Making Mistakes And Moving On

To err is human, to forgive divine.

We all make mistakes. I made one that sticks out like a sore thumb. Fitting because my thumb made the error.

I’m trying to make peace with it and move on. Because life’s too short to get hung up over insignificant mistakes that don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

I’m not perfect. I’ll never claim to be. But I do my best.

When I make a mistake, even if I’m only the one aware of it, I’m more motivated to work harder in order to compensate for my error.

I’m so hard on myself. I beat my mind up for messing up.

But I realize in a few months or days, a lot of mistakes won’t matter to me anymore. I’ll make many more in the days to follow. I’ll have other concerns and worries.

I’m old, so old. 20 years to be exact. I am still learning to move on.

Humans make mistakes. We tend to have good intentions, but the result isn’t always what we intended. That’s okay. Live and learn, right?

I will go to my grave believing everything in life happens for a reason. If it was meant to be, it will be. If it wasn’t meant to happen, it won’t.

Things work out. Sometimes even better than we could’ve expected.

For many reasons, I try to publish a blog post every day, which obviously increases my odds of making more mistakes. But I know if I don’t challenge myself, I won’t change. And I’m all for challenges. Even though changes aren’t always easy, I rather change for the better than never change at all.

Thank you to everyone who forgave me for my mistakes. Now to forgive myself.

Forgiving thy self. What do I know about that? I’m more forgiving of others for small human errors. But I can’t help but hold myself to near impossible standards.

I wonder how often people even notice my mistakes. Maybe I shouldn’t worry as much.

Mess up but learn and move on.

10 Common Writing Mistakes

1. Too vague.
2. Too specific.
3. Too cliché.
4. Too unbelievable.
5. Too realistic.
6. Too fake.
7. Too long.
8. Too short.
9. Too common.
10. Too rare.

December 2015: What I Love

Going back through some of my posts from this year and picking out one I’m particularly fond of.

So this happened…

I clicked on “How You Know You Are A Writer“, made some edits to it, then updated the post. But I forgot that it would be publicized on all my social media accounts—again.

Of course, when I realized my mistake people already noticed before me.  My Tumblr followers decided to like and reblog it. Rachel even retweeted it.

So rather than cover it up by deleting my mistake and pretending like it never happened, I’m doing the exact opposite. I’m owning up to my mistake. That’s a first for me.

Let this be known:

I’m human.

I wasn’t originally going to pick “How You Know You Are A Writer“, but then I got careless.

I won’t ask you to guess the post I was thinking of because that’d be cruel.

I’m flawed, but I have a heart.

10 Mistakes Beginner Bloggers Tend To Make

By “beginner bloggers” I mean myself obviously. I cannot speak for anyone else.

Below are ten of the biggest mistakes I made when I started this blog over two years ago.

1. Underestimate the amount of work maintaining a blog takes. I thought writing a blog post would be like eating a piece of cake. It’s sweet when I finally publish a post. Most of the time, I toil away drafting, editing, formatting, etc.
2. Not have clear goals in mind. I never went in wanting fame or fortune. Still, it would have been nice to set clearer goals so I didn’t have to be flustered every time I had no idea what to do next.
3. Isolate myself from other bloggers by not commenting and interacting. I regret this. I’m sorry I was such a horrible blogger in the beginning.
4. Follow back everyone who followed me or liked one of my posts. I followed many blogs and have since diminished the rate at which I click the follow button. Sorry, not sorry. I’m selective, I’m picky, and I can’t possibly keep up with everybody.
5. Take the important things for granted. You never know what you have and how good you have it until it’s gone.
6. Refuse to ask for help. Thankfully, some kind souls bestowed their wisdom upon me.
7. Be impersonal. I must’ve sounded like a human without any personality. Robot Herminia.
8. Forget to cherish every part of the journey. Time, where have you gone?
9. Not include visuals or pictures. Because I didn’t make it a habit to, I don’t try as hard now. But I am working on it.
10. Beat myself up for every mistake. I think I’m getting better at this.

And yes, I still do some of the above.

Confusing Cruelty For Kindness And Confusing Kindness For Cruelty

Sometimes, I confuse cruelty for kindness. Or vice-versa.

More often than not though, I think others mistake my kind cruelty as actual cruelty. I apologize for my horrible ability to crack bad puns whenever the occasion arises rather than choosing to compliment insincerely.

To the people I tease, kudos to you for putting up with it.

Anyone confident enough to make jokes around me, congratulations courageous one.

Please don’t take everything I say personally.

Kind cruelty, as I like to call it, is how I deal with social situations.

Don’t even get me started when I am genuinely being kind yet someone thinks I’m cruel. My sarcastic nature probably doesn’t help matters.

5 Common Mistakes Writers Make

I am using the term “writers” generally. Like I always do. So it shouldn’t be a surprise to you.

1. They make excuses. Stop complaining. Start doing.
2. They sit still. Words don’t write themselves.
3. They play it safe. Risk everything and then risk some more.
4. They hope for miracles. I don’t believe in them.
5. They give up. Enough said.

Something I Will Never Do In This Lifetime

Buying something with a blatant spelling or grammar mistake on it.

I don’t care that this is done deliberately some of the time. Buying a shirt with a misspelled word on it goes against my morals.

Crazy, aren’t I?

Lesson Learned: Never Let Anyone Question You

This happened yesterday.

A teacher and many of my peers did not believe me when I said “curt” was a real word. In fact, they brushed it off and said it was merely a name.

Insecure Me at that time let it go.

Confident Me now would have stood my ground and explained that “curt” is indeed a word and not just a name. During this incident I already had a suspicion the minority was right. Why? Because the minority consisted of a writer while the majority consisted of non-writers.

I am a writer and blogger for crying out loud. I deal with words every single day of my life. If anybody should have known whether “curt” was a legitimate word or not, it would have been me. Hence, one point for Herminia.

After I went home and did some extensive research, I can conclude and claim that I was one hundred percent right. *Giggles* I take great pride in being correct and knowing they were incorrect. Another point for me.

This is the part where I say I hope everyone learns from my mistake. Don’t let someone question you or doubt your intelligence when you are right.

Or you can stay silent and secretly laugh at their ignorance. Like me. Third point for aspiringwriter22. Who was right? I was. Who won? I did. Who is awesome? I am.