We have been talking about The Habit of Continuous Learning and as I was mulling over how best to focus this final blog on this topic, my wife Gimalle suggested that continual learning also includes continual progress.

By this she meant the necessity of continually moving ourselves towards being better and better in all areas of our lives. The Habit of Continuous Learning also means opening up our own awareness to the constant feedback offered us by the universe and accepting this feedback for what it most often is – information – and then utilizing that information to constantly become more skilled at whatever it is we do with our lives.

Not too long ago an acquaintance was bemoaning the fact that she had received three speeding tickets over a five-month period and when she received a renewal notice of her auto insurance was astounded at just how much those transgressions had caused her premiums to increase.

As I listened to her complaining about the unfairness of her plight, it dawned on me that this was indeed a powerful learning moment for me as she was teaching me how easily we can become victims of our own unwillingness to embrace the lessons life hands us and apply them to our own improvement.

It seems to me that the lesson of one speeding ticket is to slow down. The lesson of the second is to continue this practice. The lesson of the third is to accept responsibility for having failed to learn the first two lessons.

Many years ago a wise friend of mine said, “One way or another we always pay for our own education.” Over the years I have personally experienced and seen the powerful truths behind this statement. I was reminded of it again while listening to this otherwise rational lady lamenting her fate while describing both the inequity of the traffic tickets and the unreasonableness of the insurance company.

I’ve come to believe that not a day passes when we are not handed powerful lessons that, if learned and applied, would enhance the quality of our lives. Unfortunately for many of us, we most often do not heed the lessons or we fail to notice them.

A famous quote reminds us that, “Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them” and I think that the extension of that quote suggests that those who fail to learn the lessons of the day are doomed to having to continue to pay for their education until the learning sticks.

The Habit of Continuous Learning is a gift of opportunity bestowed upon us all and like all other gifts, it comes as choice – we choose whether to learn and therefore improve our lives or to continually pay for our education by not learning.

I learned two powerful lessons today, the first was a reminder of the importance of The Habit of Continuous Learning and the second is that whenever I am in need of a good idea or sound advice, rather than taxing my own limited resources to go straight to the genius in the family, Gimalle.

Lesson learned!

Let’s make a habit of meeting like this.