The power of learning (from the mistakes of others)
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.“
-–Eleanor Roosevelt
I've heard it said that wisdom isn't something you're born with, but something you accumulate over a lifetime of taking lessons from the mistakes all of us humans will inevitably make.
Yes, it's true that we all make mistakes, but the prudent among us try to learn from them so they never make those same mistakes again.
But here's the thing that so many folks miss, especially the young...
We can learn something from the mistakes other people make, not just from the mistakes we make ourselves.
This is something that many youngsters seem to struggle with, and that includes me back during my teenage years.
However, that doesn't mean failure to learn from the mistakes of others is something that only affects the young. Just watch a few minutes of the evening news and you'll see that plenty of adults are in the same boat.
Although it's far from perfect (which it will never be), I can honestly say my own life got better after I started paying attention to the mistakes others were making or had made in the past.
I still make mistakes of my own of course, and like everyone else I'll make them until the day I take my last earthly breath.
But hopefully I'll be able to learn enough from the mistakes of others to limit the number of mistakes I make myself to as few as possible.
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