President Makiguchi said: ‘As human beings, we must continually advance. And we must do so with a sense of purpose. Of course, we will inevitably experience failure and make mistakes along the way. Such times are opportunities to self-reflect. Without self-reflection, we cannot progress. However, self-reflection is not the same as regret, even though they are often confused. Nothing can come of regret. Self-reflection leads to advancement,’ His words are truly profound.

It is because Mr. Makiguchi understands human nature hence he shared this guidance for the reason that he doesn’t wish to see his disciples degenerate and stop progressing. Some people live a very fulfilling life but when you ask them their life purpose, they don’t know their own purpose but just merely living a blind and reckless life. Some people carries a lofty ideal and have comprehensive plans for the future but whenever they confront some matters which doesn’t go along with their plans facing up to failure or obstacles, they will give up on themselves and stop advancing. Therefore, Mr. Makiguchi reminded us that we must never slow down our pace and that even if we fall we must stand up and earnestly strive all over again. As we advance forward, we mustn’t forget our aims. This is the only way where we can attain the victory we wished for.

He also encourages us not to dwell on our past mistakes. Great men successes derive from not being defeated by the obstacles they confront but instead view it as a driving force and inspiration to advance.

There was one incident when someone reminded Edison that he failed a total number of 25000th times in his attempt to invent battery but this great inventor answered him saying: ‘No, I never failed, I have discovered 24999 faulty causes of why the current won’t work.’ In Edison’s life, he received a total of 1093 patented inventions, example phonographs, movies, electric pen, stencils and fluorescent lamp and so on. Here we can imagine the countless failures he experienced in his extraordinary life. We should all be glad that he possesses such indomitable and dauntless spirit of never giving up or accepting defeat.

Whenever we fail, we must self-reflect rather than sitting there resenting our past mistakes. Regretting will only make one to constantly look back and whatever they will see will only be their own inadequacy and shortcomings. Not advancing is regressing. Since we made the mistakes and know that the method doesn’t work, we should find the other way around. Self-reflection enables us to know where our mistakes arises and also improve whichever area which we didn’t carry out well, this way we can achieve the best result.

Say for example: Obtaining poor grades, besides doing more revision, you must identify the weakness in various subjects and then approach your teacher and ask them whichever topic you don’t understand. This way, you will inevitably see significant improvement in your results. There are also reasons behind delays in work increment. Whether it arises from your work attitude problems or incompetence, it all comes back to us rather than shoving our responsibilities to others. It is only through self-reflection and actions, there will be improvement.

Labels: e. Words of mentor