Lesson Learned • Finding the Words

About This Episode

We can’t turn back time, but we can progress forward. So, if there is a person you believe you’re done learning from, I invite you to reach out to them today. Tell them that you were thinking about them. And then listen closely to whatever they have to share. You may be surprised by how much there is left to learn.

This week’s essay comes from the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights directly to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week.

• Episode Transcript

  Oh, hi, my friend.

  Here we are, already at the end of Season 8.

  Thanks for being with me this season and for being the best part of this show.

  It is your questions, your ideas, and your challenges that inspire the content of this program.

  And I venture to say that Season 8 might just be our best yet.

  That is, of course, until we release Season 9.

  So, as we come to the end of this season and the end of this year, it's time to say goodbye.

  But just for now, I'm going to leave you with a short-form piece drawn from my weekly Finding the Words column about one of the most important lessons that I am taking away from this year, from a person who is not going to be with me as we enter 2024.

  My dad died fairly suddenly a few months back, and as I continue to process his passing, I also continue to hold on to the lessons that he taught me.

  And I'm going to leave you with a short-form piece drawn from my weekly Finding the Words column about one of the most important lessons that I am taking away from this year, from a person who is not going to be with me as we enter 2024.

  Over those last two weeks of my dad's life, with dad in the hospital and me by his side, I reflected deeply on the lessons he taught me in my 45 years, the many lessons he taught with intention, and the lessons he taught by accident, too.

  In recent years, I had come to believe that there was not much more I could learn from dad.

  We didn't always see eye to eye, and I sometimes struggled to see him as a role model.

  I thought I knew better, and how wrong I was.

  Because over those last two weeks of his life, I discovered that dad still had many lessons he wanted to teach me, and that I needed to learn from him.

  While I'll save most of those lessons for sharing with my family, there is one lesson that I wanted to share with you.

  There are people in our lives who, for one reason or another, we believe we can't learn from.

  Maybe we think we're smarter, we're kinder, we're more in touch or in tune with a situation, or we're just plain right and somehow they are not.

  It is in these moments that an opportunity for communication and deeper connection exists.

  An opportunity to listen closer, to understand more, and to learn something, even when we think there is nothing left to learn.

  I know that I'm not the only one who has been left before I was ready, and I won't have more chances to learn from him.

  But I do know this.

  Every day we have a choice to learn from the people around us, or to assume we know better.

  Choose to learn.

  Choose to listen.

  Choose to be there.

  And maybe choose to start today.

  We can't turn back time, but we can progress forward.

  So if there's a person you believe in, you're done learning from, I invite you to reach out to them today.

  Tell them you were thinking about them.

  And then listen closely to whatever they have to share.

  You may be surprised by how much there is left to learn.