Nobody has ever lived YOUR life before.
That makes your learning curve personal.
Life teaches the subject…
and then quietly teaches YOU.
Has anyone ever been here on Earth before?
GOOD.
Because every one of us is on one giant, never-ending learning curve covering subjects with no end.
Each person travels on a personal highway.
Different experiences.
Different timing.
Different strengths.
Different weaknesses.
Different lessons.
No two people travel exactly the same road.
AMAZING.
And here is what makes the learning curve especially interesting:
It does not only teach you about the subject.
It teaches you about YOU.
Who you are.
Who you are not.
What you do well.
What you avoid.
What excites you.
What frustrates you.
What you are ready for.
And what you still have to learn.
SOMETHING NEW…SOMETHING OLD
Over the years, all kinds of things have been introduced to me.
Some familiar.
Some completely new.
Some I thought I understood…
until they came back for another visit.
LOL.
Life has a way of saying:
“Remember this?”
And before you can answer…
the lesson starts again.
There are things I discovered I do very well.
There are things I do not do well.
Then there are things I have never tried at all.
That category remains fascinating.
Because until you engage it…
you do not really know what might be waiting there.
Some subjects I merely dabbled in years ago come back later and say:
“You ready now?”
Sometimes I am.
Sometimes I am not.
That is part of the curve too.
LIFE DISHES UP INTERESTING EXPERIENCES
The learning curve does not ask whether the lesson arrived conveniently.
It simply arrives.
A new job.
A new relationship.
A new responsibility.
A new technology.
A new problem.
A new opportunity.
And there you are again…
BEGINNER.
People sometimes dislike that word.
I don’t.
Beginner means something has opened.
LIVING COMPUTERS
It is no accident that human beings are incredible, self-contained, mobile systems.
A thought begins.
A belief activates.
A decision follows.
Then the body begins carrying it out.
Eyes observe.
Hands work.
Feet move.
The brain processes.
Experience reports back.
We adjust.
Try again.
Improve.
That is an extraordinary system when you think about it.
You have equipment.
You have memory.
You have imagination.
You have judgment.
You have a growing SKILLS BANK.
Then life keeps handing you things to run through the system.
Amazing.
WE KNOW…OTHERS DO NOT
I enjoy observing plants, animals and insects because nature is full of activity.
Everything seems to have its role.
Its rhythm.
Its instincts.
Its way of responding.
Human beings have something additional available to us.
We can ask:
WHY?
HOW?
WHAT HAPPENED?
WHAT CAN I DO BETTER?
We can examine our own behavior.
Change methods.
Test ideas.
Teach someone else.
Learn from somebody who knows more.
That ability should never be taken lightly.
PAUSE FOR CAUSE.
The more capable we become of learning…
the more responsibility we have to remain willing to learn.
YOU LEARN WHEN YOU LEARN
I learned something early in life that helped me enormously.
We are all in different places…
at different times.
Each person absorbs differently.
Asks questions differently.
Processes differently.
Responds differently.
One person needs to hear something.
Another needs to see it.
Another needs to do it.
Another needs to fail at it once or twice before the lesson finally enters.
That observation gave me more patience with people.
Someone may not be where I am in a particular area.
Fine.
But before I get too impressed with myself…
I remind myself of something else.
I am not where THEY are in other areas either.
That changes the whole picture.
THE PERSONAL HIGHWAY
This is why comparison can become misleading.
You look at someone farther ahead in one area and think:
“I am behind.”
Maybe.
But perhaps you are farther ahead somewhere else.
The learning curve is personal.
Your highway is yours.
That does not mean we cannot learn from each other.
We absolutely can.
But we should be careful about demanding that everyone arrive at the same mile marker at the same time.
They won’t.
And neither will we.
THE CURVE TEACHES TWO SUBJECTS
Every learning curve teaches at least two things.
THE SUBJECT.
And YOU.
You begin learning photography…
and discover patience.
You start a business…
and discover whether you are disciplined.
You enter a relationship…
and discover how well you communicate.
You take on a problem…
and discover your tolerance for pressure.
You begin teaching…
and discover how much you still need to learn.
That second lesson may be the most valuable one.
RICHIE SPEAKS
Here is one Richie rule:
Do not be embarrassed by the part of the curve you are standing on.
Another:
Someone else’s advanced lesson does not make your beginning less important.
And one more:
Every new subject introduces you to another version of yourself.
PEARLS FROM THE BOOKS
From the spirit of Pearls for the Soul:
“Learning reveals the subject, but experience reveals the student.”
From the spirit of God I AM:
“What has been placed within you often becomes visible only after life gives it something to answer.”
From the spirit of It Is Finished:
“You do not have to remain the person who first encountered the lesson.”
PEARLS INSIGHT
Learning is highly individual.
People differ in prior experience, confidence, attention, motivation, timing and the way they process information.
That is why patience matters when teaching, leading or simply dealing with one another.
The goal is not to force everyone onto the same learning curve.
It is to help each person continue moving on theirs.
PEARLS CONNECTION
This connects directly with THE LEARNING CURVE — ESSENTIAL TO LIFE ON EARTH.
That Pearl explored the built-in mechanism itself.
This one goes deeper.
The mechanism may be universal…
but the journey is PERSONAL.
It also connects with SKILLS BANKS ARE DIFFERENT — UNIQUE FOR EVERYONE.
The learning curve is one of the main ways those individual skills become visible.
And WANDERED INTO ROOM FULL OF SELF-TESTING COMPUTERS reminds us that every new experience becomes another form of self-testing.
FINAL SAY
Life is a living experience.
It teaches as we go.
We learn the subject.
Then we learn ourselves.
We meet something new.
We respond.
We discover.
We adjust.
We continue.
And if we embrace the experience…
something interesting happens.
The experience begins opening more of itself to us.
Then we embrace again.
And the cycle continues.
Your learning curve is not supposed to look exactly like mine.
Mine is not supposed to look exactly like yours.
That is the beauty of it.
We are all learning.
Just not the same lesson…
at the same time…
in the same way.
Thank you, life.
Class is still in session.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com
Been expecting you