DAY
270
“I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.”
— Eartha Kitt
Don’t ever stop learning. You don’t want to hurry to get that lifetime diploma, because when it’s handed over to you, you’re done with this journey. Grab up every opportunity you have to get another degree. Double and triple major. The wonderful thing about the lessons you learn in life is that they’re free. You’re not going to have a big lifetime student loan to pay off when you die. Take advantage of the complimentary education that is offered to you every day in a variety of ways.
Your assignment is to keep a notebook close by throughout the day and jot down every new thing you learn. It doesn’t matter how insignificant it seems, write it down. At the end of the day, you should have pages and pages of new information. If you don’t, then it’s time to adjust your habits.
What can you do to ensure that you are continually learning? One great exercise is to practice your sense of wonder. Stop assuming you know the answers to everything that is important and start wondering about the things you don’t know. Did you ever wonder who makes the first pot of coffee in the break room at work? Find out. Are you curious about your carbon footprint? Do you even know what that is? Learn more about it today. Would you like to know more about your teenage son’s favorite band? This one could be scary, but open up your mind and be willing to receive a music lesson from your child. Don’t blow your opportunities to learn. Look for them. Practice a sense of wonder.
DAY
271
“There is a hard law. When an injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.”
— Alan Paton
Forgiveness is yet another important ingredient for success. It sounds like a pretty easy task to take care of, but it is actually one of the hardest elements of success to put into practice. The next few days are going to be dedicated to the power of forgiveness and how it will help you achieve your dreams.
Your assignment for Day 271 is to make a list of the injuries that have been done to you. What were some of the biggest wrongs that you have experienced personally in your life? Write down the event; the person, place, or thing that caused the injury; and what happened as a result of it. Try to find injustices from your past that may have become roadblocks on your journey toward success. Those are the ones you want to deal with first.
Injuries can come from any part of your past. Maybe a kid in class made fun of your nose when you were in junior high school, and you have been embarrassed about your looks ever since. There are also physical injuries like abuse from a parent, spouse, or another person. An injury could also come from something that seems insignificant in the larger scheme of life, but it still bothers you personally. For instance, if one of your colleagues took credit for your idea at a meeting, it might provide irritation in the workplace and block you from continuing to give 100 percent to your job.
Write down these injuries, and when you are done, take some time to journal about how each one of them made you feel. This is the initial step toward forgiveness.
DAY
272
“Forgiveness is the art of admitting that I am like other people.”
— Mother Teresa
Have you ever done anything wrong? Have you ever said something that made someone feel bad or made a choice that was not particularly honorable? Chances are, if you’ve participated in life for longer than about ten minutes, you’ve done something that requires forgiveness.
We’re all human. Each of us makes mistakes—a whole lot of them, as a matter of fact. A very large aspect of participating in this world is screwing up from time to time. Absolutely no one is perfect.
That being said, why is it so difficult to forgive others for faults that we are very likely to have experienced in ourselves? Ego probably has something to do with it. Most people really don’t like it when they feel they are not treated fairly. If they are injured physically or emotionally, they want retribution. There should be consequences for wrong actions. Societies all over the world are based on rules that spell out those consequences. Consequences are one thing, but forgiveness is also essential if you want to continue to move forward in life.
Look up one person from the list of injuries you made yesterday. Pull out one example of wrongdoing. Your task today is to write down everything you have in common with the person who wronged you. Forget about how different they are from you and concentrate on your similarities. In what ways are you alike?
DAY
273
“To err is human; to forgive, infrequent.”
— Franklin P. Adams
Stanley was an exceptional man. He wasn’t particularly smart or funny or good looking, but he was the picture of success. Stanley was a widower. In fact, he had lost his entire family two years ago in a horrible car accident. His wife was driving their two young sons home from baseball practice, and they were hit head on by a drunk driver.
At first Stanley wanted the man who caused the accident to feel his pain and pay dearly for what he had taken away from him. His entire family was gone in an instant. Stanley encouraged the lawyers to file murder charges.
Stanley was driving to the trial months after the accident, and he was still filled with rage. He was talking on the cell phone with a friend and railing about how this man did not deserve to live. In an instant, Stanley gasped and slammed on the brakes. He hadn’t been paying attention while he was driving, and he came inches away from mowing down a toddler who had wandered out into the street. When Stanley finally pulled himself together, he continued on to the courthouse. He realized as he traveled the last few blocks that he had almost committed the same crime. He was overwhelmed.
Stanley requested a moment to speak during the proceedings. He publicly forgave the man and asked that the murder charges be dropped. That man did not willingly kill his family. It was an accident. Stanley was finally able to forgive and move on and do something productive with his life.
If you want to truly be exceptional, learn to forgive. It is an uncommon trait.
DAY
274
“Forgiving someone who breaks a trust does not mean that we give him his job back.”
— Lewis B. Smedes
It is very easy to confuse forgiveness with being a doormat. They are not the same thing. When you forgive someone, you are setting yourself—and the other person—free. However, it has nothing to do with condoning the actions of the perpetrator.
If one of your employees was caught embezzling money from your company, you would find it very helpful to forgive them. On the other hand, you would be a complete fool if you hired them right back and set yourself up to be robbed again. Forgiveness does not mean you have to lose your common sense. Trust must be earned.