Apply and Learn

Experiences in our lives help us understand the obvious life lessons we are taught. Through our lives, we are offered advice from our hairdressers, our parents, our doctors, the media and every other outlet possible. We are inundated with opinions on what is right and what is wrong. We hear these things, but we don’t always understand them or how they relate to us as individuals. It is like saying that we always know the right thing to do, but until we are in the situation, we don’t understand how hard it is to actually do the right thing.

Sometimes we seek advice from friends, family and professionals because we are stuck with decisions. Sometimes we know what is right, but need a push in the right direction. Other times, we are clueless. After receiving the advice, we take it, we evaluate it and sometimes we ignore it.

…And sometimes we reflect back to the advice somewhere down the road when it starts to make sense.

As a child, my parents stressed that I lived a great life…and I did! I had everything I needed and everything I wanted. If I didn’t have what I wanted, I was able to work for it and get it. They told me to not take things for granted and more importantly, do not take people for granted. Although I was lucky, not everyone was as lucky.

I remember watching a fire at a local house when I was about ten. As I stood there watching the flames I thought about how the owner was losing everything. I thought about how hard the owner worked to have a house and everything that filled the rooms. I wondered how things could change so quickly and how we were useless just standing there watching the owner’s life literally, go down in flames. At that moment, my dad grabbed me and I thought I was truly lucky that everything my parents worked for was still standing.

Now more than ever I realize how important it is to treasure everything and everyone. In the blink of an eye a person, an object, an opportunity can be lost. That does not mean we should avoid these things for the fear of loss, but we should embrace them for their existence.

Although at times, we need to let things go, it is the unexpected disappearances that make us feel empty, lost and sometimes discouraged. Seeking solace in the fact that we did everything we could and appreciated our losses before they expired can be what helps us though.

So hearing advice, taking advice and knowing what to do with the advice are all separate entities. If we hear the advice and learn when we can apply it and how to use it in the future, then the advice was not wasted. Every mishap is a step toward understanding who we are and what we want from life…advice is the map guiding us through. Never forget what is heard and be sure to make it into something that is learned.