Why Life Experiences Matter
When it comes to our Life Experiences, our past often foreshadows our future. I am bow legged. It’s not super obvious, but it’s there and I hate it. It seems that all my years of playing soccer gradually made a permanent dent in how I walk today. At the same time, all my years of soccer have led me to a place where I am coaching my daughter’s team and getting to enjoy the extra time watching her develop both on and off the field.
There is no denying our life experiences shape us; Sometimes positively, sometimes negatively and as is the case for myself with soccer - sometimes both. So, what do our life experiences have to say about whom we are today and where we might be headed?
Well let’s jump in and find out.
The most important thing we can do is take an inventory on where we have been.
Let’s start with the positive.
Starting from childhood and working up to where you are today, reflect on the people, circumstances, events or experiences that made a positive impact on you. Depending on how good your memory is (mine is terrible) you could probably list lots of examples, so try to focus on the experiences you often think back on, how they impacted you in the past and are still having a positive impact on you today.
Do the same reflecting over the negative experiences in your life.
For many of us this is a road we would rather not travel back down, yet it is vital to the process of becoming self-aware. The most successful individuals in life are also the most self-aware.
As you again think through the people, events, choices that have had a negative impact on your life at some point, you might have already experienced ways in which that adversity has been leveraged in a positive way. For now, though, just take note of things that did negatively impact you.
