27/04/2024
Avoiding Errors (4-5min Read Time)
Mistakes. We've all made them; none of us are exempt from the universal truth: "To err is human." We've all contributed to an ocean of errors, mishaps, and missed opportunities that plague our consciousness and keep us awake at night - your little boat being rocked by the waves, or the consequences, of these mistakes, crashing into your vessel, threatening to sink it.
I'm not only referring to the overindulgence of Debonairs' Mexican Pizza resulting in flaming-hot diarrhea (an actual consultation I had this week). Yes, this too constitutes a lapse in good judgment, but we're not focusing on the category mistake that can be soothed (literally) using an over-the-counter ointment. Rather, the mistakes or errors resulting in significant loss of finances, reputation, or health.
The topic of "past and recent mistakes" has been a frequent discussion with a few of my friends, colleagues, and patients over the last two weeks, and I'd like to share my 10 cents on the matter.
Firstly, mistakes are unavoidable. "Is it possible to be free from error? Not by any means..." Epictetus stated this 1900 years ago, but this fact of life has been known to us since the dawn of mankind. Knowing that mistakes are inevitable does not help us much unless we identify the errors and adjust our behavior accordingly - in an attempt to avoid them in the future.
Secondly, errors are prone to occur when we lose focus or let our attention slide. Epictetus continued: "...but it is possible to be a person always stretching to avoid error. For we must be content to at least escape a few mistakes by never letting our attention slide." These are powerful words - errors are bound to happen if we allow our attention to slide, and our focus to be divided.
The media and social networks are doing their level best to grab your attention and steal away your focus. As South Africans, we are guilty of allowing this to happen. A recent report ranks us number one in the world with the highest average screen time per day—a shocking 5 hours and 15 minutes, or 32% of our time daily is spent on our digital devices. We need to guard against such distractions and become a person always stretching to avoid error. (You can read the article here: https://shorturl.at/dqtAN ).
There are many other sources of possible distraction, but our digital devices are a major contributor.
The Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, noted in his Meditations: “Concentrate every minute like a Roman - like a man - on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice.” His approach was to consider every task "as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life."
This is a challenging habit to develop - to control your attention, defend against distraction, and concentrate on the task at hand with genuine seriousness. When mistakes are made, they need to be recognized and dealt with to prevent future repeats. This is our duty if we wish to live a life with meaning. "The unexamined life is not worth living" - likely the most important message in Socrates' Apology.
What is important is not necessarily the mistake itself, but what we can learn from these mistakes and how we improve because of them. A good start in avoiding mistakes in the first place would be to minimize distractions (such as reducing screen time, social media, etc.). Let's start concentrating like a Roman!
