“You learn from your mistakes”, is a very familiar quote used by almost every teacher.

It is
virtually sure that you might have heard of it at least once in your life as a student. It is no
science that the art of self-improvement revolves around the notion of reflecting on your
actions — not only the good ones but the bad ones too.

Adverse actions are those that reflect on any wrongdoings on your part. “Success leads to
motivation, leads to success leads to motivation”. This quote summarises the need for
praising when performing positive actions. While it is a great learning tool to exalt one to
inculcate the feeling of confidence and induces the incentive to work harder, at the same
time it is also vital to self-correct oneself when performing negative actions.

The downside of ignoring the negative actions are quite significant when considering its
impact on the personality development aspect of a person. Not only praising all the time
give the person the illusion of perfection. It will hamper a person’s ability to accept his
shortcoming during essential aspects of this life. Which will, in turn, him into a narcissist.

Moreover, the point of learning is not to glorify the things that one is correct about, but it is
to learn what you couldn’t on your own. This can only be accomplished by picking out the
wrongdoings and improving them one by one. And yes, it might be difficult but essentially
learning is a process. For example, a child may be brilliant in sports but terrible in studies, in
this situation while it is important to acclaim his achievements it is also important to correct
his approach towards studies by pinpointing his mistakes and working on it and eventually
building a leaning curve. What a child leaning in school stays with him through the rest of
his life and that is why it is important to teach him to reflect on his mistakes and keep on
leaning something new every day.

It is true that a child learns on his own. For example, a small child if once touches a flame
will always try to avoid it as now he knows It causes pain. But the same is not true for all the
other situations in life. A child will not know the repercussions of stealing because
essentially there aren’t any at that age. This is where the parents and the institutions step in
and make him realise his mistake and give a positive feedback when he improves.

In the end, a positive feedback does encourage confidence and makes one work harder. It is
always vital to keep track of the negative actions and spend time finding ways to improve
upon them. Therefore becoming a better version of yourself everyday.