Getting Back to Basics with Experience, a Beautiful Teacher

Starting over is very much starting from experience. The profundity of this simple truth shook my core when I realised that starting from experience is something we have the privilege of doing almost daily. This is the perspective to which we want you to open yourselves up. As we get back to basics, this time, we're starting from experience. 

Dan Nielsen describes starting from experience beautifully. "From something as basic as a daily task at home, school or work that needs to be redone to larger, more drastic events like starting over in a new city, a career, or an important relationship—we all have to "start over" in some way at some point. Experience gives you the gifts of mistakes made, successes achieved, and lessons learned. Experience gives you unique insights and perspectives you wouldn't otherwise have. So while "starting over" might sometimes seem like backward progress, it is still progress—because you are continuing in a new way, equipped with useful insights and lessons learned." 

With this month's theme, we hope to draw your attention to the need to celebrate the small wins and seemingly invisible steps of progress by acknowledging where in your life you're starting from experience. At 21, you may never have cultivated the habit of saving. At 30, you may not be saving much, but you may have less debt because you've learned some lessons. At 40, you may be saving consistently. Notice how each phase of your life is cyclical, allowing you to improve how you handle every aspect of who you are and how you operate in this world. There is a reason we may appear to be "going around the same mountain.” Finding the treasure at the crux of any experience allows you to integrate it, acknowledge it and move onto the next level, allowing you to start from experience. 

So, while we may be returning to basics in many respects, we see it as the "basics reloaded..." Sisters, don't be afraid to start over. Courageously embrace starting from experience.