by: Brian Maloney
When growing up as a child, the concept of learning a lesson becomes so routine, that many of us just set it aside as unimportant like many other principles that otherwise should be heeded.
It is so true that all of us are mortal. Furthermore, all of us are fallible and no one is absolutely perfect. However, there are some people who would argue this about themselves or someone they know.
My contention is the people who perpetually make many crucial mistakes in their lives and continue to make the exact ones again, are not taking the necessary steps to correct themselves.
Simply put, carelessness, laziness, or mere insecurity in oneself are the primary reasons lessons due to mistakes are not applied.
Changing ones mindset and attitude towards self progression has significant importance in this area of growth.
Sure, there are many people out there who will almost always be making mistakes in perpetuity, but certainly that shouldn’t mean that you have to be one of them. Taking control of your life is an excellent first step.
Life does not have to be extremely complicated. It is a known fact that when people simplify their lives they are not only more happy, but more productive in any given task because the mind has less to wonder about.
Listing or ranking things of importance in one’s mind assists in shaving down the myriad of less important things that always seem to hinder our lives. Moreover, examining mistakes much like a football player watching film the Monday after a big game and then deciding a better approach will change the outcome to a positive rather than a negative.
So why is it so hard to apply a learned lesson?
Just learning the lesson is what many of us do, but that is merely half the battle. The other aspect is actually setting your mind by consciously programming it to steer away from this mistake. It is like staring at the problem with a microscope and discovering reasons why you made this choice.
This part is what I call conscious recognition, where your conscious and subconscious are on the same wavelength rather than opposing each other.
The concept of consciously recognizing something as wrong can be applied not only in lessons learned, but practically every facet of life. In taking a little more time to think a mistake out, you are literally dissecting apart each area that needs to be addressed.
Certainly, most people will not apply a learned lesson unless they want to or unless the law forces them to. Yet, one must truly desire to apply a lesson before it happens again, or that person will only know that it is a mistake and not do anything about it.
Much like an alcoholic must will him or herself into treating the disease by coming to peace with the thought of living their lives without a drink, people must make firm resolutions to fix the areas of their lives that are broken.
Procrastinating and lying to oneself about applying lessons today, rather than tomorrow, makes for a compromising environment when one already knows that applying the lesson is in their best interest.
Wanting to make changes and becoming a better person is a daily task, not yearly. Work is what it is, but the rewards of living cleaner always outweigh that work.