By Publisher Decision-Making: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
By Publisher
How important do you think the life experiences of others are to your decision-making?
Briti
sh actress, Donna Air, has a famous quote on life experiences. She said:
Life experiences can, at times, be quite humbling, but you learn from them. But I like the changes in my life and what kind of person they’ve made me into. I’m very open, not as judgmental as I was in my twenties, and a lot more compassionate.
One thing to get from the above quote is that life experiences can be ‘quite humbling’. Because the people around you have passed through different things in life, they are a rich resource when it comes to making decisions.
If only you would sit down to listen to other people’s varied experiences, then you would get ‘humbled’ by the wealth of knowledge they possess about the decisions you want to make.
Here are some reasons why you should lean on other people’s experiences when it comes to making decisions, especially the ones others have personally passed through:
1. HELPS TO AVOID PITFALLS
The truth is that whatever decision or stage you want to pass through, someone else has passed through that stage, and they can confidently share with you the slopes, rough edges and smooth parts of that road.
Relying on other people’s experiences helps you not to make the same mistake, repeat the same failures, have the same regrets, or shed the same tears when you could have simply consulted the counsel and experience of those who have been through it all.
2. SERVES AS A SEARCHLIGHT
People’s repertoire of both good and bad memories can be a very good resource when it comes to seeking the right direction or making the right decisions.
Through their experiences, your own decision-making process could take the correct form or shape it needs. Their experiences can serve as a searchlight for illuminating the path to our own decision, finding faults, circling, and striking out repetitions and past mistakes.
3. SERVES AS A GUIDE
Even if some people’s experiences would not fit exactly into yours, they could serve a great deal in enlightening your own decisions.
In other words, you get to make an informed decision. People’s experiences become blueprints after which you could fashion your own decision.
Just the way tourists or visitors in a country will need a tour guide or manual in order to get to the right and best places within their short stay in a town, city or country, the same way do we need to study other people’s life experiences.
The way you make decisions, see their consequences and learn from them, so do others. So, we can learn from each other’s experiences in order to improve the quality of our decision-making.
4. STARTING POINT
In very complex situations, where we are really confused about what step to take, which path to tread, which direction to go, what action to take, etc. people’s tried and tested life experiences could serve as a starting point, igniting us into action, salvaging us from the effect of inexperience.
LIFE’S EXPERIENCES, WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?
- Family, friends, relatives, colleagues
- Traditional media: radio, TV, newspaper, magazine, books, etc.
- Social media: Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc.
- Trained personnel: counselors, psychologists, psychologists, etc.
HOW TO LEARN FROM OTHER’S LIFE EXPERIENCES
You have to determine the basic or core mistake the person made, why they made it, the factors that contributed to the decision, the cumulative effect of their decision, what the result would have been if they had gone through a different path, etc.
Reading wide is one way to accumulate lessons from other people’s life experiences in other to improve our decision-making. Books are very rich in experiences.
EXCEPTIONS?
Yes, exceptions.
The fact that you should learn from the life experiences of others is not reason enough to follow in their steps without recourse to our individual differences and personalities.
Different strokes for different folks
Understanding yourself, your choice, your tastes, your pattern of behaviour , etc is a very helpful way to combine other’s life experiences with ours.
This quote from an American writer, Joan D. Vinge says it all:
We are all born with a unique genetic blueprint, which lays out the basic characteristics of our personality as well as our physical health and appearance… And yet, we all know that life experiences do change us.
Lastly, I leave you to meditate on the famous quote from English physicist and philosopher, Isaac Newton:
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”
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Solomon Oladipupo
