Can you learn from anyone?

Hiya,

I did a tweet the other day:

"Thought for today: Imagine everyone on earth is a guardian sent to help you learn something and you're the only one really here! Interesting?"

And it got me thinking, whether you believe in guardian Angels or are an atheist or even if your jury is well and truly still out...if you just consider this as a thought experiment would it change things?

Of course we've all been influenced by and learned from our parents, our siblings, friends, neighbours, aunts and uncles etc. in some good ways and in some not so good ways - I'm sure we all remember saying something like:
"When I grow up I'm not gonna do that to my kids." - for instance.

But what about all the other people in our lives, the transient work acquaintances, the bus driver, the stranger at the coffee shop etc. Not to mention the guy who cut in on you whilst driving to work, or the kid that bullied you at school.

If for a moment you HAD to think of something you learnt from any of these people, in any of the circumstances you found yourself in with them, could you? Is it possible even NOT to learn something, I mean if you get bullied at school you learn to stay out of the way of those people, or you learn to read their body language or you learn to be funny so they don't pick on you.

I think, as we grow up we lose the ability to learn from these exchanges. yeah, the positive ones are OK - even then most people won't incorporate what they've learned into any type of positive self improvement, but the negative experiences are usually relegated to the basement filed under 'chalk up to experience'.

So my own personal challenge is to TRY and learn something from every experience good or bad - try to actually be aware that I'm searching for the lesson. Maybe I'll learn something interesting just in the looking.

If you liked this post please browse the blog as there are many other thought provoking posts, pictures and videos here.

for now

Be Inspired

Stu

If you like this you'll probably like my other blog:
http://thechangeyourlifeblog.wordpress.com