In one of the first schools I worked in, there was a brilliant award called The Onion. It was a ceramic onion (made by the art department of course!) which was awarded to the biggest blunder of the term.
At the time I didn’t appreciate just how wonderful this was. Admitting and embracing the embarrassing errors with the whole staff was really a way of bonding over our humanity, building trust, laughing at ourselves, creating great banter. And of course, resolving to do better!
I was nominated several times!
🧅Once for miscounting children on a school trip, holding up our departure by making everyone get off the bus twice until one of the children pointed out that I couldn’t count!
🧅Another time for scraping the side of a hired van so badly I got the school banned from using the hire company again!
🧅And for booking myself and a colleague on a training day, only to travel halfway across the country for a 9am start to realise it had happened the week before!
Since those days I worked in schools where such errors would have been reasons for disciplinary action- a horrible fear culture that was a stressful working environment.
And now I’m self-employed I'm choosing to embrace my own errors with humour and self-compassion! Here are some:
🧅Charging the wrong amount for work (more than once - and always less than it should have been, at a loss to me!)
🧅A massive typo behind the first door of the advent calendar, which I only noticed when I collected it from the printer, where I had just paid a small fortune for 400 copies!
🧅Choosing the wrong postage for an international order- only to spend months trying to get it back! (I did mange to in the end though!) Again at a massive loss to me!
There’s something wonderful about admitting our vulnerability. It's so freeing, opening us up to connect with others and makes us approachable. It gives us a laugh and helps us accept our fallibility.
What mistakes have you made? Do share below and let me know! You might win an onion! I’ll let you know if you need to start preparing your acceptance speech!
Have you entered to win a print worth £48? Click here to be in the draw to win a Spell For Safe Return.