The 7 Biggest Lessons People Always Learn Too Late

Many people have the potential to learn lessons early but don’t because they don't want to hurt or face the truth. Don't make the same mistake.

Here are the 8 biggest lessons people learn too late:

1. You can't avoid consequences forever

Many people avoid life's lessons by avoiding the pain of consequences until they're forced to face said consequences. You can only avoid reality for so long.

2. They don't sit long enough with experiences

Life happens fast, and the desire for the next "fix" is great. If people only ever try and find the next "fix" and never sit with their experience, they'll never learn from anything they live through.

Woman sitting with her experiences PeopleImages.com - Yuri A / Shutterstock

3. There are always fallback options — but they shouldn't be used as an excuse

Being young and having so many options means that nothing is ever truly detrimental. But often, going through life with the idea that 'everything is fixable' means that nothing has to be taken seriously enough, thereby creating limited learning.

4. Life is not linearly structured

A lot of things in life happen at once. It's always a mess of a million different moments and events that can often happen simultaneously. Untangling the mess of life is a lot of work, much less learning the lessons that come along with it.

5. There's often no clear reward

With no reward available, there's no reason to learn anything, right? What is the reward of learning a lesson from a moment that you cannot change anymore? Why go through all that trouble for no immediate positives? (I'm speaking sarcastically, of course.)

6. Knowing and understanding are two very different things

Just because a lesson makes logical sense does not mean it is ingrained enough to be applied to your own life. Yet, many people think that because they logically "know" what they must do or change, that's good enough. It's not.

7. Long-term investment beats instant gratification

Because most people want to feel good all the time they grasp for the immediate dopamine-inciters, without ever going too deep, but putting off immediate highs for long-term wins is what makes winners in life.