Mistakes are usually annoying, otherwise we would hardly learn from them. But there is one kind of mistake that really surpasses everything – and it's not even super educational.
Making mistakes is one of the best and most effective ways to learn. We mess up, slouch, forget something, make a decision that turns out to be rather unwise, and afterwards we ideally get angry enough to learn a lesson and not repeat our mistake so quickly in the future. Sometimes our faux pas also has unpleasant consequences, which certainly increase the learning effect, but mostly they are not as lasting and memorable as our anger. In this respect, it is completely okay to make mistakes and to be annoyed about them afterwards – reflected and of course in moderation. However, there is one type of error that is usually more annoying than any other – and from which we often learn the least.
The most annoying mistake in the world
Imagine you're at a party. One of the guests, you know him very well, but are not close friends with him, speaks somehow strangely, although he has not had anything to drink. You are worried, you would actually like to speak to him about it and suggest that it is best to go to the doctor immediately and have him examined, but since you do not want to offend him, you consult a friend beforehand. "Maybe he took something," she suspects, "or he slept, I don't think we have to do anything." You listen to them even though your feeling tells you otherwise. The next day, you'll find out that the person in question was hospitalized with a stroke. If only you had relied on your inner voice …!
Mistakes that we commit against our better judgment or against our intuition, because we trust others more than ourselves, are usually the most annoying of all and the ones we regret the most (should?!). Understandable, after all we give ourselves away, suppress our own impulses and feelings – and then have the salad. The lesson we could learn from this would be to have more faith in ourselves and less in others. Unfortunately, self-confidence does not usually increase simply by becoming more suspicious of others – there is a different way to strengthen self-confidence. In addition, we unfortunately did not strengthen or confirm our gut feeling. We think "I would have …", but whether it really would have been better, we have never and will never know.
To draw the lesson from this type of mistake not to ask any more advice would not make much sense. After all, the exchange with others often opens up new perspectives on a problem and sometimes even changes our own perspective and attitude. And so in the end there is little more than the realization that we have missed a chance to optimize our inner, intuitive compass. Great.
Why are we making the world's most annoying mistake?
As suggested, a common cause of this most annoying mistake in the world is poor self-confidence. We are insecure and consider others to be more competent, smarter, more sensitive (or whatever) than ourselves. That is why we value what they say higher than our own opinion. Sometimes we are also forced to do what others tell us even though we know better – for example when they are our superiors or our parents. Then we can only work to ensure that at some point they show us enough respect to let us decide.
In addition, our attitude to mistakes often plays a role in the most annoying mistake in the world: If we are so afraid of making mistakes for which we are responsible, we may prefer to do what others advise us from the outset – but to believe that they will then are also guilty and have to live with repentance is a fallacy. Regardless of whether we follow our feelings or what someone advises us, in the end we are always responsible for our own actions and decisions. Therefore, when in doubt, we should rather make our own mistakes – because then we have at least remained true to ourselves.