Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. – Auguste Rodin

There is always a price to pay for knowledge or wisdom. Sometimes you have to try and then fail to learn a lesson. That’s something to think about.

What does that mean?
This quote is near and dear to my heart. I’ve heard it said many different ways, and said it as many more. This quote is about learning from your actions, both what went well, as well as what did not go well.

In short, if you learn something, if gain wisdom from the event, then it was not a waste of time nor was it a waste of effort. Whether you get the idea on the first time, or it takes you a little longer to catch on, so long as you learn, it wasn’t a waste.

Every lesson in life comes with a price. Sometimes it is the time you invest. Sometimes it is the effort you invest. Other times it is the emotion and passion you invest. You put forth your best effort, and then see what comes of it. The fool will learn nothing, and the wise will learn something that helps them in their next effort. Which are you?

Why is learning important?  
Now that’s a silly question, isn’t it? You don’t plan to continue to do something that doesn’t work over and over again, do you? The only way to stop that kind of silly behavior is to learn from your experience, right? Then all you have to do is come up with a slightly better plan and get busy.

Try again, and learn from that experience as well. This learning, however, can sometimes be based on misinterpretations. Why did something not work? If you don’t answer that question correctly, you are going to have trouble in the future, right?

Many people learn the wrong lesson from their experiences. Some become bitter and angry at the world, because they have wrongly attributed their failure to an external source, such as the world (or a specific sub-group of people) being against them.

Learning is based on observation and analysis of what happened. Sometimes it helps to have others give their input, for sometimes you can’t see what started a chain of events. Being honest in your analysis is absolutely crucial to coming to the correct conclusion.

Where can I apply this in my life?
How do you determine the best way to get from where you are to where you are going? Have you tried driving one route and found it to be very slow and congested at that hour? Was that time wasted, or did you learn something from your experience?

Have you ever tried to cook or bake and find out that it isn’t always as easy as the recipe seems to be? I have seen recipes followed exactly to the letter, and result in a completely unusable mess. Adjustments for different kinds of margarine, different types of flour, and even egg size can be critical.

For a while, my wife was frustrated with our bread maker machine. The yeast wasn’t responding correctly. That was what she learned from the first loaf like thing from the machine. She tried several different things, and she learned from each. Eventually, she found the proper water temperature for the yeast, and we had fresh home-baked bread.

How many events in your life you considered absolute wastes of time, of effort, of money, or of emotion? Yet in each case you have learned something, even if it was an expensive lesson, right? Take a moment and try to redefine each of the experiences formerly known as a waste of time, and make them known as expensive learning events.

Yeah, it’s kind of goofy, but words have meanings, and the story you tell yourself has an impact every time you tell it to yourself or others. I believe it will be better if that experience is remembered as a learning experience, not as a waste of time, effort, money or emotion.

Nothing is wasted if you can learn from the experience. It is even better if you can put that experience to work in formulating a plan for next time, so that things will be a little more pleasant, right?

From: Twitter, @Zen_Moments
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/augusterod105026.html
Photo by AndrewHorne

Happy birthday to Auguste Rodin, famous sculptor, born 12 November, 1840.