The subtitle of this blog is “Look. Listen. Learn.” This by no means suggests that the reader should look at me, listen to me or learn from me. I’m not out to teach anyone *%&! unless they ask me to do so.
It means look and listen around you and learn from what you see and hear. Make it a point to do this at all times. With any luck, it will be become second nature and you won’t have to consciously strive for it. It will pay off in the long run, every time.
For example, pay attention to your elders. I am not implying “obey your elders,” you have your own decisions to make (ultimately right or wrong) and learn from. But, seek out your elders and you will find the ones that have certain knowledge of topics that interest you and you may find that you become fascinated with this person’s conversation. Now, when I say ”elders” it can be anyone. It doesn’t have to be someone in your family or a friend. It can be someone at your job site, someone in the community or even a complete stranger.
Never read the book by the cover when it comes to who you can L/L/L from. If you don’t believe me, in time you will find it’s true. There are no limiting factors when it comes to this. It is possible that you have something to learn from someone regardless of that person’s financial, educational, geographical (and on and on) status. Some things you learn will be complex. Other things will be simple, and those are best things to learn. There’s nothing like learning something so simple that you ask yourself why you didn’t already know it yourself. Those are the things that you take and run with the rest of your life. Those are the life lessons which may some day come back to you and pull you through.
The odd thing is, in the end you may indeed forget the specific thing(s) that you learned from a certain person; at times that person may have taught you something without even knowing that they did so. But, you will remember that this person did teach you something profound. In my book, that’s just as fulfilling.
July 3, 2009
