“A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it, is committing another mistake.” – Confucius

Confucius was a Chinese philosopher. According to Wikipedia, he is believed to have lived from 551-479 BC and is “widely considered as one of the most important and influential individuals in human history.”

I personally like to read quotes accredited to Confucius as I find that each one is almost like a ‘life lesson’ that I can reflect upon and hopefully learn from. I find them to be true to life’s moral code and important to read for anyone who wants to learn more about their life; in fact, I even have a “Confucius Quotes” app on my phone!

I took the above quote for today’s ‘Mindfulness Quote’ as it’s one that’s always stuck with me since I read it for the first time recently. I find that it reminds me often of how to work more efficiently when it comes to table tennis – if we knowingly make a mistake with our table tennis technique and we don’t actively look to correct it then ultimately we won’t improve (or at least as quickly as we might if we had done!).

Of course, this quote doesn’t just apply to table tennis or other sports in general, it can also readily apply to everyday life. We must learn from our mistakes to become better people on this planet, because only from this approach can we live freely and in safety.

This isn’t to say it’s wrong to make errors – they obviously aren’t desirable, but we need to commit mistakes in order to grow, with the hope that in the future we will have learnt from them.

In conclusion, I think it’s important that we don’t beat ourselves up when doing something wrong, but rather that we reflect and learn from it and hopefully work on ourselves to make the world a better place.