep on facing since the beginning of the free market.

The most famous ones I know of were in 1931, and 2008, and the most recent one being that of 2020.

Although, there have been many major ones like in the late 1970s and 1990s which lasted for decades.

At the individual level, we make mistakes and we are judged, something not so common when things happen on a large scale to a large group of people because it has happened to everyone. Ha, Who will judge us for that?

As Jordan B. Peterson said in one of his lectures,

"It is easier to change yourself and your little surroundings than to change the world."

Although we know of exceptions like a lot of famous and infamous billionaires, having all the world's "success" and money, power, and fame, who in a way have changed the world, but have a paralyzed personal life.

It is known, that it's easy to make amends with people we know personally than with thousands or millions of strangers who follow us on Twitter.

I think chatGPT, answered the question pretty well, although it sounds very bookish.

It is something that we hate having, it is painful and highly undesirable, and simultaneously, we can't avoid it.

How to avoid them?

To be honest, you can't. 

But, I don't want to sound like an a-hole, so let's see what we have.

So, there are two ways you can do that, according to my opinion.

1. Learn from other people's mistakes

A lot of influential people with great achievements have written books in the past for others to be cautious and alerted and tell other's the stories they learned so that they could help the ones who'd read their work by finding it valuable.

In the same way, some people who are close to us, but are pretty successful in some field, and by that I don't mean, work. It could also be a marriage that has lasted for decades now, or they recently celebrated their diamond jubilee.

For example, I reached out to my grandfather who was once, a botanical scientist to ask him about certain regrets he might have in his life if he had any. 

And, what I received was pretty surprising to what the industry of these "successful" and "experienced" people have circulated.

He said, and I quote "I can't remember. I don't think I have any." I was like, "Really. Is that true?" And, he concluded, "Yes, I don't think I regret anything."

Although, he felt strange at the start because nobody had asked that question to him before. He lived a very humble, happy, and modest life. He is a satisfied man.

1. Learn from your own mistakes

Everybody makes mistakes, some of them are solved and many of them aren't, and hence, learning from your past experiences can turn you into a wise, humble, experienced, and overall, mature human being.

How to make amends?

There's a great saying that says, 

"Nothing gets so bad, that it can't be solved." 

Although one would argue how true that is, it depends mostly upon the kind of mistake you've made and even more about to whom you've made it.

If you've hurt someone, you can apologize and try to help them in further pain, even if that person is you.

Money and finances, once lost can be regained, but in exchange for something even more valuable, time. As both of them are relative, it depends upon the phase of life you're in. Are you young or old?

And, even that could be confusing, because I've met people who think they are out of time and are old at 20, and also the ones who say "I've got 20 more years." when they are 60. 

That's the common thing between time and money, they both are relative.

We also have the cases of known personalities, who had overly extensive drug addictions and yet, managed to recover and get their lives in order.

So, the case where things don't get so bad, that they can't be improved can be true in certain cases. Although can we get things back to where they were? Probably not. 

Because, it's not just us who change upon our mistakes, it's also the people around us.

Now, here's the interesting thing, I almost forgot.

Let's take the example of, the financial crash of 1931, from which the world took decades to recover, the same was with the ones in the 1970s. 

In the late 1990s, during the internet boom, it took us slightly less than a decade and one is very recent. 

In 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, from which developing and fast-moving countries have already started to show significant signs of improvement.

The thing about mistakes made by people on a mass scale is that,

"We will keep on making these mistakes over and over again, although the recovery has been faster and faster over time."