Are You as Hard Headed as Me? Sometimes You Just Have to Screw Up to Learn

It’s crazy how I’ll hear the advice, understand it, even agree with it… and still go do the complete opposite.

Sometimes you have to go through certain experiences yourself or make your own mistakes for things to finally click. 

People can talk, advise you, warn you… but somehow you still get this strong urge to just do what you want, even when what they’re saying obviously makes more sense.

And that’s how you end up getting burned when you didn’t even have to touch the fire in the first place.

My partner gives me advice all the time and I still don’t listen.

He always says he basically has to kneel down and beg me before I accept help… fair enough.

For example

For months he kept telling me:

“Save!”

“Put some money aside for emergencies!”

“You don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck!”

Did I listen?

You guessed it. No.

I continued living exactly how I was living. 

Spend everything, end up miserable, have zero money, panic every time payday is close but the money hasn’t hit the account yet… I could go on and on.

Then one month, I randomly had more money coming in than usual. 

And what did I do? 

I spent most of it on things I didn’t even need (as always). When I finally looked at the little remaining change, I told myself, “Let me save this one so it can be known I saved.”

So I did.

And that one month?
It felt really good knowing I had money sitting somewhere untouched.

For some reason that feeling stuck. 

I kept doing it. 

I started making it a priority to have some savings every month. It slowly became a culture for me. And it still feels great. 

No more being miserable waiting for the next payday. No more anxiety when the payment is delayed. My life actually transformed!

Now, did I have to be miserable for all that time? Absolutely not.

Could I have just taken the advice earlier and avoided all that stress? Of course.

But honestly, if I had just taken the advise, I probably would have saved for a few weeks and then gone back to my old habits, because I hadn’t really felt the consequences yet. 

I didn’t have that strong why. I didn’t know how bad it felt to be in that situation.

Now I know.

And I don’t think I’m ever going back.

That’s just one example out of many. I’ve been given a lot of advice in my life and still chosen not to follow it.

I don’t wanna  touch fire just to see if it burns

But my mind is naturally curious and I’m naturally hard-headed. The only difference now is: I measure the risk.

Is it worth touching the fire?

If yes, I’ll touch it.

If not, you already know.

I’m sharing this because

Maybe this sounds familiar. 

Sometimes you learn by listening, sometimes through other people’s experiences, but sometimes you only learn by living it yourself. 

And honestly, all of them are fine… just don’t burn your whole hand in the process.