It’s a phrase you will probably have heard many times.
Many people say they have a degree from the University of Life… or The School of Hard Knocks!
The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said: “If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done!”
Yet, how is it that often the lessons are missed when mistakes are made? The focus quickly settles on the mistake, the outcome of the error made and the tricky situation that this has led to. And the actual lesson gets missed.
Well, back to the University of Life analogy…
In Life’s classroom you can attend the class. In fact for most people that’s where it stops… they just attend the class.
> So are you just attending the class? Are you “just looking”?
> Or are you perhaps attending the class, taking a few notes and taking an “academic interest” in the lessons?
> Or are you learning the lessons, genuinely experiencing the learning?
> Or, better still, are you applying the lessons?
The proof of learning the lessons comes in Life’s examination room, where those who pay lip service to the lessons are found out, and those who apply the lessons create massive opportunities to succeed.
So consider this…
Is there a lesson that deep down you know you are hearing on a regular basis, but which you haven’t truly learned, and certainly haven’t applied?
It could be something relatively small, or it could be the symptom of a major barrier to you achieving your goals.
It could be that solving this lesson and applying the learning and new-found wisdom (and courage) is the key to your success.
I say “courage” because it often takes courage to firstly admit you needed to learn the lesson properly, and secondly to put the lesson into practice. Because that can require Change.
So how do you identify the lessons…?
Deep down, right now, you know a Lesson you need to learn. You know a change you can make. You know where you can apply that courage to achieve the breakthroughs. The funny thing is, we tend to suppress the Lessons. We keep them Deep Down.
So I very much believe that the first step is to take some time to write the Lessons down.
Simple.