Record and Learn

Have you ever stopped and wondered in amazement at the fact that we have records of those who have come before us?

That people in the past stopped, took a moment, and wrote down what they were thinking, feeling, and experiencing?

I am grateful for the wisdom of my elders.  Not only those in my life, but those who have come a long, long time before me.

The great ones whose wisdom they wrote down and shared, as a reflection of their own lives.

From my own experience and working on this Algorithm For Life project, and all I’ve gained from it, I would bet the recording was as much for their benefit as it was to those who followed.

By recording their thoughts, they had the ability to remember what they’ve learned, as repetition, from their own experience.  This action is great for reinforcing lessons, it requires discipline and requires you to take action.

So if you can relive what you’ve learned in real life, in a written form, to remind you of it, you hopefully won’t have to re-experience it again.  Especially the negative things.

That is what many people whom I admire have taught me.   Write it down.  Learn from it.  Do your best not to repeat mistakes.

An interesting question is: Is your time better spent living the moment, making mistakes, not learning from them, then making those mistakes again.  Or is it better to make mistakes and have experiences once, record them, reflected on them, and learn from those experiences as you go?

Even if you do this thing, recording and learning the lessons you’ve been presented with, some mistakes will be repeated again and again until you learn the lessons required.  On the flip side, some things that looked like mistakes at the time, will be great gifts.

It’s all about perspective and taking the time to pause, write down what you’ve learned, and reflect on it.

My thought: This exercise is a great use of time!