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No Mistakes, Just Happy Accidents

June 2025

Value of Mistakes

Earlier this month, I was reviewing some material from the Clear Channel Course to prepare for a group call. The following part from one of the audio recordings caught my attention:

“You won’t always get it right when trying to follow your intuition … You get intuitively stronger by working on it, and sometimes by learning from your mistakes … when something happens and you feel like your intuition – or your ability to hear your intuition – has let you down, don’t give up at that point. It’s normal, that will happen, and like anything else, if you keep practicing, you can get quite good at telling the difference between what’s intuition and what’s not, and you get better at knowing how to hear it clearly.”

After listening to this again, I remembered an incident during one of the covid lockdowns four years ago. I was consoling someone who felt devastated about an investment he’d made. It felt right at the time when deciding to invest, but after using up all his savings the situation turned out not to be as he’d hoped. With no money left and no idea on how to improve things, he said despairingly that it was “the biggest mistake of my life.”

As there seemed to be no immediate action to take that might improve the situation, I suggested that he could listen to some music as a soothing distraction. He scrolled through various videos on YouTube, considered playing recordings of rain/waterfalls/crackling fires etc., but eventually chose to view an old video from the 1980s featuring the late Bob Ross. If you’ve even seen this artist at work, you’ll know he is a delight to watch. The sound of his paint brush is satisfying – one might even say delicious! – and to witness the magic of his blank canvas turn into a beautiful artwork within half an hour is quite awe-inspiring.

In the video that was chosen for that particularly challenging time during the lockdown, Bob Ross shared an encouraging message in his uniquely soft, gentle voice. It turned out to be uncannily relevant to the concern about having made a big mistake:

“There are no mistakes, just happy accidents.”

While this didn’t change anything on a practical level, it had an uplifting effect regardless, and in hindsight it was agreed that the investment decision was not really a mistake after all. Although it was challenging and unpleasant at the time, it had led to some important lessons and a lot of personal growth.

Happy Accidents

What if every mistake was really a happy accident to learn and grow from, and that could perhaps even lead to positive opportunities down the track?

On the same day that I wrote the section above, I came across a book in a library that caught my eye called Limitless Mind, by Jo Boaler. I opened it randomly to read the following words: “Our lives are filled with mistakes. We make them all the time, and they are simply part of everyday life … The times when we are struggling and making mistakes are the best times for brain growth.”

About 10 minutes later I sat down at a small table to meet someone, and took out Glennon Doyle’s Carry On, Warrior from my bag to read while waiting. As I turned the page, I was surprised to see yet another reference to mistakes: “First, I remember that I am a human being, and human beings make mistakes. Almost constantly … Forgive yourself. … offer yourself a million more tries.”

Later that night, I played an episode on the Abraham Hicks podcast and heard: “There are no mistakes, just opportunities for more and more growth.”

As if that wasn’t enough, just yesterday I heard this quote from Bill Perkins, author of Die with Zero:

“A life with no mistakes to me is an uninteresting life, an unfulfilling life actually. Like you haven’t touched your limits. You don’t know what your limits are because you never fail.”

To be clear, I was not actively seeking information on the topic of mistakes! I’ve loved listening to interviews, audiobooks, and reading paper books on an almost daily basis for years, and I can’t remember ever coming across so many references to mistakes in such a short period of time. I took each of them as a sign to continue writing this update, after initially wondering if the message about valuing mistakes was a little too clichéd.

So, my takeaway is that whether it’s for intuitive growth, career, relationships, or life in general, it’s better not to worry too much about making mistakes. Just go forward with a playful spirit and a sense of curiosity, open to the idea that perhaps some of the things we consider to be mistakes are not really mistakes anyway, just happy accidents.

To finish off, here are some more words from Bob Ross that, despite being said in the context of painting, can really be applied to anything: “When you get over that fear of making a mistake, then it becomes fun!”

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