There are some things in life only the hand of time can teach you. If only we could speed up time we may all experience a more pleasurable experience on this planet, whilst we are here and learn how to smell the roses and practice gratitude a little quicker than we do.
So, I wanted to share with you the things I've learnt along my journey thus far that I wish I learnt in school, some of these they should actual teach. Which begs the question, what exactly are we teaching our kids and is it actually practical in the world we live in today. There is no question that the world and the landscape of opportunity is changing quicker than one can imagine, but is education prepare the generations to come to handle what is possible in life and how life is evolving as we know it.
Anyway with that in mind these are the things I wish I knew a few years ago...but grateful I've learnt the lessons.
Failure is only failure if you don't get up.
The whole education system is based on this premise, pass or fail. If you pass, you are GOOD...if you fail you are BAD. From an early age we are taught to avoid failure at every cost, however this is seriously the wrong way of going about things. Failure is learning, it is crucial to ones development to fail many times. Infact failure is a right of passage towards success.
There was a great quote by the Spanx Founder, who outlined her father when having dinner at the end of the week would ask her and her brother what they had failed at during the week...and after their response would congratulate them on it. This is the kind of encouragement and environment we need to be creating for others, the ability to fail forward. It's crucial in this day and age. Failure is inevitable so learn the importance of it.
Money it comes and goes. But value it never the less.
When we have it, we don't appreciate. When we don't have it we long for more or reminisce when we had it. The value of money needs to be instilled in our youth more than it currently is. Not one year in my whole education did I learn about how to budget properly or money management. This is an EVERYDAY SIMPLE TASK that needs to be taught. Why isn't it taught....tell me that please?
Money is no doubt a large factor in our every day lives, but how to handle it is seldom taught. One could say yes but its through experiencing the above point that one should learn. However, I think money management comes down to habit...and habits are a hand thing to change. Money management should be taught in our school systems, it should be a focus and we should allow our youth to practice this, where they can actually fail without dire consequences to their well being.
Resilience
Thankfully I've learnt recently this has started to be taught in some schools in my country today. The ability to be resilient mentally in a fast moving words is crucial to ones sanity and to be a functioning adult. It has been noted that the intense positive encouragement that 'you can do anything' and constantly being bubbled wrapped has had a negative effective on many of today's youth. But it is without a doubt that raising mentally resilient young people is a must. Thankfully when I left school, social media was just starting out, today cyber bullying is an epidemic to be able to handle this and to handle the expectations placed on people today by participating in an online life. It is crucial we in still this within the next generation.
People will generally do the best they can in any situation..and expectations will be a major cause of your suffering.
Placing expectations on people and situations will generally leave you to a life of disappointment. It is with this that you must understand that not everything is about you why people behave poorly towards you or others, has very little to do with you rather the person acting that way.
People generally speaking in my experience will do the best they can in any given situation taking into consideration with what they have learnt up until that point in time.
So, its important not to beat people up about poor decisions or bad life choices. People are generally well intended and they do they best they can.
With that said, you can do your part to, when you place an expectation on something or someone - you are framing an image in your mind how something should be. When that expectation is not met, you are welcomed with disappointment. So go easy on yourself and on others when it comes to projecting your wants or desires.
An end note before I pass it over to you.
Life is not easy, it is not something that you master..in fact...increasingly so, only with the hands of time will you understand certain things. But, there are lessons moving forward that I hope to impart on to the next generations to come, even if they don't fully understand it at that particular time. The lesson may embed itself in the subconscious and can be called on in a time of need or difficulty. The above are all lessons no one really made me aware of growing up, it is crucial in my opinion we start to focus more on mental well being and educating self awareness from an early age.
Anyway, I'm interested to know things you have learnt - that you wish you learnt a little younger than you did? Share with us below :)