Kevisino Sale
As the pages of life turns, the journey through the years brings not only inevitable passage of time but also a wealth of wisdom that accompanies in it.
In this era, individual armed with academic knowledge often perceive themselves as having reached the pinnacle of wisdom. Knowledge and learning unfold with the ticking of the years. As individual age, they encounter a myriad of experiences -triumphs, failure, joy and sorrow, these encounters serve as a classroom where lessons are learned. The ebbs and flows, the ups and down, the twist and turn makes life a roller coaster ride. This intricacy makes a person understand the essence of life. For instance, Albert Einstein once said “wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”
While everyone aspires to achieve success, we often disregard valuable advice from elders and parents. This raises the questions-Could failure result from ignoring someone’s advice? Could a decision to forgo an opportunity be a factor in one’s downfall? could Self-seeking and rejecting the truth could be a reason for a setback? Every person is entrenched in one’s own perception, causing a tendency to avoid the advice of others. While it is beneficial to trust in one’s own knowledge, personal growth necessitates a persistent pursuit of new insights. During a career guidance program I attended, the speaker emphasized the importance of not being ashamed on seeking advice from seniors and elders. And that one should avoid assuming that seeking advice from others will either inflate their ego or undermine one’s self-esteem.
My father always said that regardless of a person’s significance, their advice is shaped by their own experience. Over time, I’ve come to realize the truth in his words. Be it an ordinary person or a successful person, they experience, learn and grow which ultimately mold them into the person they are today. Time is the best teacher, and so is the experience of a person.
To learn and grow one should give solicitous effort to retain the learning from someone’s experience. Listening, often underestimated but profoundly powerful, is the gateway to a wealth of knowledge, insights, and personal growth. It is said that when people give you advice, they are just talking to themselves in the past. Listening and retaining could be a shortcut to reach one’s ultimate goal.
Maltbie Davenport Babcock quoted “Opportunities do not come with their value stamped upon them. Everyone must be challenged. A day dawn, quite like other days; in it, a single hour comes, quite like other hours; but in that day and in that hour the chance of a lifetime faces us.” With age comes a keen sense of recognizing opportunities. To understand their potential and having the courage to seize them paves way for an individual to step into a realm of learning. A negative impact from the opportunities seized makes a person stoop temporarily however with the passage of time a person can learn to slither on their own feet.
It is time which help a person grow, it is opportunity which enhance a person to experience the unknown, it is encounters which nudge a person to another level of maturity and it is the wisdom gained all along the way to keep striving and never stop seeking. The threads of advice, opportunities, learning and retaining weave together to form the unique pattern of wisdom that comes with age. Thus, embracing these elements will help a person navigate the complexities of life.
The writer is Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration SJC (A), Jakhama
