September 7, 2025
Someone once said, “There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are teachable and those who are not.”
Welcome to September, when “back to school” is a reality for many. But the years we spend in formal education are short compared with the years we spend learning in the school of life.
And the only way to succeed in this “school” is to be teachable. James Clear said, “Be humble about what you know, but confident about what you can learn.”
Humility: a much misunderstood but much needed character quality. I have lived long enough to be humbled when a fair number of my opinions crumbled under the weight of reality.
Having observed my own four children grow up and now our six grandchildren, I marvel at the speed with which a baby/toddler/pre-school child learns. Like a small- bodied sponge!
By age five, each one masters the basics of the complex English language, plus the rudiments of essential physics: toys thrown down the toilet usually disappear, food items smash when pressed into the high chair tray…
All this exciting information from constant observation, listening, experimenting, with “I don’t know, I’d like to know, I’m going to find out” humility. The process is really the same for all of us, but we often lose it with our grown-up pride.
