Growing wiser instead of just growing older

This was written some time ago and I feel that it still applies. Enjoy.

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

As we age, we have experiences that range from incredibly good to
disastrous. If we survive these experiences, we have a chance to learn
from them and go on to further adventures. If we get stuck in these
experiences, we merely get older.

I’d like to suggest that charging into the barricades of life with
guns blazing and a total determination to succeed is a winning
strategy, as long as you keep track of the odds against you. If the
odds against you keep rising, you have made a tactical error and need
to fall back to a point of safety and regroup.

There is nothing wrong in making a few mistakes. It’s making the
same mistake over and over that reveals your level of insanity.

You are
led into making mistakes when you have insufficient or incorrect
information. Learning from mistakes allows for continuous improvement.
There are some professions like design engineering and programming
which are simply organized methods for learning from earlier mistakes.

If you learn from your experiences instead of repressing them or
fixating on them, you will surely achieve a measure of wisdom over
time. I think that is a happier course of action than avoiding life or
regretting life. You become smarter over time, because your experience
has turned into knowledge.

BEING STUCK IN THE PAST

Let’s look at the other end of the spectrum, the people who seem to
be getting older but not wiser. You will find that their attention is
stuck in the past, either on their failures or more surprisingly, their
successes.

Too many times, the high school football star, the Homecoming Queen,
and those fortunate children who are in the right place to become real
celebrities on the stage or screen, are unable to move on and duplicate
that success elsewhere.

This can even happen at work. A salesperson can have an incredible
season which catapults his or her company into a new operating range.
If the company promotes them to a managerial position, they may never
again achieve the success they once had. If they cannot change and move
on, they remain a perpetual has-been in their own minds although they
have as much ability as they ever did.

Let’s looks at the more usual case, the disaster which changes your
life. If you have really failed hard at something, whether a career, a
marriage, or a business of your own, you know how hard it is to pick up
the pieces and move on. Death of a loved one falls into the same
category. The only thing I can tell you from my own experiences is that
all of these are surmountable and you will go on to happier days with
renewed love of life if you persevere.

Do not allow yourself to pine over past
glories or past defeats.

The beautiful sadness of regret may look good
in tragic novels, but it doesn’t do much for real life. Appreciate the
fact that you are still alive and continue to create your own
tomorrows.

Set a goal, any goal, and work toward it using all of the
experience you have gained. You will get wiser as you get older and you
may enjoy life a lot more.

THE BOTTOM LINE

It is almost impossible to create a future while looking backwards