Four Stages Through Which I Understand Life

Looking back, I find it useful to understand my life through four stages: Learning, Discovery, Commitment and Legacy.

Learning begins before I can make many choices for myself. Family, school and my surroundings give me language, habits, values and expectations. I absorb explanations of how the world works, often before I have enough experience to question them.

Discovery brings those explanations into contact with life.

I encounter people whose behaviour surprises me. I make choices and experience consequences. Some of what I learnt proves useful. Other ideas leave me struggling to reconcile what I expected with what actually happens.

For me, discovery includes recognising my own contradictions. I may believe something strongly and still find it difficult to practise.

Commitment begins when I have enough understanding to choose a direction and accept the work it requires. Possibilities become responsibilities. I give sustained attention to the life I have decided to build.

Legacy asks what will remain of that effort. What knowledge have I preserved? What capability have I helped someone develop? Can useful work continue when I step away?

These stages need not follow a neat timetable. I can be committed to a direction while discovering better ways to pursue it. I can prepare a legacy while continuing to learn.

Their value lies in helping me recognise the emphasis my life now needs.

Where have I spent my time? What have I understood? What am I ready to commit myself to? And what might become useful to others?

Those questions give the stages meaning for me.

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