We are always learning. Life is filled with education. 

Every day we receive new information about health, the planet, communication, medicines, the universe and more. Life is a process of learning and developing.  

Education is more than grades one through 12, college, and beyond. There are many aspects to every job we do that we never learned in school. We learn from parents if we will listen. We learn from coworkers. We learn from our failures. We learn how not to do something because we tried it once and it failed. The good thing about failing is that it doesn’t have to be final. Some things are final but not everything. Just because your first marriage failed doesn’t mean your second marriage will fail. Hopefully you learned from your first marriage and you won’t make the same mistakes the second time around. 

You may have a business failure. This happens to a lot of people. This doesn’t mean your business efforts will fail in the future. Hopefully you learned from your first efforts and can avoid the same mistakes again in your next endeavor. 

Possibly you tried a lifestyle that did not work out for you. Maybe you abused alcohol or even drugs or pursued a negative lifestyle that greatly diminished your life to the point where your life seemed hopeless. This doesn’t mean you have to stay this way. With a dedicated decision and often help from others you can turn your life around and do better.

We can learn from mistakes. They are educational and usually expensive. They set us back in life. They aren’t fun and can be tormenting. 

Remember, you can’t live in the past. Don’t totally forget what past failure did to you because you don’t want to repeat your mistakes. However, the past is over. Live your life forward.

As you go forward there are easier ways to learn. Study the lives of others. Research what they did and read. People all around us are either succeeding, failing or at least stable. Study others whose lives intrigue or impress you. Study their careers, work ethic, their values and how they make them work to achieve the life they are living. You can learn a lot by observing and studying others. You can also learn from the failures of others. What were some of their obvious mistakes? 

Volunteering or taking an entry level job with someone you would like to emulate is a great way to learn their success principles.

There are cases where nothing seems to make sense. Life is not always fair. We all have different interests, physical abilities, backgrounds and lifelong developed skills. Take all these into consideration and bring them together to work for you.  

Success always has new twists, turns and innovative ways. However, they are not accomplished without some form of life learning, commitment and hard work. 

Dr. Glenn Mollette is an author and his column is published weekly in over 600 publications in all 50 states.