I have a story to illustrate the essence of what it means to own your “mistakes”.Years ago a student of mine said something I’ll never forget. The kids were all washing up in the bathroom, and some of them started making fun of the pants he had on. This kid was no fashionista. He wore little kid sweats long after the others had switched to more grown up clothes.Anyway this kid stood there and took the berating, but after they had finished the torment, he simply said, “These are my pants.” It was brilliant!He later told several of us teachers the story, and we all took what he said as a symbol of owning your style, choices, successes, mistakes. Whatever is true for you, that’s your pants, and you have to say, “These are my pants!”Now of course you can’t actually say, “These are my pants,” or it won’t make any sense. However, the concept is the und ...