Thursday, April 2, 2020 – Five Life Lessons We Can Learn From Ants

I see ant mounds everywhere after a rain. It is amazing how quickly they can rebuild their homes. We are currently in the middle of a disaster. How we rebuild our homes and our lives will determine our future. According to Ajay Eswar on LinkedIn, there are 5 life lessons we can learn from ants. They teach us:

1. To be brave.

The average worker ant is just as brave as Beowulf. The average human is obviously more than 10 times the size of an ant. We get terrified by bears and tigers which really are nowhere near 10 times our size. Some of us even screech at the sight of a cockroach. Yes, size doesn’t matter, and bears and tigers are dangerous. But we’re just trying to justify the immense bravery of a little ant. With your strength, you could squash an ant, dismember it, drown it and do many other terrifying things to it. Ants teach you that no matter how terrifying things may look up ahead, you should never chicken out. Come to think of it, ants are a lot braver than your typical action movie hero.

2. To ignore little diversions.

If you put your finger in an ant’s path, it just walks around it and soldiers on to where it’s heading. It won’t let your stupid finger hinder its work. Put another obstacle in its way and it still soldiers on to its destination. You should do the same and not let silly problems and conflicts get in your way of achieving your objective. If you’re doing your homework, don’t let that silly Facebook notification divert you to endless hours of pointless web browsing.

3. That the next generation is everybody’s responsibility.

Ants raise all their young together, and that’s something we should learn to do. No, not wrap our children like larvae and put them in a room, but educate them together. You don’t have to be living in the same house to educate a child and neither do you have to be a schoolteacher. You could educate a stranger’s child by showing a good example, giving good advice or even settling a small fight in a very civilized manner. Unfortunately, we have become quite selfish in the upbringing of our children. Even worse are the cases of child rape and murder. What we should do is be responsible for the development of every child. If you’re a parent, you should also learn to understand when others are trying to educate your children. Put aside your ego because it’s all for the greater good.

4. That knowledge should be shared.

Ants leave chemical trails that allow their colleagues to trace their path to success (food). It would be pointless if they didn’t, because although a single ant can carry up to 50 times its body weight (for real?), not much can be carried back to base for the development of the colony. The same thing applies to us when it comes to knowledge. You might have a great capacity of storing information in your miraculous brain but if unshared, it won’t develop much from there onward. Discussion accelerates the development of knowledge which could be beneficial to mankind.

5. To adapt to our surroundings.

You can find ants just about anywhere. It’s amazing how they’ve managed to get the most out of living with human beings. Move into a new house, and you’ll eventually find ants. Walk in the forest, and you’ll find ants. Ants know where to search for resources, and you should do the same. Be quick to adapt to your surroundings, and don’t wait for a wake-up call. When things around you change, learn to adapt and make the most out of it.