Lessons?

Sleep was elusive. But daybreak was still some way off. And counting sheep has never worked for me. So, I let my mind wander. And as it flitted from thing to thing, I found myself wondering “have I learnt anything this year.” And then, I drifted off into Somnus’ embrace once more.

In the morning, I found myself returning to the question: “What have I learnt this year.” My instinctive response was “not much.” But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I had learnt — relearnt rather — a few things this year. Most of these are rather mundane, the sort of mental and physical housekeeping that fills our lives. Two ideas stand out though because they were reinforced this year. There’s nothing original about them, but they are my top lessons of the year.

Know where you are: It’s important to know where we are. And it’s desirable to know where we’d like to be. And I don’t mean this in a cartographic or geographical sense alone. This is not to say we should keep evaluating ourselves or our lives every moment. But it is useful to take stock once in a while. And if we find that where we are is where we’d like to be, I guess that would be as close to heaven as we can get on earth.

Change doesn’t have to be sweeping: Change may be the only constant in life. And occasionally, drastic change may be required. Much of the time though, the aggregation of marginal gains can be just as revolutionary. Small continuous improvements or changes can achieve much — often unnoticed — without the trauma and uncertainty that typically accompany a forced, sweeping move. The key is to keep responding to our environment, making the tweaks required to make things better.

Finally, learning is not a destination but a process, a journey. As is relearning.