We Should Learn From Our Experiences

We have all heard of the proverb “Once bitten twice shy”. This itself exemplifies how well we learn from our experience. Personal experiences leave an indelible impression on our minds that are more lasting and invaluable. Her lessons are very thorough and precise, just like a good teacher and we can only ignore it, to our own peril.

Experiences could be good, like helping a person in need, or it could be bad like being betrayed by your closest friend. However, what is important is that we learn from them, so that we can profit from our good experiences, while at the same time steer clear from those things which are potentially harmful to us and have hurt us back in the past. Ask a child not to play with a matchbox for it can harm him, will probably have no impact on him, but once he has scorched his hand by the match stick, he will never in his lifetime forget this lesson. Thus, we learn very meticulously from our personal experiences, rather than by aiding to advise of others, or by reading about them from books or periodicals.

It is, however, a wise man who learns from the experience of others, like his parents, teachers or those elder to him. He also gains from books that are a virtual treasure house of knowledge and experience of others. The biography of great statesmen, proverbs, and folklore are a veritable gold mine of knowledge., with which we enrich ourselves. It is indeed unfortunate to find people learning from bitter experiences in their practical lives. They often leave a life-long scar in their lives. It is always painful to relive those experiences and we often try to forget them as bad memories. These experiences, once experienced they are unlikely to repeat it in their lives.

We gather experiences and learn from everything we do in life. Actually, life itself is one great journey of learning. It teaches us a lot. We learn patience and forbearance when faced with adversity, courage in the face of danger and wisdom from our mistakes of omission and commission. It is however unfortunate, that some of us learn this lesson very late in life when it is too late. Thus we find many people ignoring the lesson they learn from the daily experiences they go through to later regret it when life becomes a wretch.

“Life is brief- a little hope, a little dream and then goodnight”.

In this short span of life, we should, therefore, not only learn from our own experience but also profit from the experience of others. This would save us from many a pitfall ad the unnecessary labor that goes with it.