10 motivating insights that can bring out the best from past & present experiences

If we expect to sail smoothly on the waterways of our never-ending life journey of personal development, and make it interesting, exciting, adventurous, and filled with positivity and success, there are some important things that we should always be mindful of, and consider every now and then in order to keep our development in appropriate check, viz.:

(1) If we don’t learn from past mistakes and apply them wisely in the future, we will still get older, but not any wiser

Generally, people assume that the older everyone gets, the wiser they become; but this is not always true because many people just continue to be foolish and make many mistakes that should have been avoided if they had actually learned lessons from past mistakes.

Sometimes after we take steps, we observe that we’ve made mistakes—especially completely new and different ones. If we can learn from each mistake, old or new, it will be difficult for us to repeat them, or other related mistakes in the future.

The older we get, the more new areas of life become exposed to us, and the more likely we will be prone to make errors or mistakes. The thing is this: we should become wiser after learning from mistakes, not the other way round—which is foolish.

(2) Sometimes people make serious mistakes that might not be deliberate. Sometimes, when we think people know what they are doing, it could be that they just don’t know what they are doing at all

In some instances (probably many), whenever people behave badly towards us, it might be due to their naivety or foolishness, rather than any deliberate act of theirs.

At times people make mistakes in the way they bring others up or end a relationship, not because they intended to do it that way, but because they didn’t know any other way to do it better.

(3) Whatever has happened, has happened! We can’t go back and change anything. We should learn to work with where we are, and what we have

We have to accept things that have happened and build on them. It wouldn’t do us any good to go back to the past and beat ourselves up—and the truth is that we can still change many things, but change will come gradually, and a bit later.

In the journey of life, nobody is perfect; if anyone is perfect, that person wouldn’t have come to Earth. Usually, we are always allowed to start where we are, with what we have, and make a choice each day to become better.

On the other hand, no matter how much we fight, do our best, and try to do the right thing, there will be certain days when we might not succeed.

No matter what happens, the motto should always be to keep moving forward and upward ever; backward never.

(4) There are some things in life that are very important, and a bunch of other things that are not so important. It won’t be so difficult to know which ones fall into either category

There are a bunch of things that don’t count and are not worth the time to concentrate on. I don’t mean that we cannot have trivial things in our lives; we can, but we should discard trivial things if they attract negativity, anxiety, and confusion.

It is important to pay money back to people whom you owe money; on the other hand, bothering about whether to wear an armband to go and pay the money, or not, is not so important. Teaching children valuable life lessons is important, but dressing them in expensive clothes is not that important.

(5) It is very important to dedicate our lives to something good. However, dedicating the self is a very personal choice. It is important to know precisely what we are dedicating our lives to, instead of not knowing at all

Whatever it is that we really want to dedicate our lives to, we shouldn’t cause harm to other people in any way: we should try to live as decently as possible. In this regard, there are quite a number of things we can choose to dedicate our lives to—and we know what they are.

(6) If we expect to get the most out of life, we have to keep all avenues or options open: we need to be flexible in the way we react to, or approach life

We need to be ready to roll with whatever weather or storm that shows up, especially when we least expect. It can be easily observed that people with rigid beliefs and few options usually lose battles when new challenges or situations arise.

The thing is this: if we stick to an established pattern without thinking about other ideas on how we could possibly adjust to new circumstances, we might be setting ourselves up for long-term failure when the unexpected tides of life show up.

We should always try to see life as a friend that we can get closer to and roll along with, rather than an enemy that we should run away from.

(7) We should learn to be always thankful, even when we face the uphill struggles of life

Although we have no other better option than to battle with all the ups and downs of life, we have to keep moving forward ever and backward never.

If we don’t do so, we will be swept away easily, and probably off course. Each battle, each struggle, and challenge we experience should be approached with the attitude that we will become stronger, more fitter, and more prepared to face the uncertainties of tomorrow.

(8) We have to muster all our strength and be the very best at anything we do. Don’t relax; don’t aim to be the next/second best

This point seems to impose a great responsibility on us. It really sounds difficult to be (or become) the best, but it’s possible.

Probably, we should take the middle way: whatever we are doing, we should try to put our best into it, and do as much as is humanly possible for us to do.

(9) We should look at the past and learn from it, but never concentrate on it. There is nothing we can do to change the past; we have to turn our attention to the present and have high hopes for the future

Truly, it’s quite difficult to resist the temptation of looking and dwelling on the past. However, if we want to succeed in life, we have to turn our attention to today, now, and a hopeful tomorrow.

(10) Whenever it is necessary, ask questions. It is true that we might not like the answers we often get, but at least we will become more knowledgeable and wiser

Many views and comments in the world are based on assumptions. The truth is that most times when people are assuming, they think that they know something when in reality they don’t know anything.

Asking a few questions here and there would help to clear up any assumptions that could mislead us in the long run. Whenever people make assumptions that are later confirmed to be wrong, things might have already gotten worse.

We assume that other people know our plan, or that they like what we are doing, but in reality, they don’t. It’s better to ask questions right from the start and have precise information. In fact, asking questions helps clarify many situations.