10 Life lessons that I wished I had learned earlier : Part 2

 

When you make a mistake, don’t look back at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.
– Hugh White (1773 – 1840)

I sometimes wish to invent a time machine and go back and tell my younger self to watch out, do things differently. I am science fiction fan and geek at heart so having such a ideas are common to me but I know they are not practical or possible right now.

This is second part of post that shares many mistakes I made in past and how I would do it differently now. Check out the10 life lessons that I wished I had learned earlier : Part 1 here.

Sometimes I think these mistakes and lessons learned have made me more wiser (sic!) and more mature. If I had not made these mistakes I would not have grown, as I would not have learned any lessons if things were easier to achieve. Making mistakes are part of being human and learning from our mistakes makes us a better human, teaches us compassion, joy, pain and finally triumph when we come over our hurdles in life.

Here are a few more lessons I wished I had learned from it earlier. Read on and if you like it, please share with others so others can learn from my mistakes.

6. There are no short cuts to success.

Success can mean different things to different people. Whatever your success goals are, there are no short cuts. There are lot of luck and lot of hard work involved. Keep doing you work without getting discouraged is the best way to go for many people.

Many times we see or hear about someone who succeed and think that they are overnight success but that may not be the truth. They may have worked behind the scenes for months, or even years to get where they are, what they achieved.

Many times I wanted things faster, quicker but success or satisfaction came through doing a complete process of doing a task, regardless of what outcome would have been. Do not look for instant gratification, even though it is not easy to wait for it. Really, some short cuts may seem like you are winning at first but in the end, hard work, persistence and little luck always wins out. If you think otherwise, please share your wisdom with us.

7. You can not please everyone.

It is hard for me to see anyone upset, knowingly. I might have unknowingly made someone upset but that is never my intention and I have been a people pleaser most of the time. Many of good people are like that as they do not want to see anyone hurt, sad or upset.

I have come to realize slowly that you can not please EVERYONE. If you try it, you may still not please everyone and you will resent the situation, people or yourself eventually.

I have tried to please many people in my life, unsuccessfully for long time. While I still want to do right thing and make them happy, now I do not do it, if that makes me unhappy or it is against one of mycore values. Some people may not like it but long term effect will be lot more positive. Just make sure you trust your gut feelings and core values.

8. Keep your life areas in balance.

If you are hungry, sleep deprived or in deep debt, you can not think life improvement or personal development. One need to have many life area to be in balanced in order to be live the best life he or she can live. My life was not in balanced until I made sure that following aspects of my life were taken care of; Keep yourlife area balanced to live best life you can.

1. Family: Without family to love, care and share with, life will not be complete.
2. Knowledge: Work/Career/Learning: Humans like to constantly learn new skills and gain knowledge.
3. Spiritual or Religious: You do not have be religious, spiritual prayers, meditation can do wonder.
4. Financial: You can not focus on other aspect if you are deep and debt and worrying about it.
5. Health: Health is true wealth, without it balance will not be complete.
6. Social: We humans are social creatures, we like to live among society and other people.

9. Tell your family and friends how much you love them today.

We are often so busy in our daily grind of life, we do not realize how important your family and close friends can be. Tell them you love them, share a hug every day, without any reasons. It does not need to be valentine day, father’s day, mother’s day or any holidays, hug and share love, just because you care! A simple thing to make time for.

I know this as it has hit me well in heart where it hurts, deeply even now. I did not get a chance to tell my grandmother and grandfather, how much I cared for them and loved them before they passed away.

When I was a child, my mom used to drop me off at my grandparent’s house everyday before going for her work in morning. They doted on me and I had loads of fun together with them. My grandfather, noted author of his time, made up special stories for me and he never got tired of telling same stories again and again as I asked for it. My grandmother, showed off my littlest talent to everyone and kept best of snacks and munchies saved up for me and waited for my visits. They made me feel so special beyond words can describe.

My grandmother was mostly healthy and passed away unexpectedly at home one evening. I never got a chance to return the favor and show them they meant a lot to me and how much I cared for them. Even after many years, talking about her brings back tears and my guilt of not being with her, doing things for her, making her feel special as she had done for me.

Do not wait, till your loved one are sick or in hospital, do it now. No one can stop death but we can share happy moments together and create a memories that will last longer time.

10. I am not done learning lessons.

Once upon a time I thought I knew everything. More I learned as I realized that I hardly knew anything. Now I know that I do not know much. I have barely just begin to scratch the surface.

I know enough to realize that my lessons and learning is far from done. I know I will make more mistakes and learn more lessons in life journey. Knowing that makes me either silly or humble, I am not sure. But I know one thing my learning is still ongoing and that is a good thing because mind is like a parachute, it works only when it is open and I want to be open minded and realist in my life.

Make mistakes, learn from it and live a better and happier life. Be content and positive.

What are you some of the life lessons that you wished you knew it sooner? Please share, we all have great wisdom and life stories to share.

Preeti

Image source: reallifespirituality.com

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