Introduction

There are many attributes to being human. Physical and psychical attributes. For example, we have opposable thumbs, and we can reason. If there is an attribute we lack, however, it is perfection. We humans aren’t perfect. Perfection seems unattainable and resembles death—not as in death equaling perfection, but as in perfection, ironically, making life not life-worthy.

The point of this little book isn’t to be a philosophical treatise about being human, nor is it about perfection. (For a philosophical discourse it is too broad.) It’s about learning. It’s about working on oneself. It’s about growing as a person.

There remains, though, a philosophical touch to this book. It starts with learning, working on ourselves, and growing to be better, which may be closer to what life is about. There are schools of thought that suggest that we’re here to learn, that there are many realities, and that this one, our reality, was a “training system.” And of course, falling back to religions like Hinduism or Buddhism and their ideas of reincarnation or rebirth, we get the idea that learning is close to what we’re here for, too, though with the cycles we may go through, we may have plenty of time to avoid rushing through life’s lessons.

In no way, then, does the following intend to be dogmatic. Sooner or later in life we find that things aren’t black and white, and that there isn’t necessarily right or wrong. What this book shares are ideas—ideas on how we can learn more. Ideas about how we can work on ourselves. Ideas that help us grow. Because no matter whether there is a universal lesson plan for us, most life seems to benefit from such growth.

—Jens Oliver Meiert