Only through failure do we truly learn ... if your an inventor or a scientist you learn early on that failure is the key to success. So do not take failure as a defeat but as a lesson for learning ... oh and learn from it - if you dont learn from your failures then you truly fail...

best movie on this is a animated one from Disney-

Meet the Robinson's... every adult & kid should see this film...

http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/meettherobinsons/

Thank You Kevin. God Bless You :)

"Out beyond wrongdoing and right doing there is a field, I will meet you there." Rumi

Ben- Lovely! I'm gona put on my snickers right now!!! Get ready! :) x

Good one Dina..Cheers..

Ben well said ...I love Rumis works...

Brilliant & sweet Dina, I do not understand this here:"Take your time to believe that which you are EXPECTED to believe"... does that lead to brainwashing and TRIBAL thinking! Imperialism of doctrines ... don't EXPECTATIONS spoil the INNER HARMONY also. Elimination of DESIRES... including converting others ... a Buddhist approach...is sooooo appeasing!!!If we force our expectations on others, then we must CONTROL them for a lifetime... losing our own FREEDOM and theirs as well!!!!!!!
I don't think that there are Absolute mistakes unless they are MORTAL but then if one believes in after life , reincarnation, etc... Mistakes can teach you a lot but only with a positive attitude or it can push you in your shadow without ever finding your way, the EXIT out!
WHAT is considered a MISTAKE antway? That is so relative!
Now I sound as if I am preaching !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Therese- Thank you again for your explicit feedback. I edited the above to-

"Take your time to believe that which you are conventionally expected to believe."

In this context I'm referring to convention and traditions that despite all the advances in our era still hold onto the primitive conservative habit of "not letting go" even for the better. Trust me I speak on behalf of honestly that which exists right now in my vicinity. So I'd say yes, it IS tribal to a certain degree but not brainwashing as such.

Yes, I agree its loss of freedom of the controller as well. From all my experiences and being a part of an orthodox circle, I can boldly say its a vicious cycle; Where adults didn't have their own liberty as children in turn impose a concentrated authority over their children. This has GOT to resolve! There is NO point in education, if knowledge isn't implemented. Period!

Oh, Dina...such a wonderful question! I can tell you with absolute certainty, that from my perspective, there are no such things as mistakes!!! Only experiences from which we can learn and appreciate! Sometimes, we have to 'step back' from the experience to fully appreciate it, learn from it; but when we do, we grow so much! Thank you, beautiful friend ♥

I agree with Laura. There are no mistakes only learning opportunity. Just semantics I know, but it raises an interesting question for me.

Why are we not expected to make any mistakes.

I agree with Laura....!

Laura, Haroun, Dharmendra- Thank You ALL. Since the three of you are agreeing I can respond at one go! :)

I believe there are NO mistakes or failures in Life provided we perceive them as LESSONS. Life has infinite possibilities for each of us. Neither our biology, geography or religion really has complete influence on our pathways. You may have seen this fact in the same household how siblings are VERY distinct from one another.

Let me share my personal story with you; Some time ago, I myself had regrets. I was selected to NUS ( National University of Singapore) and it was my dream to make it there for 4 years prior to applications. After receiving the seat for a science degree, instead I was heading for a Medical degree to Pakistan which wasn't my favorite option at that time. For a VERY LONG time I tried to fight this reality. I retaliated in every possible way. Complaining against the 56 degree summer and salty water to shower! But HERE I am.

With God's grace I still can't believe I survived that metamorphic half decade. It NEVER was easy. having been in a British education system ALL my Life it felt like I had traveled back in time to find myself in the midst of Camels on the streets. But Now all I say is Alhamdulillah, meaning Praise be to Allah. I'm SO grateful for ALL of it. I wouldn't be right here writing this with a smile from my heart had I not experienced that vast panorama of encounters beyond by wildest imagination. At 25 I have lived and studies with citizens from over 25 countries. Can I thank God enough for all this?

Hence, there are no mistakes or failures, and MORE importantly NO REGRETS my dearest friends! Everything pleasant and unpleasant adds up to the equation of our unique Lives :)

Thanks for sharing your story. Mashallah, meaning Allah digs your grateful attitude :)

Thanks for sharing lovely sister ♥

Well Dina, to respond to the question we had to define 2 words "perception" and "mistake".

Going back to the concept of paradigm shifting, and the fact that the image formed in our minds about a certain issue is nothing more than a formation from our past experiences and what we grew up believing from the our community and that image will, accordingly, differ between people, as they have different experiences and may be, cultural or religious background.

So, the perception of a "mistake" will differ widely between people.

In Engineering when someone ask for "the best" solution, he shouldn't be given an answer till he defines all the variables associated with his problem. For example: What's the best programming language to learn. the response had to be it depends! What application are you going to develop, what's your background in the topic, how much time you can dedicate for that .etc

When you go for a competition, you might be the most experienced or most knowledgeable among the competitors but you might not win! Why, they're mostly judging based on a set of variables that might not be set the right way, they might be judging your technical writing skills and you're the most qualified craftswoman .etc

So, when I say, I made a mistake or someone made a mistake, I defined some variables that I saw fit in that situation, and judged that based on my previous experience or background. And surely there is something I didn't take into consideration when doing so, especially if we're talking about life events.But there is still things that's considered to be mistakes by everyone, for example cheating on partners, is that a mistake or not? everyone knows that it's a mistake.

So, everyone will pick a set of variables to judge actions, these variables might be coming from his own experience, the perception of his community, or religious teachings.

As believers, we're supposed to believe in Al-Qadr or the Fate. and it's among the 6 articles of faith for Muslims. That what happened, god wanted it to happen, and it's the absolute good for us.

That concept might be hard to understand and believe, but much harder to practice while we're in the acme of troubles.

That article will communicate what I want to say better, when it comes to perceiving actions as god's will and as a result, it might be "wrong" or "mistakes" according to a certain standard, but for us it's god's will.

Attributes of Allah "The all Wise" check that article:
http://www.nabulsi.com/english-nab/ideology/names/names-24.php

Oh! forgot to say that we as humans aren't knowledgeable enough to find out all the variables associated with our life problems or situations, and as a result, while we do our best to approach the solution based on the variables we're able to define, we should trust the ultimate knowledgeable entity which is aware of all the variables, and whether what we wanted worked or not, that was our fate, and god's will.

We haven't done a mistake, if we do that, even if we didn't reach what we wanted.

You know, that's the core belief of being a Muslim. Islam means submission to God. Which means accepting god as the all knowledgeable and submitting our will to him as he only knows the best for us.

we're expected to not make mistakes but we can't live that way for from mistakes we learn, we grow, we wise up, hence, enriching our soul
if we're doing everything as they're supposed to be, how will we ever know the right from wrong? failure from success? the sweet taste of winning or achieving something? how will we ever feel sorry for the unfortunate if we can't feel what they're going through? how can we feel it if we didn't experience a certain loss of temporary failure out of mistakes we've done?
doing mistakes is part of being human

mistake makes solution and right direction.