Why Experience is The Best Teacher

 

We have all heard of the proverb “Once bitten twice shy”. This exemplifies how well we learn from our experience. Personal experience leave an indelible (making marks that cannot be remove) impression on our minds that are more lasting and invaluable.

Like a good teacher, her lessons are very thorough and we can only ignore it, to our own peril or risk. Experience could be good, like helping a person in need, or it could be bad like losing money on a risky investment.

However, what is important, is that we learn from them, so that we can avail the gain from our good experience, while at the same time be careful from those which are potentially harmful to us.

Ask a child not to play with a matchbox for it can harm him, will probably have no impact on him, but once he has scorched his hand by the matchstick , he will never in his lifetime forget this lesson.

Thus we learn very meticulously from personal experience, rather than adhering to advise of others, or by reading about them from books or periodicals. It is however a wise man who learns from the experiences of others, like his parents, teachers or those older to him.

He also profits from books that are a virtual treasure house of knowledge and experience of others, for in the words of Francis Bacon “some books are to be tasted, others swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested”.

It is indeed unfortunate to find people learning from bitter experiences in their practical life. Once experienced they are unlikely to repeat it in their lives.

We learn from everything we do, in fact life is one great journey of learning. We learn patience and forbearance when faced with adversity, courage in the face of danger and wisdom from our mistakes of omission.

It is however unfortunate, that some of us learn this lesson very late in our life, when it is too late. Thus we find many people ignoring the simple dictum or phrase of “health is wealth”, to later regret it when their lives becomes a wretch.

“Life is brief – a little hope, a little dream and then goodnight”. In this short span of life we should therefore, not only learn from our own experience but should also learn from the experience of others.

This would save us from many a pitfall, menace and the unnecessary labor that goes with it, which is akin to ‘inventing the wheel’.

Therefore, Experience is the best teacher and the worst experience teaches the best lessons. You should never regret in life. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.

                                                                    

Written by: Adarsh Rai

Edited by: Umme Amara Shaikh