If only I knew then what I know now. Why didn’t they teach this stuff in school?’
The Irreplaceable Time
Remember that time is irreplaceable and is always a diminishing resource. Right now you might think you are working towards a time in your life where you can do what you have your heart set on. However, if you really examine things, you might find that what you are doing is really just a distraction to a different reality. If your financial results are not as you wish, and if you keep doing what you are doing, how are you going to finance your dreams? Are they just going to remain dreams?
If you are simply doing what most people are doing it might be time to realise that, unless you change, you may never be in a position to do what you have your heart set on because you are essentially going to run out of time. Unless you start to increase your knowledge and make plans to do things differently you will end up like the other 5,000,000 Australians currently receiving some form of social security support.
Three Stages to a Learned Life
One view of life, perhaps slightly cynical, suggests there are three stages to a learned life. In the first stage everything is new and each day is an adventure. It is a time when we are full of enthusiasm for newness and difference. It is a time where we impatiently await the future and count our dreams of what might be. It is a time where all our thoughts are charged with electric excitement and wonderment.
With the passage of time, the first stage gives way to the second, or work stage, where we learn to exist in repetition. It is life’s automatic pilot where we learn to drift through our twenties, thirties, forties and fifties. Life is about the familiar; it is about existence and survival without ever really questioning such an existence. If questions do arise, they are discouraged, and besides, you are supposed to be busy and you have not got time for that sort of reflection. Your focal point is on the problems you are currently experiencing or problems which do not yet exist.
As time further diminishes, the second stage gives way to the third where society says it no longer requires your services. Life becomes measured by ‘if only’ statements and the realisation of wasted opportunities: ‘If only I knew then what I know now things would have been different. Why didn’t they teach this stuff in school?’ The ‘if only’ stage is about recognition of surrendered potential and living in the past. Because people choose to live in the past they fail to recognise that their present could be different for them.
No Good Excuses For Giving Up
How many times have you heard people say ‘if only’ and then fail to proceed because they have somehow convinced themselves that their chances have gone. They give up on their dreams of a better life and remain in their life of certainty. It is almost as if the game of life has passed them by and now they are in a holding pattern until horizontal permanency consumes them. ‘If only’ becomes an excuse for not doing things now. Because they did not know things ten years ago, it is too late now! Always remember that because you did not know something yesterday is not an excuse not to know it today, it is only an excuse not to proceed. Not to proceed is to prefer the rules of convention wisdom and staying within your comfort zone.
ACTION: Take a few minutes to reflect on your journey so far. What stage of learned life would you say you’re at right now? And where would you like to be? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.