What really is Experience and its importance to Success?
It is in the human nature for us to seek success, happiness and love.
In this endeavour we live, work and play, constantly interacting with our fellow beings and our environment.
Every interaction, triggers within us, some physical, intellectual and emotional reaction. This we commonly term as experience.
If we merely register and do not learn, transform or evolve, from the interactions and the reactions, then we can only call them incidents, not experiences.
Our reactions represent the lowest level of human intelligence, whereas our responses indicate the level of our intelligence.
What then is the difference?
A reaction is immediate and originates from our animal instincts of fight or flight. Whereas a response comes from the measured and timely application of the mind with awareness.
This is why the first prayer of a seeker is to develop an awakened mind.
Materially speaking if we do not do anything, then there is nothing to be aware of. So the most experienced people are, people who have done something.
All individuals that achieve success, commit errors, even blunders. Success or failure occurs only when we do something. If we are not making mistakes, we are probably not making anything.
Fearful of failure, most of us dare not do anything. We often forget that, the path to success and happiness always passes through numerous disappointments, setbacks and failures.
It can easily take ten years of hard struggle, mistakes and failures to become an overnight success. It is only he who has known suffering that will know what happiness is, and only the one who has known hate will know the meaning of love.
Fearful and dumbed down by society and circumstances, we often fail to create or do something, different, new or interesting, and miss the possibility to change ourselves, our circumstances and our world in some impactful way.
When we do not learn anything from our encounters with life, can we really call that 'experience'?
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Reminds me of an eager young man who wanted to know the secret of a billionaire's success. The billionaire initially declined to meet him because he was a busy man who used very few words. However when the young man persisted, the billionaire consented, provided the interviewer would be brief
"Sir, What is the secret of your success?"
Two words, "Right decisions"
Sir, how did you learn to make the right decisions?
One word, "Experience"
Sir, How did you obtain this experience?
Two words, "Wrong decisions".
Experience is not the measuring of our lives in years existed, worked, or time spent at tasks. Merely existing without learning, transforming or evolving, means we have not really lived nor experienced.
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What can be done by individuals to become experienced and achieve success?
All primal, or animal action is instinctive, but all intelligent human action is always preceded by a thought process. Thoughts like plants have to be given the opportunity of time and space to flower.
Therefore as I have learnt it is of tremendous value to do two things.
First, to set aside time to be alone with oneself in silence for contemplation
Secondly, before retiring each night to briefly review without judgement nor taking any decisions the day's events. This is like rapidly watching a movie. The events get stored in our subconscious where also lie our true aspirations and desires.
We will soon discover that we are absorbing and becoming more aware, hence awakening to learning much more than before.
By and by we will also notice that we are not just existing but experiencing life. We are more easily spurred into action, with greater possibility of success and realising happiness.
Only when we awaken to what happens to us and do something about it, can we claim to have experienced.
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What can organisations to capture experiences and achieve success?
What can an individual do to to experience and realise happiness?
These questions my dear readers are the subjects for other articles.
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