To be a lifelong learner we must give up seeking wisdom from fictitious situations created to support famous phrases. In reality we all end up being wise, some before others after how we face life, we can all walk the path, he said, but we should not tire of exploring, because when we return to the same point, we will look at reality in a different way, we will have changed and we will be able to see things with different eyes, that is why we must provoke a walk to be transformed through learning H. Hendircks said that "teaching is causing and learning is changing". It is about making life easier for those who want to climb that mountain more than a recipe book. So from the path of an excited learner I would like to share five principles that can help in this process.
1.-Be thirsty
Antoine De Saint-Exupéry said that "If you want to build a ship, do not start by looking for wood, cutting boards or distributing work, but first you must evoke in men the longing for the free and wide sea", our thirst comes from our hunger never from our abundance, there are two sources that produce thirst:
Our vocation.- The first thing we should banish when we want to develop our vocation is the desire to build it on the basis of external parameters. The life we want to live is not necessarily the life that lives in us. Vocation comes from the Latin word voz; Developing a vocation is not a goal to pursue, but rather a call to listen to, which is often extinguished by standards that we aspire to reach in the desire to be like the rest. This changes the questions we ask ourselves and what we should ask; We must stop asking ourselves "What should I do with my life?" for "Who am I?" This question, as Douglas Steere says, will lead us to another: "Who am I for?" Finding a vocation is not a goal to fulfill but a gift to receive. Discovering this gift will take us to the place where, according to Frederick Buechner,Our greatest joy meets the greatest need in the world. Our Creator is more interested than us in discovering our vocation; in fact, he already gave us what we need to run after her. When motivated by love, we express our vocation in others, we will be making known their work in the world through us. That is why Saint Irenaeus says that the glory of God is that man is fully alive, and when we feel that we are fully alive, God shows his Glory in us.That is why Saint Irenaeus says that the glory of God is that man is fully alive, and when we feel that we are fully alive, God shows his Glory in us.That is why Saint Irenaeus says that the glory of God is that man is fully alive, and when we feel that we are fully alive, God shows his Glory in us.
Our pain.- our pain makes us aware, shows us our vulnerability and gives us the opportunity to heal others through our wounds, pain is one of the greatest motivators for change. We always say that we change by decision, but many times we do it by evasion, pain can be a great teacher to change in the right direction if we are willing to examine and attack the causes.
Being thirsty combines the desire to change either because we have an inner call or because we cannot tolerate as we are, remember that you let yourself be dominated by what you tolerate. An apprentice is always thirsty but is never ungrateful for what he has.
2.- Be teachable.-
We all want to be teachable, we all say we want to learn, but as long as we have a wrong concept of humility we will feel that we are in danger when we learn, whoever learns out of fear can only be trained, rarely trained and almost never transformed. True humility will never be modesty, shame, or poverty. Humility is expressed through generosity. Being humble when full of amazement at the value of the other we celebrate life and decide to teach what we have at hand and also be humble when we open what we have to receive knowing that life is so short that it is a bad idea to stop learning alone to impress.
It is also teachable when you learn to be curious, when you see life not as a problem to solve but as a wonder to discover, who sees the other as a competitor will never be able to learn what the other is as a person, they will have knowledge but only to learn to better dissect a frog, never to experience the joy of jumping in the puddle. Curiosity must go beyond knowing, we must dare to feel.
Only then can we have an enveloping knowledge, give up our own scripts thanks to humility and embrace knowing the other with curiosity, then comes the gratitude that seals the relationship.
3.- Enjoy the journey
An effective servant finds it contradictory that a ministry or work related to life, takes life from the one who exercises it. It is absurd that a personal mission that bets on life, ends up embittering the existence of its protagonist is like death without resurrection, sowing without harvest.
If you feel that the service is exhausting you instead of transforming you into a better person, then a red light is on indicating that you should rest. A rest is a gift that allows us to affirm and savor our dreams, to return with a renewed vision of things and with more desire to serve.
Although we have had to sacrifice a lot more than once to achieve a greater goal, we always keep in mind that a worthy cause does not take life. There may be tiredness, exhaustion, frustration, pain and even outrage, but this cause will always show that it is worthwhile and that it rewards far beyond expectations, it will always be a source of life, of joy that goes beyond passing feelings. Howard Thurman, a thinker who greatly influenced Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “Don't wonder what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you feel alive, and then do it. Because what the world needs is more people who feel alive ”,
Let's learn to enjoy the presence of God or to be part of a much bigger plan than our own life, let's have fun and enjoy the good and daily things, let's laugh at ourselves. It is true that the outstanding servants have done things that the others -even themselves- did not want to do because they were tedious or heavy, but they did not stop seeing the end of the road, they greeted him and enjoyed what was to come; That takes them to another level of understanding the task.
Ask any man or woman in love why he can wait for his partner to whistle for hours. Many times, the lack of joy in our lives is the open door to fall into the temptation of self-destruction; in a moment of weakness we choose a little short-term pleasure and so we can destroy what we have been building with so much effort.
4.- See things from the correct perspective
With the forgiveness of psychologists, I am going to simplistically summarize the central ideas of three great Austrian thinkers who founded two schools of psychology when asked what is it that the human being seeks? Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, said: man seeks pleasure, Adler the father of individualism said: man seeks power, Viktor Frankle, the father of Logotherapy said: man seeks to transcend and they all lead us on their own paths.
We always end up finding what we are looking for, we always end up looking like the gods we worship, as the Talmud says, we do not see things as they are, but as we are. So the big question is: From what paradigm do we see things? What is the perspective from which a lifelong learner disciple should view? The answer is super important, because we can spend our lives "trying", finding hard-working ways of doing nothing, or believing ourselves a lie in order not to face our failures. Living by following the wrong map, we can even create feelings and responses generated from our wrong beliefs.
What is the correct paradigm? We will not play God, but we have useful advice: "look at the fruits." We delude ourselves with dissertations, lucid explanations, or passionate defenses; It is the fruits seen in a decanted way in the light of time, behind the stage lights and beyond the short-term results, that will tell us who we really are. Look at the fruits you have achieved in the people you love. An honest look frees us from wasting our life, even if it means a continuous effort to be better. It will be an effort that will drive passion for what we can achieve and not blame for what we have not been. I believe that a lifelong learner should have a transcendent, clear, consistent, and principle-based paradigm.
5.- Determine to grow according to your own design
The word disciple has the same origin as the word discipline. Those who started relevant movements, says Parker J Palmer, started with a decision: Never live divided again. That is, not to act externally in a way that contradicts the truth that they feel and believe internally. So the will has a lot to do with what our soul wants. Unfortunately, as Palmer would say, "It can take a long time to be the person you have always been." We may be burned wanting to give something we don't have, making promises we can't keep just because we want to play the role of another. We can also mystify those who followed their heart's desires and accomplished great things, saying that "this is only for the elect," only to justify our apathy to reveal our hearts to the world.Wanting to live the values of another is not a virtue; It can be an exercise in contempt for who we really are. There is nothing more consistent than a seed; in it is the future history of a forest if we know how to wait, cultivate and make it flourish. When we honor our own design, accept our limitations, discover our strengths, and turn our vocation to others, we are unlocking our potential. But when we deny our potential or embezzle our resources by channeling our vocation in ourselves or for something that self-destructs us, we harm ourselves and betray our original design.in it is the future history of a forest if we know how to wait, cultivate and make it flourish. When we honor our own design, accept our limitations, discover our strengths, and turn our vocation to others, we are unlocking our potential. But when we deny our potential or embezzle our resources by channeling our vocation into ourselves or for something that self-destructs us, we harm ourselves and betray our original design.in it is the future history of a forest if we know how to wait, cultivate and make it flourish. When we honor our own design, accept our limitations, discover our strengths, and turn our vocation to others, we are unlocking our potential. But when we deny our potential or embezzle our resources by channeling our vocation into ourselves or for something that self-destructs us, we harm ourselves and betray our original design.We harm ourselves and betray our original design.We harm ourselves and betray our original design.
José Luis Ochoa - November 2017
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I have tried to cite authors who synthesize what I want to transmit, or who are excellent references if you feel provoked to know more just google them:), if there is a particular interest I can gladly recommend books by each of these authors.
This part I took from my book “Serve, the best way to influence.
