HW: #WednesdayWisdom; How to learn your lessons and remember them.

Life… Am I right? …

It is never boring for too long. Whenever the waters are calm for an extended period of time, you can be sure that a monsoon is near. Because of the stillness of the sea, the hurricane has no issues getting to you. It ice skates through the smooth sheet of water with full speed and hits you in the face, leaving you in at least two pieces. Your head hits the water several feet away from the rest of your body and then gets dragged even farther away.

I have never heard anyone say that life is easy. We might think that it is for some people (the kids, the rich, the famous), but the reality of the situation is that we are all struggling with one thing or another. Sometimes finding an answer and helping ourselves can be easy, but too often, it is not. Things get even more complicated when there are other people involved, aside from you.

You can control yourself, but calculating probabilities based on the unknown of others is a task for the mad. You cannot control their wants and desires, their thoughts and reactions, which basically sets you up for automatic failure. That, in turn, leads you to either sacrifice yourself or the other person/people.

Have you ever played those scenario games during which you are asked whether you prefer to kill men or women, adults or kids, humans or animals? In those examples, you are expected to choose one or the other. It reveals your thought patterns. Unfortunately, these scenarios are designed in such a way that someone always ends up dying. That is how I feel about life and the decisions we get to make. Who do we choose to save? Will we be able to live with that decision and those results?

On my way to work yesterday, my brain tried to think of a solution to a certain problem that has become my new obstacle. It was early in the morning (I strongly dislike mornings), I was stuck in traffic (That is always fun. Not.), and a difficult situation was on my mind (Life…). It is a miracle I got to work safely.

My brain would scream at me, trying to mute the thinking process. But, whenever I increased the radio’s volume, my thinking got louder. Yes, it was a mess and it got me angry. Stopped at a red light, I took a breath and a metaphorical step back. What would I say to someone in my situation? How would I reply to someone on WP if they presented my current problem as theirs? The answer was a bit of a surprise. The not-involved me would tell the other person that it was not their problem. I would have encouraged dialogue, but would point out the potential risks and the fact that things were not fair on them.

Easy. Problem solved, right? No… Even though I have the ability and the presence of mind to step back and assess the situation from a third-party perspective, it does not lessen the burden that I am carrying. The emotions that are involved make it hard for us to walk in a straight line. Instead, we choose to meander around as if we are lost. Maybe that is why it is easier to be a robot. You follow an algorithm and you are done.

My problem is somewhat a chronic one, but every now and again there are flareups and they have the ability to swallow you whole. So what do I do? Outwardly, I follow my third-party recommendation, but inside, my mind and body are on overdrive, trying to figure all of this out. It is because I am a problem-solver, who finds it impossible to live without some sort of closure.

As I am working through this issue, I am learning certain lessons which I had learned in the past already. Why did I not remember them? They are important! Stuff I learned in school was important, too (Well, at least some of it.), but that does not mean that I remember much of it. The reason why we do not always remember things is because we do not think we will ever need it. Or, even if we think it might come in handy, it gets buried underneath the things you have recently used.

This one person is having a tough time and I am trying to help. We talk and I offer words of wisdom taken directly from their book. It is not because I am spiteful. On the contrary, I truly believe in the things they have taught me. The problem is that now they see things in a different light and those same lessons they shared with me before are useless to them now. That made me think. Do I say things I will not believe in in the future?

All of that sparked an idea in my head. Do you know how some bloggers post “X things I have learned during my X years on this planet?” I decided to start a new tradition – I will create a notebook in which I will jot down various life lessons. (What a great excuse to get a new notebook!) I am assuming that some lessons will be short, while some might be longer. I will organize it in such a way that the lesson is visible and does not get lost in the thoughts surrounding it. I think it will help me gain a different perspective in the future when I come back to it as needed.

Do you have a Life Lessons journal?

How do you keep track of your learned lessons?

Do you think the idea of such a notebook is a good one?

Do you always follow your own recommendations?

Is it easier to give advice or live by it?

Stay golden,

.

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