School of life lessons is always in session!

What are some of the most important lessons that you’ve learned? Many people are going back to school now after the summer break. Hopefully, in the next nine months of school they will learn many important subjects. This got us thinking about the fact that there’s also the school of life lessons which is always in session. We are always learning new lessons just by living, making choices and having things happen to us. Sometimes challenges we go through and things that happen in life when we least expect it, can provide the most valuable lessons. School lessons are important and life lessons are equally as important. We looked at what people listed as some of the most valuable lessons they’ve learned in life.

Here are a few of the popular life lessons we came across. Live life true to yourself. It takes courage to live your life the way you want it to be according to your priorities and values. A similar life lesson is, Do what you love. This means you won’t be able to distinguish between your work and your play. Don’t let others crush your passion and keep you from pursuing your dreams.

Another popular life lesson is, Done is better than perfect. This is quite often the best option to keep from getting stuck in perfectionism. It’s easy to keep analyzing the best ways to do something and “tweaking” it to make it better, but getting it done is often more important.

Perhaps the most cited life lesson is, Live life so you have no regrets, which is definitely wise so you can look back with satisfaction. We wanted to know more about life lessons from other people.

We talked to Carrie and Dan Bowar, who built a home in Victoria in the last year. They moved there from Woodbury with their 3 daughters, ages 6, 8 and 10 years old. We asked Carrie and Dan what are some of life lessons they learned from their experiences of moving. Carrie and Dan offered “The biggest change was that we moved from the east side of town to the west side of town with 3 kids. It had been quite a while since we moved. The last time we moved it was before kids and it’s a totally different ballgame. It’s tough to build [a home]. We were trying to keep in mind their needs and their emotional struggle with the move, too, with uprooting them from the only house, friends and area that they’ve known. It’s dealing with your own stresses and transitions but then you are also kind of attentive to the kids, too, and trying to keep things as normal as you can.”

Dan added, ”[We were] trying to keep it exciting for them and to keep them looking forward to what they don’t understand and what they don’t know. Our youngest recently explained how she’s excited now that she has a lot more friends in the neighborhood and what that means to her, verses our old neighborhood, which is a wonderful place but just didn’t have the same number of kids that we have in this neighborhood. So that transition and helping them through it has probably been the biggest challenge – to make it a positive memory for them.”

We acknowledged that there were many challenges that Dan and Carrie overcame. We asked them how they met those challenges and were able to do it. Carrie said, “A lot of patience, I think.” Dan chimed in, “Day by day.” Carrie added, “Being understanding when you are stressed or challenged by something, by nature everyone tends to get more irritable and you can distance yourself. So, relationships can struggle a little bit but also grow stronger at the same time. Whenever you get through something together, it makes you stronger as a family and as a couple.”

Dan and Carrie had many life lessons. What are your life lessons?

Here’s a suggestion: Take time to reflect on your life. Write down some of the most memorable things that have happened, both the good things and the difficult things. Then write the lessons that you learned. Often you’ll see that some of the most valuable life lessons come from making it through the struggles. Also, write how the life lessons have benefitted you. You may want to share your “book of life lessons” with loved ones to have them learn about your life and to help them on their life journeys – because the school of life is always in session!

Chanhassen residents Doug and Lynn Nodland are Success Coaches and owners of The Balance Center. They can be contacted at WeCare@SharingLifesLessons.com

© Doug and Lynn Nodland 2018 Articles and videos may be shared in their entirety with attribution.