Time to Reflect...and Learn!

As the year 2012 knocks at the door, I want to pretend I’m not home so it will go away. I want to freeze time. There’s still so much to accomplish in 2011; and with only five days left, I’m feeling the pressure. However, the work that I still need to do is all about learning.

Of course, learning takes place every day of our lives if we let those lessons seep into our conscience. My learning has been especially rich and extensive in 2011. And, there’s still SO much more learning that can be compacted into the next five days, which would leave me ready to start January one fresh and renewed.

I know I contradict myself – stating that every day is about learning, but also stating that I want to squeeze all my current lessons into the next five days so I can begin to LIVE those lessons on January one. This is one of my lessons, I suppose. How to accept that the growth and learning is a constant in our lives, not an end point?

When you learned something in school, you had an end point to that lesson – usually reflected in a test of some sort. Did you absorb the information and turn it into a real lesson? Or, did you just pass the exam only to forget it weeks or years later? School didn’t do a very good job of teaching that learning was a cumulative process. Or maybe I just didn’t pass that part of the lesson?

There’s no end point to learning. One can stop and take stock of all previous learning (and one SHOULD do this regularly), but one must also keep those lessons ever present in the mind so that exponential growth can occur. The best lessons build upon one another; old becoming new again, new coming from years of old lessons that have finally gelled. Real lessons are ALWAYS built on cumulative experiences and information.

Maybe life and learning is like a big ball of twine. Every moment of life that we experience moves us further along the strand, while it wraps itself around us like a cocoon. The challenge is in not letting the layers of twine paralyze us, but instead seeing that they can hold us to the lessons we’re meant to learn.  The cocoon of twine will trap even the strongest of us if we let it feel like a restraint instead of a lesson (or lessons) to be learned. How easy it has been for me to WANT to free myself from the restraints before the lessons have been learned, but that’s only because my perception has been one of restraint, instead of seeing it as a jacket for growth. The layers of twine are really our life lessons that MUST be acknowledged if we hope to become all that we are meant to be.

Having taken this time to reflect on the amazing learning that has taken place in 2011, I think I really am ready for 2012 to come through that door after all, because I sense it will be one of my greatest years of growth and learning yet! I’m eager to learn all the lessons the year will bring, but even MORE excited to apply them to my everyday living so I can be the best ME –-- the ME I’m really meant to be!