A few nights ago though I had a $2,200 glass of wine and it wasn’t even particularly exquisite or distinguishable. You might find this surprising, but once you hear the full story I think you’ll understand why I don’t plan to pour myself another $2,200 glass anytime soon.
I don’t typically drink with an excessively expensive palate, but I do appreciate a good wine thanks to the few years I lived in France. I am sad to report that my $2,200 glass wasn’t unusually rare or even very good wine at that. In fact, it was white table wine I purchased from Trader Joe’s.
You see, like any classic writer, I enjoy late night typing accompanied by a glass of wine. I am currently working on the start of a new book and was happy to find myself in a moment of muse inspired clarity. Unfortunately for me, my spurred creativeness led to fervent typing and ultimately the tipping of my glass stem. Drops of my white wine dove in between the keys of my keyboard. The next day I found myself with a faulty MacBook Air with keys that no longer worked and a warranty that was expired.
I am now typing from my new MacBook Pro, which should help you understand how the cost of my Trader Joe’s wine escalated so astronomically. The good news is that there are times in life when expensive mistakes end up giving us valuable perspective, so here are my three take-aways from my $2,200 glass:
- Expensive mistakes happen: they give us the opportunity to learn how to let them go and to instead look for the silver lining of the situation.
In my case: I have a sweet new MacBook Pro Retina that feels heavenly on my fingertips as I type and has five times the storage and ten times the awesomeness of my old MacBook.
- Things are just things. Money can and will never buy happiness, so when financial mistakes happen we have to resist the temptation to cry over split milk.
In my case: I get to learn to be a little more like my dad, the guy with the ultimate ability to let things roll of his shoulders. There is something peaceful that comes with the perspective of not letting life get to you. This keeps us from dwelling in the past and being fearful of the future…it gives us the ability to live in and savor the present.
- Every slip-up we make is an opportunity to practice extending grace to ourselves. So often we are more adept being kind and understanding to others than we are to ourselves.
In my case: I have the tendency to be hard on myself. Every time I am given an open window to practice race and kindness to myself is an opportunity in which I can grow and mature.
There is only one word I want to leave you with today, and it summarizes a concept that we all need to expand for our own personal development, and that word is grace.
Many of you reading this post are type-A perfectionists, striving in all that you do to be flawless in life. The thing is, what you are seeking isn’t available. We will all make mistakes and we will never “measure up” to the seemingly impossible standards we set for ourselves. So, instead, I urge you to embrace your mistakes. Mistakes are actually cocoons waiting for a metamorphosis if we view them with the right perspective.
May your mistakes refine you, not define you.