You Live and You Learn

I opened up the email, hoping it was wrong. Your QR Code has expired. My mind started working in overtime. Did I try out different websites? Or was this the one I used for my business cards? I quickly reached into the backseat and grabbed my purse, pulling out my wallet that held a few of the cards. I had just put them there that morning, beaming with pride of my choice of color and design. I pulled one out and grabbed my phone to scan it.

Your QR Code has been deactivated. Well shit.

I had spent an afternoon carefully designing them, found a website that generated fun QR codes for free (or so I thought), and I waited 2 weeks for them to arrive. Then just a few days later, there I was, with all 500 now worthless.

I was really frustrated. A little bit with the QR code website that did not make it clear I had chosen something in the "pro" version, but mostly frustrated with my myself. I felt foolish. After complaining for a minute, my husband said something that stood out to me: well, you live and you learn. I kept playing the phrase over in my head. You live and you learn. It's something we say often in moments like this, but the more I thought about it the more I took issue with it and it's because we often find ourselves in these moments where we end up learning the wrong lesson.

We're embarrassed or frustrated at our failure, and so the lesson we learn is to give up: this is what happens when I try. We play some version of serves me right or why did I even bother over in our heads and then we throw in the towel. But in reality this was just a silly mistake, and not even a very expensive one. I lost a few weeks and felt a little silly, but really no harm done.

So what did I learn after living this mistake? Did I learn anything? Maybe next time I'll pay a little more attention on the website. Maybe I won't order as many to start. Maybe I'll make a few minor adjustments, but really I don’t think there's much to learn at all. It's nothing to beat myself up over. Sometimes we live and we learn, and sometimes we just live and move on.