I like people admitting they were complete stupid horses’ asses. I know I’ll perform better if I rub my nose in my mistakes. This is a wonderful trick to learn.
-Charlie Munger

Despite shaking my head at some of the stuff I’ve written over the years, I have chosen not remove a single word of it. This includes the stuff I don’t necessarily believe anymore, agree with, have moved on from or is even in contradiction to where I am today. I mean, a few of my posts on LifeHack had glaring grammatical and spelling errors, and I’m okay with it still being posted.

I keep it there because it’s a chance to see the best of what I could produce at the time.

A chance to see where I’ve been wrong, how I’ve evolved and where my writing has been.

More importantly, a chance to see who I was at that moment.

In looking at the broad span of time in which I can see myself, it gives me the encouragement to continue with the path I’m on right now. It shapes me, keeps me honest and helps me avoid the same critical errors (although committing new ones is still pretty easy to do).

There used to be a real feeling of shame over other mistakes in life—a pang of regret, mired in anger, for doing such a thing or being such a way. Admittedly, ego and stubbornness also play a part in this as it’s responsible for protecting my current self by distancing it from any other version of me that existed.

It’s taken a while, but that feeling is (almost) gone.

I can now look upon those moments and say,

“Yep. That was a mistake. Here’s the correction. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”