I wonder if there is any virtuous soul that did not take an unintentional or well-planned misstep! I doubt there would be anyone who can claim to have followed only a calculated, measured, and tested path without being lost in the millions of the distractions along the way. As someone has correctly said,

To err is human…

We are programmed to be lost in the meadows of the world. Life is a long journey, and none of us can accurately predict the destination of the road that we have chosen to take. We are tempted, pursued, and — sometimes — forced to follow a path that may prove to be a misstep. Well, not every misstep throws us among the predators; sometimes, a lucky few, end up dining with angels and achieve unimaginable success. As it’s rightly said,

Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction. – Al Bernstein

Even if you are a part of these fortunate ones, you would have to agree that not all your missteps handed you the trophy of success. In fact, most of these steps might have pushed you down the road to an absolute hell. What do you do, then? We have two options in case these pebbles, called missteps, on the road cause us to stumble and fall flat on our face:

1. Rub the dust off you and continue the journey with your head held high.
2. Throw your hands in the air, hide your face, accept your defeat, and sulk for an infinite amount of time.

The normal human tendency is to opt for the second option and after a certain amount of time, follow the first option. If you choose the first option immediately after touching the ground, then you are what we are aiming to become.

Crying over the loss and pondering over our misstep is not a problem — in fact, I would even dare say that it is healthy to a limit — as long as you know the purpose of this mourning. While taking the time off to grieve, if we are taking a mental note of the mistakes and miscalculations that led us down the road, and simultaneously carving the lessons learned in our brains, then it’s a sign of your maturity. However, the problem arises when we overanalyze the present situation while keeping our eyes on the rear-view mirror and continue imagining what could have been! Not only is this a bad way of dealing with the present, it is a sure way of falling into the trap of depression.The mantra to a happy life is, at least as I think, to fall, pick up the pieces, document the lessons learned, and then, move on.

The best way to show your love and respect towards your loved ones is to inspire and motivate them to not be too hard on themselves when they take a misstep. Let’s take care of everyone we cherish in our lives and be their rock at the time of their need.

This is a post in response to the daily prompt: Misstep