Life Lessons 3

The third life lesson is Relationships. When faced with death, no one wishes they had spent more time at the office or watching TV. Instead, people always wish they had spent more time with those who are important to them. Why wait for either your death or the death of your loved ones to learn this lesson when you can learn it now and change your priorities so you have more time to spend with your loved ones.

Never take relationships for granted. Realize that every encounter with another human being is significant. Each person you meet in your life has something important to teach you, even people you meet for just a few seconds. There are no insignificant encounters. This is especially true of “difficult” people. Difficult people are your best teachers. They will teach you more about yourself than anyone else. Learn to pay attention and allow every encounter to deepen your understanding of yourself and life.

Don’t think that a relationship will solve all of your problems. If you have problems now, you will have the same problems if you enter into a relationship. If you expect others to solve your problems and make you happy, you will only end up hurting them and destroying the relationship. Any problem that you have right now will only be magnified and complicated by a relationship if you expect the relationship to solve the problem for you. You must learn to take responsibility for your own problems and your own happiness or you will never change and be happy.

Relationships won’t make you happy if you are not already happy. Relationships can magnify your happiness but will not create happiness if it is not already there. Often people who are unhappy in a relationship think that a different person will make them happy. But all they do is bring their old problems into the new relationship. Instead of throwing away your partner, throw away your problem. The problem is not your partner but you, and until you realize this you will never be happy in any relationship. Don’t try to change the other person, thinking that you will be happy if they would only be different. Rather, you need to change and become a better person if you are to be happy in the relationship.