The Lessons We Earn are the Most Valuable
The Lessons We Earn are the Most Valuable
Our Path Beyond the Pain Lies Within the Lesson it Delivered
If you type lesson earned into a document or a text, the same thing happens every time—autocorrect insists you meant to type lesson learned. That’s because autocorrect doesn’t recognize the two phrases have very different meanings.
The reality is that we learn many lessons that support us in navigating our life’s journeys. And the most valuable ones are the ones we earn.
So what exactly is an earned lesson?
It is a lesson you gained from a moment that tested you in a way you had not been tested before. A moment when you were stretched to your limits, when you felt lost and alone—a day that redefined your life as before it happened and after it happened.
Those pivotal moments reveal our earned lessons, though they often do not surrender those lessons easily. It requires intentional work. Deep, difficult, confronting, often painful work. Sometimes for years, or even decades. And having the courage to confront your pivotal moments is the only way to discover the lesson they delivered.
I believe the lessons we earn in our pivotal moments equip us to deliver the impact we were put on the planet to deliver. Since I decided to own that belief I have been amazed at how often people cross my path at just the right moment to receive the lessons earned from life’s my pivotal moments. It happens far too frequently for it to be accidental.
The challenge each of us faces is whether we will be ready when such moments arise. Will we be able to speak clarity into someone else’s confusion? Will we know which of our earned lessons will help the person standing in front of us? Will we know the question we ask them in the moment open their eyes to a different way of seeing their situation?
My answer to all three of those question is an absolute yes…
If you make the choice to be ready. If you decide to do the work. If you examine the pivotal moments in your life with an eye on discerning what they taught you. Because once you identify the lessons earned from your life’s journey you will be compelled to share them for a lot of reason and the opportunities for you to do some will appear in places you never expected.
That is the value (and I believe purpose) of the experiences we had that created our before it happened and after it happened frame of reference. They occurred to equip us to serve people who are in many ways our younger selves. We end up teaching the insight we most wish we had when we encountered that pivotal moment in our lives so we can help others avoid the pain we experienced.
Are you up for the challenge? Are you ready to do the difficult work of unlocking the lessons you have earned from your life’s journey? Are you compelled to help others by sharing the insight you now have that would have served you in your most challenging moments?
The First Step…
I invite you to think about this idea of lessons earned. To look at your life’s journey, identify your pivotal moments, and ask yourself what you wish you knew in that moment that would have made it less difficult. Armed with that information, ask yourself who you now that needs to know that lesson, and think about how you will share it with them.