Learning from Life Experience: Predicting the Future and Reflecting on the Past

In workshops, I often ask these two questions:

What is the difference between getting older and becoming an elder?

What are the differences between someone who is aging and someone who is becoming a sage or sage-ing?

The responses usually include wisdom:  someone who is wise and shares wisdom.  Then I ask, “How do we become wise?”  Just because we are older does not necessarily make us wise.  It is when we process our life experience into lessons learned and pay attention to what was learned that we become wise and can then choose to pass on our wisdom to others.

Processing life experience requires the power of reflection.  Sometimes, I have had people write to their younger selves by answering questions such as:

What do you know now that you wish you would have known when you were younger?  

What would you say to your younger self? 

NPR featured a story about a new film coming out titled:  Later That Same Life.   I found the story and concept intriguing, interesting, and somewhat scary:

An 18-year-old has a conversation with his 56-year-old self in a Q and A format.  A short clip is below:

After watching this short video:

What would you learn from yourself by going back in time?

How would your answers have been different over 38 years? 

What can be learned to be shared with others?

What can be learned so that the rest of life can be the best of life?