Do Something With Your Experience

"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him." - Aldous Huxley

We all know people who have gone through experiences that should have made them stronger, more interesting, more confident, or more empathetic. Yet somehow they've passed through the experiences seemingly unphased. Learning nothing from what happened. We should see such people as cautionary examples of what happens when we fail to actively engage the world. Our experiences are not going to do anything for us unless we choose to do something with our experiences. 

Experience can be a hard teacher because you are given the test first, and the lesson afterward. Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes when you learn from bad judgement. Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.  Our lives are made up of experiences, it is important to make yours work for you.

We must try to see every experience as a chance to learn about ourselves and grow into better people. It's the everyday experiences we encounter along the journey to who we want to be, that will define who we are when we get there. 

We question ourselves a lot. What if we're wrong? What if I pick the wrong person to love, or the wrong job, the wrong place to live? We go back and forth in our mind often putting off making a decision to do something for a while.  We think "maybe things will be clearer tomorrow". But how often has tomorrow turned in to next week? And next week turned into eventually? And eventually turned into never? Do it now. Make a decision and take action. Not everything is going to always turn out the way you want it, planned it or expected it to. That's life. But you'll never know if you never try.

Remember that life happens for you, not to you. There are lessons to be learned in every experience if you take the time to see them. You must seek to truly understand who you are and why you are the way you are. For better or worse. Be honest with yourself if you desire change. Understand your strengths and your weaknesses, the decisions you made and the actions you took in the past. Take full responsibility for your past, but also realize that it is exactly that…the past. The past is over, it cannot be changed. What you can do now, however, is to make the necessary changes that are needed so that you can have a more successful and happier future.  It's up to you.

You can start now. Do something today. 

Make today great.

Curtis

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." - Theodore Roosevelt