Life lessons are called that for a reason. You need to experience life to learn the lessons. And the more life you experience, the more lessons you accumulate. We can’t always control the road we’re on, but the choices we make along the way will play a large part in determining how far we can go. The twists and turns of my life have led me to learn some valuable lessons.
Here are 38 lessons from my life I would like to share with you.
- Being happy is better than being right.
- There are two kinds of intelligence, each being equally important.
- If you are at the top, you stand to fall that much further.
- Compassion arises from suffering.
- Make people know you appreciate and love them.
- Language is power.
- A person needs many hobbies.
- The most valuable way to help anyone is to be fully present and listen.
- Good intentions lead to hell but have them anyway.
- Love is a living, changing thing. You must constantly seek to know it.
- Regrets merit self-forgiveness.
- Make many mistakes. Be a colossal mess-up. We all need stories for when we are older.
- Self-sacrifice is virtuous.
- It’s okay to have doubts and challenge the norm.
- It’s okay to sit on the fence about your beliefs.
- A non-judgmental approach is helpful.
- Nothing is black and white.
- It’s a beneficial skill to read between the lines.
- The study of psychology is a very worthy calling.
- Seek to know that which you don’t know.
- Your perspective is not the same as that of someone else. Honor both.
- Being a victim, whether true or not, is only healthy as a transitory state.
- Know that you are capable of greatness, both good and evil.
- Intolerance and legalism are harmful.
- Knowing yourself is an unending inquiry. Consider how much more complex it is to know another.
- If you don’t face your fears, there will come a time when you find yourself facing them anyway.
- All life is spiritual life.
- The modern purpose of morality is for us each to question it.
- Though you may not know it, you have all the wisdom you need inside you.
- Life is full of moments that are enlightened and not enlightened. Accept both states.
- Some people’s purpose in this life is to remember. Remembering someone that has passed is honorable.
- Admitting you don’t know is wise.
- Being personable goes a long way in most situations.
- Success in life is a personal measure. Don’t buy into the dictates of the masses.
- It takes courage to make art.
- Persistence, though not always effective, is honorable.
- Treat your enemies with respect. Take the high road even it means your loss. You will sleep better.
- Admitting that you are broken is to be a genuine human being.
Surround yourself with great friends who inspire you to keep being the best you can be by their example. If something or someone doesn’t seem true, honor that feeling. Be kind to others and never give up on love.
If you get hurt along the way, learn from it. Brush it off. And get right back up and stay open. Whatever life brings you, you can learn something from it – if you choose to. Keep an open mind, no matter what, and approach all of life as if it’s an adventure.
So, here I am going to explain some lessons in depth.
1. We get treated in life the way we teach others to treat us.
You have no idea how true this is. It was us who allowed them at one point to start treating us the way they do and little by little we got into the mess we are right now, having to live with the consequences. Respect and love yourself and others will do the same.
2. There are no mistakes, only lessons we need to master.
The idea is for us to learn from everything and everyone, of course, if you want to, and if you don’t, well, your life will look at 40 the same way it did when you were 20 and at 60 the way it looked when you were 40, and so on.
3. Forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself.
A lot of people think that the moment they decide to forgive somebody who once hurt them, the person who receives the forgiveness is the only one who will benefit from this kind gesture, but that’s not the case. I can tell you that the person who will benefit the most is the person who does the forgiving. Holding onto anger and resentment can do you no good; it’s like having a clenched fist 24/7.
4. What you resist persists and what you focus on expands.
We’re resisting change, we’re resisting our problems, resisting the weather, resisting our friends and family, resisting our responsibilities, our job, our boss… our lives. There are so many things we are resisting, not realizing that resistance will only make things worse. Carl Jung talks about this, warning us that what we resist not only will persist but will also grow in size.
5. Life is all about the journey and less about the destination.
A lot of times we get so caught up in what we want to achieve, that perfect picture, that result, that we forget to live and to enjoy this journey called life. Now, you may want to take a deep cleansing breath, and allow yourself to be present in everything you do. Allow yourself to enjoy each second of your life; to observe the world around you; to observe the people that are present in your life and the beauty that is present within you and all around you, life in general.
6. People deserve a second chance.
The moment you forgive somebody, chances are that you will also give them a second chance, a chance to be near you, without trying to remind them of what they did to you, treating them not as they are, or as they once were, but rather as you want them to be. By doing this, you are also allowing them to grow and to become better and better every day. Your ego might tell you to “let these people go” but what does your heart tell you? We are all humans, we all make mistakes, and we all deserve a second chance, and why not, maybe a third and a fourth, a sixth and a seventh.
7. If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody will.
Don’t expect others to see gold where you can only see dust. If you don’t believe in yourself, if you don’t believe that you are capable, a worthy human being, chances are that nobody will. You will act on that belief and people will treat you based on what you think about yourself, based on how you treat yourself and based on how you act and behave in the world.
8. Our attitude toward life will determine life’s attitude toward us.
If you think life is unfair, that bad thing always happens to you, chances are that life will treat you unfairly, and you will always have many reasons to complain about it. On the other hand, if you think life is a gift, a gift for you to enjoy, not to keep, that wonderful thing always happen to you, that wonderful people are being drawn to you, life will give you all of those things and even more. Just how there is a law of gravity, there is also a law of attraction, and based on this law, you attract in your life that which you think about all day long, you attract that which you are, because you see, like attracts like.
9. If you love yourself, chances are that others will love you also.
It’s all about self-love, it all starts with self-love. If you don’t have a love for yourself, how can you expect to get it from somebody else? Love yourself and others will love you also.
10. The world has plenty of information but not enough inspiration.
If you think about it, now with the technological revolution, we get access to so much information. Let’s take for example a tiny chip. How much information can you store on it? Isn’t it incredible? We have more information than ever. but when it comes to inspiration (in spirit) I would say that we have a deficit. We focus too much on the outside and not enough on the inside. We can’t seem to understand that it all starts from within. If the inside is a mess, the outside will also be a mess. Listen to your heart, listen to your intuition, and know that: “The only real valuable thing is intuition.” Albert Einstein
