How Are You Choosing to Learn Your Lessons? (Read Time: 3 min.)

How long does it take you to learn a life lesson?

I'd love to be able to say that I learn my spiritual lessons the first time around every time... but I don't.  There are some lessons I get after two experiences, some after three, and some take five hundred and ninety-three.  Needless to say, when you go through an experience only to come out saying, "Didn't I go through that the last time (different day, different person, somewhat different circumstances but the same outcome)?", there's a moment where you have to stop yourself and go:

The ONLY common denominator in ALL of these experiences is ME!

There's the light bulb moment, the epiphany, the raison d'etre... and yet most people walk buy it and go do the same thing again.

Are you ready to stop the non-sense?

Here's the thing: each of us get to choose how we learn our lessons. 

Some of us, whether we care to admit it or not, like learning the hard way.  We like all of that rebellion, chaos, drama, tears, gnashing of teeth and throwing of pity parties.  We like having other people say "I told you so."  We like not believing people when they show us who they are.  In some way, if we keep not learning what life has come to teach us, there's something in it for us, a payoff we may not be ready to acknowledge.  But, nonetheless, what you do persistently serves you.

On the other hand, if you're like me and you get out of a life experience only to realize that you've repeated yet another lesson, you don't want to keep beating the same drum.  In fact, you start to become bound and determined to "figure" this thing out.  That's equally disempowering because life isn't about figuring it out.  It's not about getting it right.  It's about becoming who you're meant to be by making empowered choices every opportunity you get.

And that's the bottom line of this post.  Choosing to learn your lessons early isn't about being smarter, wiser, or more intuitive.  It's about being willing to live your life according to a higher standard and committing to that standard to the point where you don't bend those boundaries when similar (but different) experiences arise. 

The reason people learn things the hard way isn't because they don't know better; it's oftentimes because they don't choose better.

So here's the question:

What are you choosing?