“Everything is a process. Life is a process. We are born, we grow and age. It takes time to develop and be able to do many skills from our earliest ones such as rolling over; sitting up; balance; motion and crawling; feeding oneself; and on to other skills  like reading, and writing.

During our childhood development we played, we pretended, we had imaginary friends, we learned games and rules for things like hide and seek, hop scotch, board games, video games and sports. We learned to take exams in school, ride a bike, take a bus, drive a car.

There are so many things we learned and most of our life has been spent learning in one way or another. The other parts of our life are spent using what we have learned. Both parts occur simultaneously. It is all a process.

Each and everything we learned and acquired as behaviors and skills took the time it took to be able to do it and perhaps, eventually, master. We can’t really rush any of it. Whatever time it took to get as good as we have got is the time it took. We can’t hurry it up any more than we can hurry up getting from 12 to 16 or 16 wanting to be 18. The time it takes IS the time it takes. There is a season for everything.

While there are methods for accelerating some of the things we are capable of learning all of it is a process that improves, like wine, with age. In our case it is not only a matter of time but of repetition, correct repetition, because we can practice poorly or we can practice the wrong things. Regardless, we either end up with reliable great skills or reliable poor skills or with the ability to do wrong things. We are learning machines!

We learn through correct repetition and  by making mistakes and correcting these. We learn through self-feedback and by guidance from others. We learn by aiming forward and doing whatever it takes to learn, acquire and accomplish. Mostly, we learn  by doing. As we learn through time, repeating correctly, correcting mistakes we gain experience and hopefully wisdom. Ahhh, to be truly wise! Wouldn’t that be marvelous AND helpful!

We have learned so many incredible things during our lives.

We have also learned some pretty useless things and some bad habits and patterns. We learned whatever we learned along the way. Much of our learning occurs without any conscious thought and some of it does require it. We learned so much before we could even speak, read or write. We learned to communicate and understand our native language without any book or reference material. We are amazing learners!

We learned to sit in class and pay attention, we learned to be good citizens and follow rules, we learned to do things and even eat things we didn’t like at first. We learned to break rules and color outside the lines. We learned to smoke or put things in our body that at first offended our senses. Truly, we can learn anything!

We learned we should speak our minds, stand up and be counted and we learned that we should be polite, never say anything rude, be quiet and don’t stand out. We learned that mavericks are unwanted and we learn that to get ahead you must be a maverick. We learned that we must get an education to succeed and we learned that many of the truly innovative, wealthy successful people in the world were drop-outs.

We learned contradictory things. We learned rules and beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world. We learned to think along certain lines that govern what we say and do and what we don’t say and don’t do.

We learned to believe we are incredible learners who can do anything or we learned that we were okay learners, poor learners or broken learners. We learned we should say ‘no to drugs’ but accept the drugs ‘they’ want to give us because ‘they’ know best.

We learned that certain brands of products make us brighter, smarter and more appealing to potential partners. We learned that human smells, and functions are nasty and need help from corporations to make our normal functions tolerable.

We learned that there is a price we must pay if we want the goods and we learned that if we act today, and today only, they will give us, not one but  two of the product for the very same price.

We learned it is important to be honest, upright and act with integrity and we learned that all the people who are supposed to represent us, the politicians, lie and some may be profiting from political pursuits. We learned we should trust ‘the powers that be’ and we learned that even the media lies. We learned advertisers will say anything. We learned be nice to all people and we learned be wary of strangers. WOW we have learned a lot!

We learned we were invaluable and loved and deserving of every good thing or we learned we don’t have enough, don’t deserve it and probably will never get ahead. We have learned so many things.

We learned the world is a wonderful friendly abundant place or we learned the world is a cold, cruel heartless place. We have learned contradictory things that we have come to accept as true whether they may be or not.

We learned we can handle any challenge and move forward not letting anything stand in our way and that we are victors. Or we learned life and others can crush us, we are lucky if we can survive and that we will always have to deal painfully what happened as a survivor.  We learned to be victims.

We have learned we must ‘let it go’ and we have learned ‘we must never forget’. We learned that the past either propels us into the future or the past holds us back.

It has been pointed out that a belief is really just a thought you think over and over. It doesn’t have to be an accurate reflection of what is going on (frankly, it can’t ever be) or what is ‘true’ but WE think it is. We ACT as if it is. Hence, we live from our thoughts, that we think are right, which we have learned to think over and over again and accept as true whether or not they actually are! Whaaat!?!?

As Henry Ford stated, ‘Whether you believe you can or you can’t you are right.’

Yes, we project onto ourselves and others notions that we have come to accept and think because these thoughts travel well traveled neural pathways. Much of what we learn to think, do and feel we have learned from watching, listening and interacting with others. We have adopted their rules, beliefs and projections without even realizing it. Some we HAVE decided to adopt. I think this is outstanding!

We are incredible learners! As such we ought to recognize this about ourselves, pat ourselves on the back and appreciate all of what we have been able to learn and do during our lifetime. Frankly, it is amazing. Congratulations and celebrations are in order.

We have even tried to manage our learning by getting frustrated when we haven’t learned quick enough or performed well enough. That is a funny thing that we learned to do. We learned to comment and criticize as we endeavor to learn to do things we have never done before as if somehow we are an expert already.

We have learned to get in our own way and hopefully we have learned to get out of our own way too at times. We have learned to try hard and we have learned to relax, well hopefully we have.

Really, when you consider everything there ISN’T anything we think, do or feel that we haven’t in some way learned to think, do or feel. After all we are a human organism and anything we are capable of doing had to come from somewhere. Even if there is a genetic predisposition we had to think it or do it or feel it for the very first time, and then do it again at some point.

We become patterned and habitual, we have developed neural pathways so we don’t have to learn everything over and over again. We don’t have to invent the wheel again and again. This is a remarkable thing. It is incredible and an amazing advantage.

Of course, the down side is we also wired in the useless or not so glorious skills, habits and unwanted behaviors. We got the fantastic with the less than glorious. Oh well, that is just the way it is.

Along the way we can begin to determine what we want. We can decide and choose what to add into ourselves, what we would like to learn and enjoy. We can decide what we want to change. We use our conscious mind to guide and direct this incredible unconscious bevy of acquired learnings.

We have learned everything that is good and ‘not so good’ RELIABLY because of these tried and true well traveled neural pathways. This is the reasonWHY changing some things we want to change can SEEM difficult at first. It is meant to be that way or we’d be re-inventing the wheel again and again. So changing DOES require some effort up front.

Still, WE CAN learn to change anything! We can learn to do anything if and when we apply ourselves. We can make whatever change we want to make but we have to do it and stick with it through the process. We have to take the time and do what is necessary for as long as it is necessary to make the change. When we do we will succeed. Through the process we will seemingly fail, we will make mistakes, there may be a tendency to criticize but we will prevail as long as we keep at it! We will succeed if we never quit.

You can be, do and have anything you want when you learn how! Success is only a decision away. Some learned to procrastinate others learned to jump right it. How we make decisions was learned.

Some learned to try and the give up others learned to keep on trying until they get what they want. Whatever you do IS because YOU learned to do it.

Right now you can learn to do something good, something new, something positive and something beneficial for yourself. You can learn to become inspired, motivated and passionate for positive change. You can lean to make all your dreams and desires come true!  You can YOU actually CAN! So, when will you? You will when you begin! Begin today!” Rex Sikes

What marvelous moments can you delight in today?

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