How often do we hear people talk about learning a lesson or teaching a lesson? Sometimes, when we go through a bitter experience we say, 'I've learnt a lesson,' or 'this is a lesson to me.' What we mean is that we have realized that we will have to change our behavior if a similar experience were to occur in future. At that time, we will act differently, respond differently or do things differently so that we get better results. At least, we don't like to taste the bitterness again.
On some other occasions, we say, 'I will teach him a lesson.' This is often said in anger, resentment or frustration. We feel that the other person has not been fair to us or has not behaved appropriately with us. We want him (her) to mend his (her) ways. Since we don't expect the other person to correct himself (herself) on his (her) own, we want to play the role of a teacher - not the role of a conventional teacher! We want the other person to experience some pain that will motivate him (her) to change his (her) ways.
Whether we learn a lesson or make another person learn a lesson, there is a process involved. What is that process? We go through some experience and based on the results we get, we learn something. We realize we have to change the way we think, speak or act. In a conventional educational system like the one we have in the schools, we are taught a lesson and then we are asked to write a test.
But life works differently, almost in the opposite way. It first makes us take a test (go through an experience) and then makes us learn something from it.
Life is a different kind of teacher. It first puts us to test and then makes us learn the lesson.
Observe yourself closely. Observe your thoughts, feelings and actions. Think why we do certain things in certain ways. At the end of the day, recall the lessons you have learnt today.
This process will not only help you identify the specific lessons you learn from your experiences but will also make you put the lessons into practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment