New Year's Message -Part 4: Learn From the Best!

One of the things that really consume my life is this passion to learn. In our present world, learning has been made so much easier and at the same time so much complicated.

The biggest problem with the information age is an overdose of information. Google can give you hundreds if not millions of search results in a matter of seconds. In fact, if we are not careful enough, textbooks will become extinct.

I see in the future references being made to websites than to textbooks even in primary schools. That future is already with us.

As we enter 2014, one of the most important things we can do is to stop all the traffic. Stop all the flurry of activities. Before we can reach out to claim some more in 2014, we need to learn some things from 2013. (Please Tweet This)

Lets ask 2013 some questions

1. ·         What are our greatest regrets in 2013?
2. ·         What are our top 5 achievements in 2013?
3. ·         What are the greatest lessons we learnt in 2013?
4. ·         If we could go back in 2013 (OK, I know some people do not want to go back there), how better would we experience life?
5. ·         What are the major risks we took in 2013?

One thing is for sure: If we do not learn from our past, we are most certainly doomed to repeat our follies. And then what happens is that we find ourselves in this continuous loop of ‘comfort zones.’ Our 2014 becomes as faithfully the same as was 2013. In turn 2013 was more or less the same as 2012.

• ·         No extra person was impacted…no extra person was glad that we lived,
• ·         There was no increase in finances
• ·         There was no attempt to become better as a person...
• ·         Your relationship with God is the same old same old…full of ‘graphs’…and so on.

Becoming Better Each Year

Each year, we are meant to be bigger, better, grander, more involved, more spiritual and more impactful. You see, that is how God has structured life. From the seeds of today, we are to develop some roots tomorrow and have some fruit next week. That is progress. (Tweetthis please)

So we need to learn, and we need to learn from the very best. Do you know the greatest source of lessons in our lives? It is our own personal lives! Education obtained from our past is much more valuable than what 10 professors can teach in 10 years. (Tweet thisplease)

Why people do not Learn from themselves

The problem is that few people know how to get this self education. Another problem is that nobody sets examinations for this education and nobody gives us scores and grades. So what happens? Nobody takes heed. Many people think that what is important is what is examined, graded and certified. Nothing can be further from the truth. (Tweet this please)

The best way to learn from our past is to use serious probing questions like the ones posed above. Each of these questions must have answers. In those answers are our action points for 2014.

If we are faithful enough to implement changes in our lives from the answers to these questions, chances are that 2014 will be a much more valuable year in the recent past. You can tweet that!

Once again, Happy New Year (When do we stop saying Happy New Year by the way?)