It’s been said that experience is a great teacher. And that’s true. But only if we’re willing to learn from it. And although we can learn a lot from our own experiences, there’s a downside — specifically in regards to timing.
For instance, looking back on your life, how many times would you have chosen to do something different because of what you know now? I’m guessing there are several occasions you can think of. And this happens to us all. As we go through life, we learn things that are of value for future situations. But it would be nice to have that same knowledge up front. It could save us time, and frustration, and possibly regret.
The good thing about learning from experience, though, is that we’re not confined to learning from just our own. We can also learn from the experience of others. And this is an extraordinarily helpful thing to do.
Almost everything we face in life others have also experienced. And if we’re willing to learn from them, we can acquire the wisdom that they gained in walking through similar situations. But unlike relying only on our own experience, we can learn the lessons on the front end — the time we could use them most.