We’re always being told that we should learn from others. Find a mentor. Emulate a successful person in your field. Follow in the footsteps of greatness. Learn from someone else’s mistakes so you don’t make your own.
Unfortunately, those lessons never really line up with our situation, do they?
There’s no book with our problem outlined for us in exactly the same way. There’s no road map that perfectly overlays our path. The issues we face are never identical to the ones we read about.
With all this knowledge and experience, strewn out over the ages, why is this so hard? Can’t someone, somewhere just tell us what we’re supposed to do?
Our problems are unique because we’re unique. While we may be able to get some guidance from all those guides, teachers, and gurus, we’re always left with the ultimate responsibility of making our own decisions.
We have to make the final call.
Even though we alone are the final arbiter of our own lives, it can be reassuring to have someone else’s experiences to help inform our decisions.
Even if they’re not exactly the same as ours.
People say there are two kinds of learning: experience, which is gained from your own mistakes, and wisdom, which is learned from the mistakes of others.
John C. Maxwell
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