Learn from the lessons of life

Being able to learn a lesson and then apply the newfound wisdom seems easy. It seems that we all should be able to do it.

But it is much easier said than done. While most of us hear about ways to better ourselves, we rarely apply the insight for the long term.

Instead, we use it to make a temporary change. We use the insight for a few weeks, then slide back to our old habits.

In Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell, the author addresses this. He says, “I teach leadership to thousands of people each year at numerous conferences. And one of my deepest concerns is always that some people will go home from the event and nothing will change in their lives. They enjoy the ‘show’ but fail to implement any of the ideas presented to them. I tell people continually: We overestimate the event and underestimate the process. Every fulfilled dream occurred because of dedication to a process.”

Our society downplays the process. We focus too much on the events. But to succeed we have to have solid processes. We must be able to implement the insight and wisdom we gain.

But how do we do this? If many fail in this area, what can we do to succeed?

We need to shift from linear thinking to systems thinking. Linear thinking looks at one event and wants to connect it to one other factor. We see a problem and want to know the one cause.

When we gain insight, we want to connect it right away to an outcome. We skip the process. We don’t worry about how we are going to implement it. We assume it will be easy and just happen.

That is why many of Maxwell’s conference attendees fail to implement the ideas presented to them. It isn’t that they aren’t good ideas. It isn’t that they misunderstand the value in them.

It is that applying the insight is completely different than hearing about the ideas. Ideas are valuable but when we fail to see them through, they lose any value.

To gain value from them, we need to see how to take them and apply them to our life. In my book, You Can’t Surf from the Shore, I explain a process called setting the minimum. In summary, this entails taking the change and breaking it down into tiny, recurring actions.

This is a process to be able to create the system to implement the idea. It involves finding small chunks of the overall idea and then implementing them on a small scale but consistently, so it becomes habit. As that component becomes habitualized, we incorporate other small chunks. As we progress, we create a whole new process that gets done through habit.

This process can be lifechanging because it gives us the ability to take insight and wisdom and apply that to what we consistently do. It is the “how?” component that gives the framework to apply lasting changes.

This becomes the way to learn from the lessons in life. Things will change. Things won’t always go as planned. Sometimes you will hit a stretch of bad luck. Life happens. But through it all, it is helpful to have a way to take the lessons we learn and apply the insight to keep improving and growing, bettering ourselves along the way.

Check out You Can’t Surf from the Shore: An Introduction to the Systems and Habits Approach to Improvement - Amazon for as little as $0!