How many times have you heard, or said, that you learn from your mistakes, from your failures? A variation of the theme of: those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it? Do you? Do you learn from your missteps… regardless of the attendant emotion? How about successes? Do you learn from them too? Can you say: I also learn from my accomplishments, the ‘right’ actions or words because if I don’t… how will these positives become part of my ‘modus operandi’?
I’ve always been a tad mystified that the ‘saying’ never included incorporating those aspects that enable future successes. Granted we don’t need to get a ‘big head’ about our accomplishments but to ignore them is throwing away important information … at least that’s my thinking (and I intend to stick with it). Learning is the point and we can learn in all sorts of ways but to not learn those ‘good’ lessons is just plain silly.
If something has been successful – an approach, a plan, etc. – then this learning can possibly be applied to a new but similar situations. Yes? Then why not focus your learning on the positives as well as the ‘life lessons’? And what about sharing with others what has worked for you when they need, or ask, for your opinion? This isn’t bragging, I think it’s a form of bearing one another’s burdens by helping the other person to look at (fill in the blank) from a different perspective.
Have you ever thought that sharing scriptures with another person, your experiences when you were faced with difficulties is a form of sharing your successes? It is. Look at the affect testimonies have on the listener. When you first came to the Lord, or your journey with Him as you’ve continued becoming you – none of those are failures. Actually it’s expressing the success that came from the failure.
If you are the only one learning and growing from failures… isn’t that a failure? We never should put the other person in a ‘my way or the highway’ but how you moved from failure to success, how you adapted or changed your perspective – aren’t these successes from failure? Please, don’t be the only one that can learn from others’ mistakes.
Failures happen for all sorts of reasons. When, after the fact, we look at what happened and why, we can gain a great deal of learning. The same point can be made about success. Then again… success, like failure, is in the mind of the beholder.
