You are not your mistakes.

Lime Green Dot

I'm reading a book called Limitless (not to be confused with the movie!) right now alongside my LSAT studies, and it's helped me, a self-defeating-prone type, tremendously reevaluate my potential for success and abilities to grow. One thing that's continued to challenge me is missing the "silliest" things--a stray word here that changes the entire meaning of a stimulus, or choosing a CBT when the Q-stem asked me to pick the MBF, or most recently skipping over a "non-X" in a game and reading it as an "X." When I realize what I've done, I figuratively and literally facepalm.

And then I'd plunge into a very serious downward spiral of "What is wrong with me? I'm just always going to make these oversights, no matter how carefully I try to read." Earlier in my prep when everything was new and scary, it was "How am I ever going to learn, remember, and be able to apply this confusing lesson before me, let alone the entire LSAT Everest of things that remain? I guess I'm just not cut out for it."

My friend, NO.

One of the anecdotes in Limitless is probably a familiar one to many. It's the one about Einstein and his tendencies to make little calculation errors on his path to giving us some of the most formative theories in science today. In spite of all these mistakes, he is the literal image that comes to mind when we think of "genius" in any field. But it resonated with me this morning as I was reading of his struggles as a student and thought about my own on the LSAT.

If anyone needed to read this today, just know that you're not alone. Many of us are in this boat, which may look a little different from one day to the next, but you know what? We're still paddling our way forward when the motor isn't speeding us along. Sometimes the winds of understanding and lawgic are in our sails; but other times it may feel like they're pushing hard against us. You and I, we may not be perfect or anywhere close to it. We will still make mistakes along the way, but it's not because we're never going to get it, nor because we're "bound to" make them. I am not. You are not. We can train ourselves to get better, think more critically, miss those operative words less, and overcome difficultly-worded sentences, paragraph by paragraph, game by game, question by question. You may need to change up your methods or ask for help. No shame there; I'm pretty sure all the 7Sage legends have at some point in their prep. Your practice will translate into progress, and as long as you still want to defeat this beast of a test, you CAN fight today's battle.

And don't forget to relish your "small" victories along the way; as an LSAT student now and a soon-to-be law school student, these milestones are your proof in the pudding and strongly support the claim you must make everyday: I may struggle through it, but I can do this. I am not my mistakes, no matter how many I make or how "silly" they are in retrospect. But they can be much more than just the thing I didn't do right:

"Was Einstein considered a failure because of his mistakes? Hardly. Most importantly he didn’t let his mistakes stop him. He kept experimenting and making contributions to his field. He is famously quoted as having said, 'A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.' What’s more, no one remembers him for his mistakes—we only remember him for his contributions... You might think you have to be perfect, but life is not about comparing yourself to anyone else; it’s about measuring yourself compared to who you were yesterday. When you learn from your mistakes, they have the power to turn you into something better than you were before."*

That is all. Carry on, LSAT Einsteins-in-the-making

--

*Kwik, Jim. Limitless (p. 96-97).

tahurrrrr

Thanks for being around to help some of us power through

dubatt

Thank you for sharing! Hope that all the energy you've poured out here comes back to you 100x over!

Granger Danger

I really enjoyed reading this. I've started to view my mistakes as little mistakes or larger, conceptual mistakes. I just went through some incorrect answers in PT 79 and several of these errors were just not thinking through an answer choice thoroughly enough or even just off by one word as you mentioned. These are great mistakes. Mistakes can be awesome. I view mistakes in this way now and my studying has become much more inspired and dare I say it, enjoyable?

MistaTee001

Excellent and inspirational post, thank you!

Lime Green Dot

Mistakes can be awesome. I view mistakes in this way now and my studying has become much more inspired and dare I say it, enjoyable?

I love it & so agree! @"Granger Danger". Thank you, and glad to hear this came through as a little pick-me-up , @tahurrrrr , @dubatt , @MistaTee001 !

Yeah, I never thought there'd come a day when my mistakes felt like anything more than slaps in the face. But the best teachers have always been the toughest ones, precisely b/c they challenged me to think harder, give it a little more effort, or try solving a problem another way. And it's only after making so darned many of them that I'm beginning to realize this.

sabrinac27

this honestly just made my day. I really needed to hear this today. thank you! wishing you all the best on your journey.

giulia.pines

@"Lime Green Dot" Thank you so much for this. I'm 36 years old and studying for the LSAT. If all goes well I'll be 40 when I graduate. I tend to look at my life so often as a collection of mistakes, especially now when I finally know what I want to do and I just feel so OLD compared to so many LSAT test-takers and potential LS students. But everything I did in my life (including moving abroad, moving back to the US, getting married, getting divorced) has led me to the realization that I want to pursue law school, and the only mistake would be having that dream and not following it.

Lime Green Dot

@sabrinacallahan18 - You got this, Sabrina! Best wishes to you, as well.

@"giulia.pines" 33 here, sister! I work in a law firm now, and one of the sharpest, most conscientious, and responsive (both to our clients, as well as for us paralegals--it really means a lot!!) attorneys I have ever worked with is one who went to law school in his 50s. More than almost any other attorney I personally know, including those that have practiced for probably at least twice as long, he has been a true role model for me, solidifying my belief in the kind of professional I can become for my future clients.

Your story is your power, and you seem to be right on track!