Life is, if nothing else, a persistent teacher. It will repeat a lesson over and over (and over and over) until it is learned. How does life know we’ve learned? When we change our behavior (either inner, outer or both). Until then, even if we intellectually “know” something, we haven’t really LEARNED it. School remains in session.
The good news is that we learn all we need to know eventually.
The bad news is the lessons continue until they are learned.
For some, however…. eventually is not soon enough. If there is something they can learn that will eventually make their lives happier, healthier, and more productive, why not learn it NOW? This brings happiness, health and productivity to us sooner, and it avoids a lot of (perhaps painful) lessons along the way.
Others aren’t content with learning only what they “need” to know. “Getting by” is not enough. They want more. They, like us, are the “eager learners” who read books with titles such as “Life 101”
Someone once said that the only two things that motivate an enlightened person are love and curiosity.
Anatole France pointed out more than a century ago, “The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.”
What if we are curious about things that seemingly can’t be answered? We can turn to the thoughts of Emerson for comfort: “Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy.”
“Life was meant to be lived,” Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her autobiography, “And curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”
We have now reached a section in the book that includes a series of tools designed to keep the curiosity alive and thriving. These same tools can be used to find satisfying answers to the things you may be curious about. They are techniques designed to accelerate the learning process.
All of these tools, by the way, are optional. No one NEEDS to know or use any of them to learn the necessary lessons of life. As such, there’s no need to struggle, thinking that if you don’t master them your life will be a failure. Be easy with these techniques. Experiment. Play with them. Most of all… have FUN.
At the same time, there’s no need to teach these tools to anyone else, much less INSIST that people relate to you as though you have already mastered them. These skills are electives in the school of life. If you elect to use any or all of them for your own accelerated learning, that’s fine; but please don’t expect (and certainly don’t demand) that others accelerate their learning, too.
(More in a day or two… I hope!!)
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Disclaimer: Excerpts taken from “Life 101 ~ Everything We Wish We Had Learned About Life In School ~ But Didn’t” by John-Roger & Peter McWilliams. (Some excerpts may be altered slightly or greatly. Most excerpts are outright stolen.)
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