Learning: A Perspective

Learning is an integral part of being (alive). That no one came into this world with prior experience on how to consistently do and get things right, makes room for the learning opportunity. However, not so many people live with this mindset. Interestingly, learning is a continuous, self-renewing cycle: it never stops. No matter how much we know, we do not yet know as much as we ought to (there's always more to know).

Most of our struggles, mistakes, and failures, can be linked to deficiencies or gaps in our learning. Or at least, we can choose to think that way. Our view of life and of these undesirable experiences remarkably affects how we respond to or handle them. It is often easier to bounce back after an episode/multiple episodes of failure when we see life for what it truly is: a learning experience.

To see life this way is to rid ourselves of the (unnecessary) pressure to prove our worth and the (paralysing) fear of making mistakes, failing, or starting all over again.

When we give attention to the learning process that characterise life and living:

• we do not stop at just acknowledging and accepting reality (the fact that we made mistakes or failed);
• we begin to think beyond the mere experience of failure and embrace the opportunity it offers us to learn (and do better);
• we transform sad and enervating moments of failures and unmet expectations into 'Haha!' (Eureka, Discovery) moments.

The learning perspective leads us out of pessimism and transforms our confessions from 'Oh! I didn't do well...' or 'Oops! I failed...' to 'I didn't know that was what worked..., BUT NOW, I DO' or 'I didn't realise there was a better way..., BUT NOW I DO'.

Even though you don't get to learn (equally) from every negative experience, you must not hesitate to pick and put to use the lessons you can lay your hands on. As you embrace these lessons and learnings, you become more knowledgeable, perhaps, wiser, too. And you know, knowledge can be empowering, or even be transformative, if applied.

Our learning leads us to make updates to our lives: revise our beliefs or values, fine-tune our perspectives, review our goals and priorities, and become better (in both our being and doing).

Today, don't shy away from the lessons life brings your way and the updates they lead you to.

You'll be grateful for them!

This article was inspired by a quote from Julia Galef,

'Discovering you were wrong is an update, not a failure, and your worldview is a living document meant to be revised'.