LIFE SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD BUT IT SHOULD BE LIVED

FORWARD

ANECDOTE
Tip : Start your answer with an engaging story with fictitious characters or a real life story. This binds the
examiner ‘s attention and gives a beautiful start to your essay.

Thomas Edison tried two thousand different materials in search of a filament for the light bulb. When
none worked satisfactorily, his assistant complained, “All our work is in vain. We have learned nothing,
Not sure if we can use an electricity properly.

Edison replied very confidently, “Oh, we have come a long way and we have learned a lot. We know that
there are two thousand elements which we cannot use to make a good light bulb.

Introduction 2:

Conversation between Indira Gandhi and Sam manekshaw in context of 1971 Bangladesh liberation war.
(how the experiences of 1962 and 1965 war paved way for india’s victory in 1971 war)

Introduction 3:

Conversation between Arjuna and lord Krishna on the battleground of Kurukshetra , when arjuna was
reluctant to fight against his own brothers and was in situation of dilemma.

Introduction 4:

During the dot-com boom of the 1990s, James Altucher founded a web-design company called
Reset Inc. and sold it for $10 million. Then he lost everything in a series of bad investments. He
made “every stupid decision in the book,” he said.
With $143 left in the bank, he contemplated suicide. He eventually came to realize he had to re-
evaluate his business and his life. He stopped judging his "self-worth by his net worth." He slowly
dug his way out and found his way back. He began blogging about his riches-to-rags-to-riches-
again story, which has proven to be incredibly popular. And he started writing books -- 20 and
counting so far -- which have also been a great outlet for his creativity. He is now a mega-
popular blogger, podcaster and author with investments worth millions.
 General introduction:

The above mentioned quote by Soren Kierkegaard highlights the fact that it is essential to
introspect on your past; the mistakes you make, the missed opportunities, good times and bad
times but it should not hinder ability to move on because life moves on even if you don't.

You must understand and accept your past, live in the present and plan for the future.

QUOTES
“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience. -John Dewey

How much you can learn when you fail determines how far you will go into achieving your goals
― Roy Bennett

INTRODUCTION
Tip : In Introduction part , explain main keywords in the essay. This gives a context to the entire
essay.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So
you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in
something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and
it has made all the difference in my life.” ~ Steve Jobs

Life is all about moving forward but it is also learning from past. Our deeds , our mistakes and
even what worked for us.

The only way to make sense of the world and our place in it, we must reflect upon the past. How
we got to where we are today depends entirely on the past, that which has been lived. However,
life cannot go on if we are constantly dwelling over things not in our power, so we have to keep
living for the future; after all, if we do not live forwards, we will have nothing to understand
backwards.
The most important life lessons we will ever learn will be from the bad decisions we make. Time
and experience can be excellent teachers when you actually learn a lesson from your poor
decisions. Experience comes from our way of living, understanding and the adjustments we
make. It also comes from suffering, agony and the ordeals we are afflicted by.

“Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from poor judgment.”

We need to learn from our mistakes so that we do not run the risk of repeating them. We must
develop the wisdom and sense to make good decisions and choices. Good judgment will only
develop if you truly learn from your mistakes. Unfortunately, for many people, it takes a few
repeats of the same mistake to learn the lesson.

Good or bad, experiences are what help us learn lessons and form a better sense of judgment.
Bad judgment seems to stick with us longer as a lesson learned because we really do not want to
keep repeating it. Wisdom is the knowledge you can gain from making mistakes.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” - Albert Einstein

But this doesn’t mean we dwell in the past or cry over the spilt milk. What is required is learning
from past mistakes and not repeating them in future and keep moving forward.

BODY
Tip : Body of the essay is the most significant part of the essay. The level and articulation of
thoughts is checked in this part. This part should include as many as dimensions as possible. Like
you can use PESTLE approach or micro & macro approach.

One should always learn from their mistakes. It makes you progress and prosper. “Mistakes are
signs that you are trying”.. When we try something we get to learn lots of new things.

The one who doesn’t learn from his/her mistakes their growth gets stagnant. They get restricted
to a certain mindset.

Examples to substantiate your arguments:

Historical aspect:
 • Kautilya is a legendary figure in India for not only writing Arthashastra, a treatise that
deals extensively with the strategies for building and running a nation based on strong
fundamentals of economics and the wisdom of the leader, but also for making
Chandragupta Maurya the king of Magadha whose empire later on became the largest
empire ever seen in the Indian history. (he learnt from the experiences /mistakes of other
rulers and framed formal guidelines of how a king should rule)
• How Akbar’s experiences of his early life has enabled him to transform into one of the
most successful rulers… ( administrative reforms, religious tolerance etc)

POLITICAL ASPECT

§ 44th amendment act that ensured that the conditions of the Emergency could not be
replicated in the country. For instance, four years ago, during the Anna Hazare andolan,
govt of the day could have crushed it if the 44th amendment hadn’t been enacted. Our
law makers learned from the past experiences and moved forward towards a stronger
democracy.

§ How janta party learnt from the mistake of congress wrt forced sterilization …. Leading
to emergence of family welfare prog instead of family planning…..

§ Government learns from past schemes implementation and moves forward with some
changes .A major achievement of the current urban programme AMRUT, though, has
been in decentralising the project sanction process — it was centralised under JNNURM.
But this has hampered project monitoring, which, in turn, affected the dissemination of
information.

ECONOMIC ASPECT

§ The Indian economic crisis of 1991 was unprecedented both in terms of the intensity and
duration. This resulted in most important lessons that India must learn from its economic
crisis is that financial capital flowing from abroad has to be used judiciously otherwise it
would create a huge amount of debt burden for future generations. Plus enough forex
reserves are essential. And today India is one of the fastest growing economy and with
one of the largest forex reserves.
 § Current situation, COVID has resulted in job loss, contraction of economy etc… but india
bounced back showing V-shaped recovery, fiscal stimulus offered to recover the
economy…

SOCIAL ASPECT

§ Any social reform right from socio religious reforms in 18th century to temple reform
movements to Sabrimala women entry , every reform has taken place by looking back at
years and years of discrimination, subjugation to inferior status ; introspecting as a society
that what went wrong. And after introspecting we moved forward with reforms which
were suitable to modern scenario.

§ During the constitution formation or going back to Poona Pact , there was realization by
our constitution makers and leaders that centuries of social injustice and violence
although can’t ended at once , what can be done is recognizing the heinous casteist
practices. Then we can we can move forward only with some kind of compensation for
the lower castes in form of affirmative action. It was realized that acknowledging
centuries of injustice isn’t enough we have to move forward by giving that section of
society what they deserve - avenues of social mobility.

§ How religion, a significant tool of socialization, agent of cohesion and

cooperation…however if interpreted parochially has acted as a divisive force and is
responsible for communal tensions…. Various events in India’s past is testimony to it. Ex:
1947 partition, 1984 anti-sikh riots, muzaffarnagar riots etc. hence one should learn from
past experiences and accordingly make efforts to promote communal harmony.

§ The reports regarding education: example: ASER highlighted time and again: poor
learning outcomes, digital divide, early childhood care and education etc…. the
government has taken note of the past mistakes and tried to initiate the educational
reforms by means of NEP-2020

TECHNOLOGICAL ASPECT

§ When Darwin first presented his research on evolution, it was met with little enthusiasm.
He continued to work on his theory of evolution when all of his colleagues called him a
fool and said what he was doing “a fool’s experiment.” He learned from his mistakes and
ultimately led to the most important theory of evolution.
 § Chandrayaan mission was one of the most ambitious project of ISRO. ISRO ‘s capabilities
in space programmes has been well established now especially after MoM but failure of
soft landing of Chandrayaan shattered not dreams of ISRO but entire nation. The picture
PM Modi hugging the crying ISRO chairman was proof of that. But the next few days ,
Chairman of ISRO held a press conference with new date for Chandrayaan launch , he said
we will learn from our past mistakes and move forward with double the vigour.

Counter examples:

Where we have failed to learn from our past experiences and suffered…..

§ Gender discrimination ( education, employment, health, education etc.) example: global

gender gap report: india’s ranking 140/156
§ Tribal development ( failure to pursue policy of integration and still not learning from
past mistakes )
§ Investment in social infrastructure (education, health etc) example: impact of COVID
§ Divisive society based on parochial identities…. Example: racism,casteism, communalism
etc.
§ Growing economic inequalities …. Leading to social conflicts
§ Failure to address global challenges: climate change, hunger etc.

CONCLUSION
Tip : Always make the conclusion , solution oriented.

Here are ways to learn from your past:

1. Acknowledge Your Errors

Before you can learn from your mistakes, you have to accept full responsibility for your role in the
outcome.

2. Ask Yourself Tough Questions

While you don’t want to dwell on your mistakes, reflecting on them can be productive. Ask yourself a few
tough questions: What went wrong? What could I do better next time? What did I learn from this?

3.Make A Plan
Beating yourself up for your mistakes won’t help you down the road. It’s important to spend the bulk of
your time thinking about how to do better in the future.
Make a plan that will help you avoid making a similar mistake. Be as detailed as possible but remain flexible
since your plan may need to change.

4.Move Forward With Your New-Found Wisdom

Sometimes, mistakes aren’t just one big blunder. Instead, they’re a series of little choices that lead to
failure. So pay attention to your errors, no matter how big or how small they might seem. And recognize
that each mistake can be an opportunity to build mental muscle and become better.

It is wrong to teach that we should just forget the past, for the simple reason that the past will one day
be our entire life. Past, present and future are aspects of our lives, and there are emotions that deserve
to be honored. We cannot change our past, but our understanding of past lets us move forward.