If you can win over these 5 primal mistakes, you are a genius.

Making mistakes is part of growing in life. More the mistakes, more the opportunities to learn from.

A mistake can evolve into an insight or knowledge.

As a kid when you goofed up a math problem, it triggered a thought “what did I miss”. Then if you figured out what had gone wrong, it created a new understanding — “oh, its like that”.

Fixing mistakes that are external and logical is relatively easy. Every time you fix such mistakes, you learn something new.

But interpersonal mistakes are somewhat difficult to fix.

You blissfully keep blowing up things till they become painful to handle.

Behaving a particular way with your partner has consequences. If you realize it early, you fix things and you are happy. But if you don’t, it continues to cause pain and heartache.

These kind of mistakes involve struggle with your emotions, ego and habits. So they are difficult to identify and fix.

Then there are mistakes that are not just goof ups of the logical world or screw ups of illogical emotions. They are errors of the perception itself — the primal mistakes.

If you can avoid repeating these 5 mistakes, you are a genius.

MISTAKE 1: THINKING YOURSELF TO BE SOMEONE or SOMETHING YOU ARE NOT

This is the primal mistake#1. The wrong understanding of who you are. A mistaken identity.

Daydreaming is one type.

If you dream you are an accomplished musicians while you can are just a novice, you have mistaken yourself to be someone you are not.

If you consider yourself to be rich and start spending thousands of dollar on luxury bags and wrist watches while you are still living paycheck to paycheck, there is something wrong there.

When I was learning yoga, I would day dream about possessing superhuman yogic powers.

You can even project yourself to be exactly opposite of who you are.

You might think you are weak, but actually you are strong; believe you are not good enough, but actually you are a loving person. You might demand attention from others, but actually you are a caring person yourself.

Every time you interact with objects, environment & people, you create a perception about yourself. This is spontaneous.

Like the beating of the heart, these perceptions create the primal error of mistaken identity.

MISTAKE 2: GIVING TOO MUCH IMPORTANCE TO YOUR IDEA ABOUT YOURSELF

This is an obvious extension of the first mistake.

You have mistaken an identity. Now you attach too much importance to it.

Many people cannot leave their profession behind in office. They bring their work attitude to home. For example, a military person finds it difficult not to be strict and disciplinarian at home.

Giving too much important to a particular identity is the second mistake.

MISTAKE 3: ATTRACTION TOWARDS IDEAS AND OBJECTS

…which becomes “obsession for things and experiences”.

Somebody who craves for junk food will get attracted to flashy advertisements of junk food while driving past a restaurant.

While someone who has no such attraction will simply drive through.

These days people are attracted to videos of witty contraptions, smart things, artificial intelligence, drones, etc. They are fascinated by movies that depict machines taking over the mankind. NETFLIX is full of such futuristic movies.

Religious folks tend to get attracted to ideas related to god, morality, other religions. They live in a world of gods and demons.

Ideas that attract you, cloud your perception. Before you know it, these ideas start determining your attitude, outlook and behavior.

They color your world view.

MISTAKE 4: AVERSION TO IDEAS OR OBJECTS YOU DISLIKE

All the wars in the world are because of this mistake.

People become easily averse to ideas that do not fit their religious line. They become obstinate & harsh towards people who have another point of view.

Aversion is a very strong emotion.

Everyone has aversion to something. Many times this aversion can become an obstacle.

When I was growing up, I was averse to the taste of some vegetables. Every time mom cooked those vegetables, I would feel bad the whole day.

Aversions can irritate you, limit your capabilities or make you do crazy things.

MISTAKE 5: FEAR OF LOSING

This is the final mistake.

Once people become rich, they fear loosing the accumulated wealth. And they carry this attitude everywhere they go. They become suspicious of other people.

Many people develop a paranoia that something bad will happen to them.

Fear of losing a toy bothers a child. And fear of losing earnings and happiness bothers an adult.

And everyone fears losing life. Loss of life is the ultimate fear.

CONSLUSION

Everyone makes these 5 mistakes. These mistakes happen involuntarily. They are part of being human.

So how do you learn anything from these mistakes?

…by just observing them.

These mistakes can become a guide for better living if you can observe them from time to time.

These are not the kind of mistakes that you can change voluntarily like understanding a math formula or changing one-off habit.

They wrap a life time of learning and insights in them.

But if through some great skill you do overcome these mistakes in this lifetime, you surely are a genius.

What is that skill?