LESSONS LEARNT

A friend and I went out for dinner the other way. We hadnt seen each other for a while so naturally the conversation was about updating each other on what has been happening in our lives.  The joys and struggles and how we have felt about both. In the middle of the chat I said these words, "don't you sometimes wish we could turn back the clock and make different choices but I suppose we would still make the same mistakes even if we could because we would still not have learned all we know today."

In that brief moment I found myself at peace with everything that has happened in life and how things turned out. For the first time in a long time, I wasn't beating myself up for the wrong choices I had made but instead realised that there was no way things could have been different.  I am only a better person today because of everything I had gone through. The mistakes were lessons learnt, lessons I wouldn't have otherwise acquired.

I think a lot of times we blame ourselves for the mistakes we made and always wish we could be given a chance to go back in time and correct them but fail to realise that this is how we grow and learn in life. Going back doesn't guarantee that we will make wiser decisions or be able to avoid the flaws of the past. We can only learn what we know through reflection and that sadly means that what happened had to happen so we can be the people that we are today.

Only when we stop regretting the bad maze we had to go through can we truly embrace the lessons that we have been taught and do better because we now know better. As cliché as it sounds it holds so much truth, we can't change the past but can use what we know now to influence the present and therefore change the future. Don't dwell on the mistakes for too long but only look at them long enough to see what the lesson is in the experience, what you can take from it and what you can do better next time. In that way your mistakes will always be your stepping stone, propelling you to the next level and phase of your life.

When you have done that, you can look back with gratitude at how things have panned out and how you have grown from your bad experiences.