It’s been some time since I’m reading articles from Life Lessons Series, which is hosted on Abubakar Jamil’s blog.
I was directed to the Life Lesson Series by Luciano of www.litemind.com. It has been a good experience. Thank you, Luciano, for this.
Jamil and I had a few email exchanges and I expressed my wish to be a part of the series which he happily accepted. I realized during our conversation that many of our thoughts share the same frequency and I am hoping that it is going to be a lifelong relationship for us from that point onwards.
More than 60 writers have contributed in this series so far and I like reading them.
Below lesson was contributed by Abubakar Jamil under the title 22 things I wish I had Known Earlier in My Life.
Accept your failure with grace
and don’t bury yourself in depression when you don’t get what you want. There might be something better waiting for you to notice it.
Many people treat failure as what I call the “chief depression starter” but that’s a pity, isn’t it? Instead, failure is at the far side of success. Keep traveling in the direction of your goal and soon you’ll knock the door of success.
Henry Ford said it so well:
Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.
See failure as an opportunity to become wise. Do not lose hope. Do not get depressed. Try different alternatives. Execute. Inspect and adapt. Fail fast to succeed fast.
Below lesson was contributed by Evita Ochel under the title 7 Things I Wish I Had Known Earlier In My Life.
Heaven is not up in the clouds
To finish, one of the most powerful lessons I have learned in my life and wish I knew earlier was that Heaven is not some magical, mystical place in the clouds – but a state of being.
It is possible to remove the pain. It is possible to feel salvation here and now. It is possible to live out our highest selves. It is all possible.
We simply need to wake up, remember who we truly are and Be.
Life can be and is beautiful. We need not wait for Heaven when we die. We can die to our false selves any time and experience the beauty, the joy, the peace and love of Heaven right within ourselves, and give others around us a glimpse of inspiration that they too can be there right now.
Cannot agree more with this lesson. Heaven is a state of being which is in our control. People who disagree with this are mostly who make choices but refuse to take responsibility for the same.
For instance, consider this life-changing-thought from Victor Frankel:
Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
… and to choose our attitude we certainly do not need to wait till we die. Great lesson, Evita.
Below lesson was contributed by Farnoosh Brook under the title Self-Reflection: 19 Things I wish I knew Earlier in life.
I wish I had been more patient and less judgmental of the love of my life, my best half, my partner and my friend. Now I delight in making it up to him for the rest of my days.
I wish I knew how to just drop an argument when I can hardly remember what on earth I was arguing about two days later. Only heartache remains after a silly quarrel or even an intense one. The most bitter lesson of all for the intimate relationships of our life!
This happens with many of us. Especially persons like me who come from a background where being judgmental makes you successful.
I started playing chess in early 1994 when I was just 16 years old. Soon I became a state level and then a national level player. Since then, analysis has been an important part of my life. I strategically left chess in 1998 to pursue a career in software programming. I learned computer programming quickly and within just 11 months of time, my first software product was out in the domestic market and had four paying customers. Then, projects after projects, products after products and business deals after business deals. Analysis has been a native part of my life.
While achieving my career goals, my analytical aptitude became like my second nature. It was almost impossible for me to NOT be analytical/judgmental. It didn’t matter whether it was family, friends, business or social relationships.
Later, a realization came when I had to answer some of the difficult questions of life. I realized that it’s okay to be analytical in some cases but not in all. I sincerely wish I had known it earlier in my life but I guess, better late than never.
Relationships come first. To live a happy and balanced life, we should be able to easily switch between personal and professional life; we need to be the cause in the matter. We should be able to Play The Music and not allow the music to play with us!
In the end, consider this quote observed by Patricia Sun:
We need to make judgments, of course – to observe what works and what doesn’t, but not to be judgmental. Being judgmental is a form of madness that screams powerlessness and ruthlessness. When we can make good judgments and update them and not stay rigid, we come from goodwill and promote goodwill back to us.
To be continued…
