This must be a place where I need to learn

Most lottery winners lose the money within the three years. 

Most heart surgery patients return to poor diets within two years years. 

Most people with second and third marriages experience a higher divorce rate. 

Most prisoners released back into the world are arrested for a new crime with five years. 

Proving, that most people are poor historians with short memories. And that moving on to the next thing won’t help if we haven’t done the work to learn how to do that thing differently. 

Kreider’s satirically brilliant book about the dark truths of human existence summarizes it perfectly.

I’ve demonstrated an impressive resilience in the face of valuable life lessons, and the main thing I seem to have learned is that I am capable of learning nothing from almost any experience, no matter how profound. 

That’s the mistake so many of us make. We just leave and hope to choose better next time. We learn nothing. And we start the loop all over again. 

I’m reminded of a gripping documentary about big wall mountain climbers. The film beautifully chronicles the journey of men battling sub zero temperatures, near fatal injuries, catastrophic avalanches. 

But while there is something undeniably cool about these daredevils who are not afraid to defy death, frankly, watching three grown men risking their lives and torturing their families to repeatedly to accomplish something that has no practical meaning or purpose, only proves further that humans learn nothing. 

The star of the film even admits it himself. 

The best climbers have the worst memories, he chuckles. 

But this is no laughing matter. We need to learn how to learn. From our successes and our failures. We must be willing to look foolish and to let life teach us. We must be willing to grow from whatever new truths our actions may reveal. And we must embrace failure as a learning opportunity rather than treating it as a source of shame. 

Our mantra must simply be, this must be a place where I need to learn. 

Because if we’re willing to ask ourselves what role our behavior might or might not have played in these broader problems, the likelihood of us making the same mistakes diminishes greatly. 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go buy my weekly powerball ticket. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What obstacles are you creating that hinder the full engagement with your learning?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

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Namaste.