Rising Above Our Circumstances

We often attribute our success or failure in life based on the circumstances with which we are working in. If we finished our to-do list at work we label it as an easier than normal day where our boss left us alone. When we finish a blog post early we may attribute it to not having as many fires to put out that day. However, when we take the time to look back we are able to see the black and white of our decisions and how they affected the outcome of our circumstances - it is easier to have 20/20 in hindsight than in the heat of the moment.

It is not the absence of problems that allows us to succeed, it is our decisions in the midst of those problems.

Everyone experiences things in life that they would rather not have happened. The question becomes, are we prepared to face those storms of life when they occur? Do we have the information we need to handle the problem and move on?

I heard a wise man once say, "Knowledge comes from learning from your mistakes, but learning from someone else's mistakes is wisdom." The price of that knowledge is time, and we can either invest the time utilized by others or reinvest our own time and learn the same principles they did. The key becomes, are we willing to be humble and seek out people who have gone before us? The value of that wisdom is incalculable - we not only receive the information we need to skirt bad circumstances or handle them better but we save a lot of time in the process. In the end, all of us want more time to spend with our families or friends and we pay ourselves many times over if we seek out wise advice beforehand.

I listened to a podcast once that talked about the wealth of the families in Florence Italy during the time of Columbus. The particular families mentioned were the merchants that had built generational businesses and passed their knowledge from one son or daughter to the next. It is estimated that in each one of those families (and there were many that had large merchant businesses at the time) was the equivalent wealth of 40 Bill Gates.

When I hear that story it reminds me of the power of passing wisdom from one person to the next in order to save them from the same mistakes you made. This is the power of listening to our elders. Those elders may be within our own family or we may find them outside our family. The point is, there is nothing new under the sun. The problems we face on a daily basis have been dealt with before - the principles of success do not change. There are many men and women living that would be greatly encouraged to share their wisdom with a listening ear. The thing is, are we willing to seek them out?

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