Learning From Experience

By Destiny Keesling

I am thankful for people who are smarter, wiser, and more experienced than I am. Experience is an invaluable asset that can’t be bought or handed to you. We have to earn it on our own with initiative and perseverance. If you find yourself in a room full of people who are smarter than you, like I often do, I hope you are inspired rather than intimidated. I hope you see opportunities instead of threats. Experiencing situations first-hand can teach you things you didn’t even know you didn’t know. Sure, you can learn a lot of things by reading books and watching YouTube videos; but solving problems in real life makes them stick better in your brain. You build a database of issues that you have now seen before and drastically cut down on the time it takes to find a solution.

There is a balance to the way you carry your experience. It is important to still have some confidence in yourself, even when you have minimal experience. It’s okay to be new at something but you won’t make any progress if you are too afraid to try. And it is also important that you never get too experienced to learn something new. Some people may have decades of experience. They may know plenty of tips and tricks. But there is not one person in the whole world who knows everything.