There is nothing so easy to learn as experience and nothing so hard to apply.

Living through something teaches you fast and vividly, and then the lesson refuses to show up when you need it. The next occasion arrives dressed differently, with new names and new urgency, so the pattern goes unrecognised until afterwards. Knowing better and behaving better sit in separate rooms.

Make a lesson portable by writing it as a rule rather than a story. Not what happened, but the signal you would need to spot next time and what you would do about it. A sentence you can recall under pressure beats a memory you only reach for later.