Learning Through Experience

The best way to learn a lesson is through a story. Stories allow us to put ourselves in a specific situation and make it easier to create analogies.

Shared experiences have a similar effect. We all have the same experience, but the way we relate to that experience may be different. So we can connect the lesson in a way that makes the most sense for us.

For example, the coach teaches us that we came back to win a game by fighting through adversity. Every member of that team had a different experience of that game, but they can tie that experience to the result that they were losing, and then they won. Each player can create a metaphor that works the best for himself. If the coach just said something trite, like “If you keep playing hard, you’ll win,” the lesson wouldn’t internalize as well. Instead each player connects that lesson with the visceral feelings he had during the game.