The Art of Learning

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There is such a difference when one looks at learning verses understanding.  I can learn from an event, but don't always understand why it had to happen.  Conversely, I can really understand why things have happened to me in the past, but damn if I still haven't been able to learn from those events.

I'm not here to say that one is more important then the other.  I think there are times when we struggle to understand things, and there are times when we have a difficult time learning.  The key is to incorporate both in the hopes that you continue to learn from past experiences and understand why things had to happen the way they happened.  Let's face facts here: we are going to be put into learning situations the rest of our natural life.  Whether you are Ten or Seventy-Five, you will still be learning until the day you die.

The Art of Learning is the process by which you gain that which was intended to be learned by the situations or events you might find yourself in.  The Art of Learning is also understanding what has taken place and instead of bitching or complaining about everything, simply look at it for what it is: an opportunity.  I would be a liar if I told you that I have embraced every learning opportunity that has been presented to me in my life.  I would also be a liar if I told you that I fully understood why certain things have taken place in my life.  Try as I might I still get frustrated when forced to drive behind a stupid driver, and no matter how many times I get behind them, I still find myself wanting to blow them off the road.  I understand this is probably wrong, but I am hard pressed to learn my lesson, which is why I continually find myself behind them in traffic.   Now I am trying to be a little funny, but the point I am trying to make is that you will continually find yourself in similar situations until you begin to learn what you were intended to learn.  Now many people can understand this concept, but accepting this is entirely different.

I can remember many times in my life when I was faced with a challenge and the one thing I have always tried to do was fall back on my experiences and do those things that seemed to work in the past for me.  Now every situation is different, and there are times when you are going to have to come up with a whole new way of attacking the problem, but I believe there are always going to be certain similarities and because of this what worked in the past just may work in the here and now.  That being said, if you have failed to learn from the past then you are still going to have a difficult time overcoming what ever obstacle may be in your path.

So why am I fixating on learning and understanding today?  There is such a difference between knowing something and really feeling something.  There is a difference between seeing something and believing it.  There is an even bigger difference between accepting something and fully embracing it.  You might be able to accept that you have a destiny, but until you embrace it, you will never walk in it.  You might be able to accept the fact that you are indeed a spiritual being, but until you fully understand what that means to you, what it means to the rest of humanity, you will never be able to have all the great things that come with this knowledge.  I could write volumes about destiny and spirituality, and you could read every word, but until it becomes real, they are merely words on a page.  Being spiritual and fully accepting your spirituality is so much more then simply acknowledging that spirituality exist in this world.

As I have progressed through my life I have often thought back on certain things that have taken place, and only now can I see the reason I went through what I went through.  Had I been able to learn and understand everything the first time around, I might have done things a little different from time to time.  Hindsight is indeed Twenty-Twenty.  If you are ever going to fully comprehend the significance of you being here right now, then you will have to learn and understand about destiny, about spirituality, and about you.  When you fully understand something you bring clarity into the picture.  When you bring clarity into the picture you bring possibility.  When you can accept possibility you begin to see changes, and those changes are what will catapult you well ahead of all others.

It's easy to say to someone you have a destiny, you are a spiritual being, what isn't easy is getting them to believe it and understand the significance of it.  Given the option to fully understand the beauty of who you are, of what you are, or simply learning about it, what would you choose?  Believe it or not there are those around you who simply do not want to understand who they are, because then they would have to change many things in their life.  These people are content to stay where they are at, doing what they are doing, and never worry about what could have been.  I on the other hand never want to look back and wonder what could have been.  I will take the time right now to learn what I have to learn, attempt to understand it to the best of my abilities, and then walk in what I have learned.

We will all learn at some point in time.  We will all understand the mysteries of life sooner or later.  Blessed is the person who can take both learning and understanding and incorporate it into their daily activities.  Never run away from knowledge, and never ever stop trying to understand those things that are right in front of you.  It takes two to tango, and it takes both learning and understanding to get you where you were intended to be.