The Art of Humbling Yourself to Learn What is Critical

Morning!

  As you’ve probably noticed if you’ve been reading my blog for more than 3 minutes, one of my main themes is "Life…it’s character-building!" 

Now, these words aren’t a mere tagline – it’s truly how I choose to experience my existence. 

I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason…you NEVER know when one teeny bit of new knowledge gained can be the difference between success and failure in the future.  And not only that…as a parent, I can pass on everything I’ve learned, painful though the data acquisition might have been, to my kids as well.  Now THAT is worth agony beyond even seeing your last coffee pot crack as you discovered your children tried putting it in the ‘spin’ cycle because "Mom, it made sense at the time!".  🙂

The challenge into which you run with the speed of a runaway freight-train zooming down the mountainside, of course, is dealing with the reality when it’s 180 degrees opposite of what you’ve held to your heart!

I recently had the inexplicable joy of enduring this over the past week.  For the first time in my life, I, Barbara Ling, had to acknowledge to myself that I could be pushed physically to the point of my muscles decreeing:

"Hey!  Idjut!  You’ve reached your limit and we’re not going to hold you up straight anymore without trembling more than a brick wall sans concrete!"

Sure, while I’ve been in a state of utter exhaustion before, I’ve never dealt with ‘going weak in the knees’.  And I wasn’t even standing; I was kneeling upright and still couldn’t catch my breath.  I was reminded of my time back in college juijitsu when, prior to losing my nerve, I could go for hours on end in any workouts/acupressure/healing/etc.

That time – she be loooong gone.

And my true reality zeroed in like so:

"Ahem, Barbara?  You’re NOT as good as you thought you were.  You need to be open to some learning REAL quick."

Of course, human bean that I am, I decided to ignore this fact of life.  🙂  True, I did acknowledge it to my friends (Ling Rule of Life #325 – when you’ve been humbled, honor the folks who provided the learning experience), and also true, I did accept logically the fact that my current physical state is ‘way different than that when I was in college.

But!  That didn’t mean I accepted it emotionally NOR in my heart.

You see, ever since I’ve taken control of my physical being (read: lost 50+ pounds and got into much better shape), I’ve cherished this apparently insane belief that I can handle any physical challenge life lobs at me with style and grace and brilliance.  And it’s coming up to a year since I was diagnosed with a huge doorknob on my femur…and 7 months past the surgery that repaired the problem.

In other words, reality drop-kicked my entire view of my personal abilities.

If that’s not character-building, I don’t know what is!  🙂

So!  Over the weekend, I asked myself, Self, what am I supposed to take away from this?  Give up my activities?  Hell no!  Moderate my activities?  Hell no part II!

*Re-evaluate the reality of my parameters*…and modify my activities to make the most of them?

Bingo!

In other words, I had to be open to re-learn that of which I’m truly capable…and lose the arrogance, lose the ego, and accept the fact that I’m still a student in this thing called *life*.

Did you catch those two criteria?

• Lose the arrogance.
• Lose the ego.

These actions were more difficult for me to withstand than balancing on one foot while playing the Hayden Trumpet Concerto on a pineapple….it involved letting go of the cherished preconceived notions of myself that has kept me going now since 2006.

But you know something?

Like everything else in life, the above problem truly did have a gift in its hands for me.  And that gift is the following:

"Learning sneaks up on you when you least expect it – always be open to it no matter from where it appears."

This is something worth gold to teach me kids!  So I fired up my Photoshop skills yesterday to design the poster you see for this article; it currently is hanging on our home front door.  Because my totem animal is a wolf, I wanted to highlight that being in the poster…and because my kids are into anime more than politicans are into promises, I wanted to delve into the realm of animated movies as well.

The images are from Balto II, Wolf Quest.  This movie always spoke to my heart; it’s a story of Balto’s daughter who was driven to search for who she really was.  She appears in the lower center as she learns from a field mouse, Muru:

…and is watched over by The White Wolf…who is Balto’s mother, Aniu.

Now, think about this.  A ferocious wolf….learning from a field mouse…who turns out to be her spirit-guide.  What a perfect image to capture:

"Learning comes when you least expect it – always be open to it no matter from where it comes."

 

 

And hence a poster was born.  (okay, the post "107+ ways to make money with Photoshop" was also born, but hey, that’s another story entirely.  🙂  ).

So!  Let me now bring this post back to the most important person around…you!

• Are you open to learning?
• Are you open to learning when you think you know it all?
• Do you instantly reject new, no, different ideas…simply because of your arrogance or self-confidence or ego or personal delusions?

If so, you’re really short-changing yourself to an insane degree!  Remember:

Nobody (except me mom!) knows everything, but everyone knows at least something.  Put all of those somethings together…and you’ll end up with a power worth reckoning!

See?

You never really know when a key critical bit of data or knowledge you glean from the most unlikely of sources…will one day stand between success and failure for you. 

And that kind of knowledge…is something not only you can take to the bank, but also pass on to your children as well. 

Can’t get more valuable than that.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

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#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners life living tips: Learning comes from the most unexpected places.

Intermediate and/or Advanced life living tips: It’s useless, however, unless you open yourself up to admitting you can benefit from it.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

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Oh, and if you’d like to examine the leadership and motivational qualities, enjoy: