Let me start with my favorite Disney movie. Your guesses may include "Wall-E," "The Emperor's New Groove," "Mulan," maybe a couple other choices here and there.
These are wrong answers. (Although I will tell you, I could watch "The Emperor's New Groove" a thousand times over. But, it's my second favorite.)
The real answer? "Meet The Robinsons."
I won't ruin the plot for you. This movie has a place in my heart because it is centered around two things. First, the phrase "Keep Moving Forward," derived from a Walt Disney quote. When I read it for the first time, it brought me tears.
The second reason has been hitting me for many years after watching the movie--the theme that it's okay to fail and make mistakes.
As a teenager, I learned to describe myself as atelophobic (fearful of making mistakes, to save you that Google search). It felt like any misstep I made was nearly fatal. One wrong word and I was sent for a psych evaluation. One missed item at the store, and I was on the cusp of getting fired in my first month working. One wrongly sent email, and I set the tone for a very negative relationship. I came to accept mistakes as horrifying. It made me, in a sense, work to minimize any possibility of making a mistake, ever.
It wasn't really until after college that I came to understand why this mindset held me back so much.
See, in life, you need to get past the fear of jumping into the metaphoric thorn bush. You need to be unafraid of having an experience or making a decision that may not go well. This is, of course, in large part because we're human, and fallible creature in that right. We make mistakes, and plenty of them.
I think we lose sight of how valuable mistakes truly are. Mistakes are how we understand things about ourselves. Mistakes test our character. Mistakes give you the slap on the wrist you need not to go down harsher roads.
So go out there, and make plenty of mistakes. Try some new things and fail, so that you will work at them until you succeed. Miss your train, and find a way home. Bomb a task that you did on your own, so you know better about when to ask for help. End up at a party where they're doing drugs, so you know that the path they took isn't the same one you wish to walk. Date the wrong person, so you know what the right person looks like. This advice may sound counter-intuitive, but in your own way, you will inevitably learn this lesson. Be on the watch for when this lesson shows itself.
"Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney
