Universal Lessons

Life teaches all of us some lessons. But I believe there are certain things or lessons which are universal. Certain lessons are learnt by one and all. People from all backgrounds and fields learn certain universal lessons. Today we will take a look at those.

The first lesson is the value of time. Humans like to procrastinate. And therefore, every human must have wasted some time of his life. I believe everyone looks back and realizes that wasted time will never come back. Only those who are serious enough try not to further waste it, while the heedless cannot care any less. Perhaps, people who are the most inclined to productivity are the ones who regret the most and try to avoid it the most in the future.

Another lesson we learn is the importance of reading or seeking knowledge. This too is related to wasting time. We never know what piece of information will come in handy at which stage of our life. No one knows the future and thus never knows what exactly is required to be known. Thos who read a lot or seek knowledge from other sources can easily benefit from their knowledge whenever it is required.

Another lesson is the importance of being patient and persistent. Humans by nature want quick results. They look for shortcuts and quick bucks. But in reality, trees only gives their fruits after years of persistent growth. All us may have given up many projects in our lives because we may have been in a hurry to get the results or were too impatient to achieve the outcomes. We may realize years later that had we waited, we would have been benefitting now. Therefore, gradual growth is an important part of successful life.

Another lesson we learn is the importance of not craving into our animal desires. These desires include gluttony, sexual desires and excessive entertainment. All these are related to wasting our time, energy, health and wealth. Indulging in excessive eating tends to make us lazy and plays with our digestive system. We start to procrastinate as a result and cannot make efforts to make wealth or exercise. Similarly sexual desires can take us down the road of dangerous emotional roller coasters which may results in us losing our mental focus and energies. And it's obvious how much time we can waste in entertainment and still never get over it.

And the last lesson that I would like to mention is perhaps one that can only be truly realized by aged people. And that is the importance of physical activity. The importance of the body to be flexible. It may not necessarily be a lack of scheduled exercise, but a lack of general day to day movements. Being lazy all day long or asking others to do day-to-day tasks for you may make your body less flexible.

So, to summarize, no matter what are backgrounds are or what fields we come from, I believe all us learn the value of time, the importance of reading or learning, the importance of persistance, the importance to control our desires and the importance of physical flexibility. But what is important is how we react to these realizations and what we do next. Those who give up, thinking that time is gone, can not make any progress down the road. On the other hand, those who don't give up can make mends. This means that they can grow in the future. The good thing about the future is that it is a mystery to every one. So not knowing what will happen in the future allows us to try our best and then hope for the best in order that we may end up in a place better than where we currently stand. Perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from our past is not to repeat the same mistakes as well as learning to get over the regret that we may feel for our past mistakes.

Remember, this is not necessarily an exhaustive list. There may be other universal lessons, but I hope these help us mend some of our habits.