The Secrets of Education

There are a few, well known, but often forgotten secrets in life about education, about the way we think and how we make decisions that affect our lives.  They connect all we do.

There is good common sense evidence that we forget these secrets because we are always doing stupid things, aren’t we?  Sometimes the consequences of our decisions just take a little longer to affect us.  Often, I can’t wait until tomorrow to figure out how many stupid things I did today.

Change your mind. Change your life.

That is what education is about—and the first secret.  It is about the pursuit of truth and wisdom, not just knowledge.

The trouble is we do not learn truth or wisdom (wisdom changes focus) in any school.  In school, we get courses and experiences that let us think about life differently.  We take a lot of courses because Repetition Creates Persuasion, even about things we think or say “we’ll never use.”

Repetitive tasks take a lot of w-o-r-k, and that is because the only place s-u-c-c-e-s-s comes before work is in the dictionary.  The second secret of education is, then, never be afraid of your demons (whether you can or cannot do something); be afraid of being stupid. 

 Change your mind. Change your life.

The third secret is that only overcomers are successful.  When we plan this, or say we have that goal, the only thing we get for sure is an enemy—something in the way.  The secret is enemies are doors to the next season.  Change your mind.  Change your life.

Let’s go back to demons.  If we feel we have a small life, we will have small a small life no matter if we have an education equivalent to 10 PhDs and earn a million dollars per month.  Are the secrets starting to make sense?  We do not go to school for an education; we go because to change our life we must first change our mind.

The most important secret—and the hardest one to remember—is we cannot change our heart with books or education.  (Some say the greatest distance between any two points in our universe is between our mind and our heart).

So we have to be in a space, there has to be the environment, where we can feel good so we begin to act differently.  Change your mind.  Change your life.

We do not fit in everywhere.  We don’t/won’t like every place we are in.  We can even be the right person in the wrong environment.  But when we are where we are supposed to be, we will have no equals.

Remember this last secret especially when choosing schools or jobs or partners or anything—it is not the most pay, best scholarship, the most prestigious title or organization or office size, or best looking or richest partner.  It’s the space that makes us feel the best to act differently.