This is a letter to everyone who has ever been helpful to me.

Do not prevent me from making my mistakes.  In fact, please push my back.

Don’t stop me, unless you are 100% certain that my mistake will result in a loss of life, or some irreversible damage (like loss of a limb) to our bodies, either mine or someone else’s.

Yes, I know it will hurt, and it will leave me broken.  But mistakes are the greatest teachers.  The more painful it is, the more I will learn.  It’s best if I experience it sooner rather than later, too.  That means I’ll have more of my life left to live with that lesson under my belt.

So if you see me driving too fast on a road by the cliff, just stand back.  Just watch me fall off.  If it doesn’t kill me, I’ll come back up.  Bruises and broken bones will heal.  In fact, the healing will make me stronger.  And wiser, with the best kind of wisdom.

Mistakes stemming from actions are to be welcomed and encouraged in my life.  The longer the list, the better I am.  If I don’t learn the lesson from some of them, don’t worry.  I’ll surely make the same kind of errors again — until I learn it.

So unless I explicitly ask for your guidance, please let me go.  Don’t try to be “helpful.”

Except on one occasion.  If you see me making the mistake of inaction — by all means, you have my full permission to kick me in my ass.  Make it hurt, too.

Because that’s one mistake where the cost is truly unjustifiable.  Life time spent, not moving, learning or growing.  With no end in sight, except the very end of my life.

A life spent, being a loser.  That’s one mistake I can’t afford to make.