Living Life After Learning from Life

Did you know we live two lives on this side of heaven? In his book, The Natural, Bernard Malamud clarifies these two lives. The first is the life we learn from. The second life is the life we live after that.

We learn from our mistakes when we investigate why we made those mistakes and then change our behavior. That leads to a second life without making the same mistakes again, which is a much better life. We know we will make other mistakes, but at least we are not suffering from making our prior mistakes again. Brittany Burgunder captures this concept perfectly. She says, "I don't have the perfect roadmap drawn out, but I do know which roads I'll never drive down again."

Significant losses should be great lessons. Unfortunately, many, if not most, keep living the first life repeatedly like a skipping record, never getting to the second life. The second life is what everyone longs for but seldom arrives at. History shows that humans and countries never learn from history. They say, "Well, they just didn't do it right." We'll do it right." The tragedy about history, personally and globally, is that while we may know the lesson, we never learn it.

I don’t know about you, but I want that second life, and I assume most of you would also. Many people have learned from their mistakes, change, and get better. Like an elevator, they step in, step up to a higher floor, and step out to an abundant life that limits abundant strife. Every great mistake comes with an opportunity to learn, assuming we are alive.

Let me illustrate. Years ago, I did quite a bit of private flying. Bob Loeb and I, my high school friend for life, bought a Piper Comanche. It was a great plane and a great experience. I still have my private pilot license, although I would need to get it updated.

As a pilot, I read Flying magazine without compromise. The first column I read in the Flying magazine was always "I Learned About Flying from That." The article is written by pilots who got themselves into big trouble from mistakes they made while flying and lived to tell about their mistakes - by the hair of their chinny-chin-chin. They learned from the experience. I figure it's better to be a learner than an ex-learner.

They had the first life of their life they learned from. Now, after that mistake, they would never make that mistake again. Now, they moved to the second life they would live after that. They got an “Aha!” about flying! I was happy to glean from their experience. Their experiences saved me from making the same mistakes they did.

We can glean from what happens when an aviation accident happens. The first thing the FAA does is investigate the crash. When calamity happens in your life, take the time to explore why the mistake or calamity occurred, or you will likely repeat the mistake. What does the FAA investigate? They investigate 'why' the accident happened. After the investigation, they correct, inform, train, and communicate the problem causing the problem so others won't do the same. 

Most (including me) don’t take the time or initiative to investigate the 'why the what' happened to us. Here's a lesson. When calamity happens, take the time to explore why. If you learn and apply the lesson, your outcome will likely differ drastically.

Did you know the Bible has something to say about this? "Clean the slate, God, so I can start the day fresh. Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work." Psalm 19:13.

God will clean our slate if we get past presumptions or bad decisions. God doesn't say we are stupid. God says it's stupid not to learn from our mistakes or miscues.

Let's take the elevator upward. Step in, step up, and step into your second life. Your second life is your life after learning from your first life.