Learning Is Life
I have always loved learning, and have been fortunate to live in a time when opportunities for learning abound. I am constantly scanning for lessons from what I see, hear and experience.
I have found that even mundane activities provide lessons. Sometimes they remind me of something I already know and at other times new insights and understandings are delivered. The important thing to remember is that knowing or understanding something is not enough; I must use and apply what I learn to other situations. When I don’t apply new learning life will keep on sending the same lesson to me over and over again until I take notice and act.
Do you face the same problems or difficulties over and over again? Do you respond to them in the same old way time and time again? Take a step back and ask yourself: “What is the lesson I have to learn from this? What am I ignoring? What do I need to do differently? What do I need to stop doing? ”
In his book, Hug An Angry Man, Sean Casey Leclaire recounts the story of a long-standing AA member called Rick who used meetings to bemoan his dreadful childhood and constantly used it as an excuse for his unwillingness to curb the drinking habits that he knew would change his life. After many months a wise mentor, called Jim, shares his equally awful life history with Rick and reached across the table and said very softly to him, “Shame on your father for making you the way you are, son. And shame on you for staying that way.”
You’re intelligent; you know it’s the height of stupidity to keep on doing the same old things over and over again and hoping for a different outcome, don’t you? Hoping and wishing won’t change anything. You must act.
The good news is that life does not send us any challenge or hurdle we are not capable of overcoming. Sometimes we have to dig deep into ourselves to find the right answers. And sometimes those answers require that we take actions that are painful or that we make difficult choices.
This is similar to visiting your doctor when you are in pain and finding that the cure will cause you even more discomfort in the short term. The decision to go ahead with the treatment is a no-brainer. The period of discomfort leads to healing.
Many years ago I decided to leave an alcoholic husband who I loved dearly. I had struggled with this decision for years before finally acting on it. It broke my heart to leave, but the fracture in my heart allowed light to shine into my life again.
Life’s lessons can be painful, but once learned and acted upon, will cleanse you of toxic relationships, behaviours and situations that have been harmful to your well being.
Are you willing to face the challenges life’s lessons offer and take the actions required no matter how fierce the pain or difficult the choice? Will you take action and allow your healing and transformation to follow?
I have always loved learning, and have been fortunate to live in a time when opportunities for learning abound. I am constantly scanning for lessons from what I see, hear and experience.
I have found that even mundane activities provide lessons. Sometimes they remind me of something I already know and at other times new insights and understandings are delivered. The important thing to remember is that knowing or understanding something is not enough; I must use and apply what I learn to other situations. When I don’t apply new learning life will keep on sending the same lesson to me over and over again until I take notice and act.
Do you face the same problems or difficulties over and over again? Do you respond to them in the same old way time and time again? Take a step back and ask yourself: “What is the lesson I have to learn from this? What am I ignoring? What do I need to do differently? What do I need to stop doing? ”
In his book, Hug An Angry Man, Sean Casey Leclaire recounts the story of a long-standing AA member called Rick who used meetings to bemoan his dreadful childhood and constantly used it as an excuse for his unwillingness to curb the drinking habits that he knew would change his life. After many months a wise mentor, called Jim, shares his equally awful life history with Rick and reached across the table and said very softly to him, “Shame on your father for making you the way you are, son. And shame on you for staying that way.”
You’re intelligent; you know it’s the height of stupidity to keep on doing the same old things over and over again and hoping for a different outcome, don’t you? Hoping and wishing won’t change anything. You must act.
The good news is that life does not send us any challenge or hurdle we are not capable of overcoming. Sometimes we have to dig deep into ourselves to find the right answers. And sometimes those answers require that we take actions that are painful or that we make difficult choices.
This is similar to visiting your doctor when you are in pain and finding that the cure will cause you even more discomfort in the short term. The decision to go ahead with the treatment is a no-brainer. The period of discomfort leads to healing.
Many years ago I decided to leave an alcoholic husband who I loved dearly. I had struggled with this decision for years before finally acting on it. It broke my heart to leave, but the fracture in my heart allowed light to shine into my life again.
Life’s lessons can be painful, but once learned and acted upon, will cleanse you of toxic relationships, behaviours and situations that have been harmful to your well being.
Are you willing to face the challenges life’s lessons offer and take the actions required no matter how fierce the pain or difficult the choice? Will you take action and allow your healing and transformation to follow?
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