Life's Little Lessons

In our life, we do many things. We keep learning by doing things. Sometimes, we learn to do things in a better way, sometimes we learn that we shouldn't do certain things and some other times, we learn that we keep making the same mistakes we have made earlier, making us realize that we learn very little.

School children sitting in a class room learn a few things, which they forget very quickly.. Sometimes, they just enjoy themselves. Parents, concerned with the future of their children, may conclude that their children have not been learning anything at all.

But, whether we realize it or not, we keep learning a lot. Even a person considered a fool by others learns a lot. Learning takes place often unconsciously. Life keeps teaching its lessons, big and small, continuously. Unlike in a school, where we learn easy lessons fast and difficult lessons seldom, in life, we learn big lessons easily. We may not even take notice of small lessons!

What I mean by big lessons are the experiences that hurt us more. If a person incurs a big loss in a business, he will realize where he went wrong and will not repeat the same mistake again. But one keeps making small mistakes repeatedly because one doesn't bother to learn from one's small mistakes. Let us consider a couple of examples.

A woman used to carry a lot of cash in her handbag while going for shopping. She often didn't bother to close the bag  perhaps because she found it annoying to open and close it every time she had to take the cash out, though nothing could be easier than pulling the zip to close or open the bag. As can only be expected, one day, someone stole a huge amount of cash from her bag.. The woman learnt her lesson at that time. After this incident, she never forgot to close the zip of her bag even if it was empty!

A man would keep his pen at some random place after using it. Next time, when he needed the pen, he won't find it. So, he bought a packet full of pens and kept it on his bookshelf. Whenever he needed a pen, he would take one from the packet. And, if the packet became empty, he would buy another! He didn't bother to learn to keep his pen at a specific place to avoid losing it, though he was able to keep the packet at a particular place! The lesson was not learnt because the experience was not painful enough to stimulate the learning.

If there is a place for continuous learning, it's our own life. We keep getting lessons, many of them small and subtle yet profound and valuable. Don't fail to learn life's little lessons. Every night, reflect for a few minutes on what you had learnt during that day. You will become constantly enriched with wisdom and  will be able to turn your life for the better over a period of time

Good luck!