Lifestyle

5 Tokens Of Wisdom We Can All Remember From 'The Little Prince'

by kmapanao
Stocksy

As adults, it is natural for us to think that we know more about life than others do. We learn from life through living and the more we live, the more we learn, so this must be true.

This idea leads us to believe that older people have more wisdom than others do, which is often correct, but sometimes leads us to write off advice and help that younger people might offer.

However, when I read, "The Little Prince," a novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, I felt like an adult being indirectly lectured by a child. The Little Prince's perception of life and adulthood is simple and honest.

He saw that, typically, adult characteristics are often simultaneously manifested and denied by adults. I have come to realize that great lessons are as simple to understand as 1-2-3, but as an adult, I have forgotten such due to the complexities in life to which I have busied and buried myself.

Here are the lessons I acquired from "The Little Prince":

On Expectations

In a fast-paced world, how do we define perfection?

Wake up! There is no such thing as "perfect," especially when it comes to real life and most pursuits of perfection are like a chase for nothingness. NOTHING IS PERFECT. How many times have you heard this line? Yet, our expectations range from great to perfect and when our expectations are not met, we end up disappointed.

It is not that we should lower our expectations, but that we must be reasonable when it comes to expecting. We cannot expect a 5-year-old to understand and master chemistry as we can an 18-year-old. But, contrary to believing that nothing is perfect, we can believe that everything can be perfect.

It is not only through the absence of flaw where perfection exists; people can acquire perfection through their mindsets. It simply depends on our individual preferences for everything to fall into perfection naturally.

On Problems

If you've never had a problem before in your life, see a professional to make sure you are, in fact, alive. We all encounter problems, and like death, they are inevitable and parts of our lives. Without problems, there would never be lessons to learn.

Problems force us to move, work and think. They make us exist beyond whom we think we are; they can make or break us. Like plants and flowers, we should establish roots to ensure that our problems will never blow us away.

Our roots should be the principles in which we believe, the virtues onto which we hold and the values that we highly promote. These are the roots that we should have in order to defend ourselves against the torrent of problems that might blow us away, those which may ruin us because we did not establish roots.

On Friendship

In this densely populated world, we will inevitably meet people who are not biologically related to us. We may know tons of people, but only a few will become our friends.

We have different preferences when it comes to choosing our friends, and this most likely reflects on who you are as a person.

Most of us will find friends in our community, school or place of employment, but it is imperative to remember that there is no shop in the world where friendship is available for purchase. It is acquired through time, love and trust we have for other people.

On Adulthood

Being an adult means a long list of responsibilities that scare most of us to our cores. Our lives basically revolve around the responsibilities we must honor in order to feel secure in life.

We are obsessed with getting everything done and making sure everything is okay, even though this may stress us out a lot. When we actually become paranoid and obsessed with things, nothing we do will be good enough.

Remember how badly you wanted to become an adult when you were younger so you would be able to do fun things? But, come time for adulthood, too many of us use the status as an excuse to not have fun and nostalgically remember youth. Sometimes, adults need to be children again in order to enjoy life without any doubts of what will happen next.

On Life

We live in a very modern world, where beauty on the outside is preferred to the beauty in the inside. We are attracted to things that are colorful, shiny and pretty — all qualities that our eyes recognize.

But, do we actually need these characteristics in order to be happy? Maybe these physical beauties will make us happy, but not always and not forever.

Things that are essential and simply important are actually not seen, but felt. Things may look right, but they do not feel right, and things may look wrong, but they surprisingly feel right. We should always remember that there is more than meets the eye and  our hearts are the best tools for finding out what is more.

Photo Courtesy: Fanpop