We Learn Nothing: Essays by Tim Kreider

I was reflecting on some new years resolutions from 10 years ago. There were goals and resolutions that never happened, never eventuated. Some did.

Actually my mum decided one day to pull them out and show me how she had collected a few years of my resolutions and that each year the same things came up again and again. Embarrassing mother story, nah, mothers are good at caring.

I still have things on my list that I carry around with me today. When will I ever learn?

I listened to this book last week by Tim Kreider, which is a serries of essays he wrote all about this topic. He captures stories from his chaotic journey through life with humour and confronting, almost dark truth. It makes it rather entertaining but also leaves you with a sense of thought and questions of your own journey.

What can we learn everyday from out lives? What is it that happened yesterday, last weekend, last year or perhaps several years ago that still haunts us today?

Do we learn nothing from our experiences? I continue to learn but equally I continue to make the same mistakes. I continue to put myself through the same experiences that really I should not and even wish not to.

Sometimes its habits and addictions that draw us back time after time and yet time after time we tell ourselves we are going to cut it from our lives. We are going to release the chains of progress and make change our progress.

It doesn’t mean you need to be hooked on drugs it can be numerous activities that simply don’t prove effective in how you truly want to live your life.

There are people and relationships in our lives that simply don’t produce us any further happiness or even bring with them a glimmer of prosperity. We put ourselves in these relationships perhaps because we care or perhaps sometimes because we don’t care.

There are things we do day in and day out that bring us no closer to achieving any enlightenment in our lives. Watching television is one of them yet for many of us this is an average practice of 4 hours per day.

We continue to wake up and challenge ourselves to get through another day of work to satisfy some financial reward, to put food on the table, to help us buy stuff we don’t need all to satisfy someone else’s ultimate goals. We neglect us!

We all tell ourselves stories each day, every time that habit or activity pops up again. We make reasons and tell ourselves lies to help release us from the battle in our own minds that comes with our own personal struggles and challenges. I do.

We learn nothing!

I am continually educating myself now every day on how to learn something. I still battle with certain areas that I know are not conducive to my ultimate calling.

But I learn a little bit everyday on how to help myself overcome these challenges. Each day I learn something I am a little bit closer to changing. I am a little bit closer to clearing the shit from my life so I can continue to focus on what it is life means to me, freedom.

Perhaps I also will have stories like Tim’s of my chaotic journey through life and perhaps something’s will never change. I have stories already that I could share I know and I am sure so do you.

If you are aware however of what must change for you to better your life, to raise the bar as to your desired standard of living than that’s a start. I just hope we can all learn something assist us to take action and make the change required to go on living our dreams.

I certainly learnt something from this book.

If this book sounds of interest you can purchase By Tim Kreider We Learn Nothing: Essays and Cartoons (1ST)

Please leave your thoughts, comments & questions below.

Peace, passion and purpose…

Other books by Tim Kreider