We all learn lessons the hard way in life. In elementary school, lessons have to be taught 9-15 times before the average kid in the classroom has learned it, moved that material from short term memory to long term memory. Some students need more repetitions, some need less.

And we all need less repetitions in general when the lesson is painful. Sometimes just once is enough. But if the lesson doesn’t have any negatives that come along with it? It might take a lot more repetitions.

I just had iteration #2 of a lesson it’s looking like I’m going to take longer to learn than I’d like. What was that lesson? That lesson is to bring in the laundry from the clothesline earlier in the day.

Why is this lesson important? Because later in the day, the bees and hornets think that laundry might be flowers, land on it, and then as the temperatures continue to drop, they stay there. And then I take down the laundry, not seeing them, bundle them up into my laundry basket, push that load into the drier for the fluff cycle to get out some of the wrinkles out, pulling the laundry out to fold – and then jump in startlement when I suddenly find a dizzy hornet on the piece of laundry I’m holding!!

Why am I not learning this lesson faster? Because our schedule around the end of the day is crazy, trying to wrap up all of the daytime tasks, preparing dinner, and moving through the bedtime chores.

What lessons are you struggling to integrate? Why aren’t you being successful? If you feel like your lesson should be overcoming your hurdle, how can you shorten that hurdle?