You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's the only thing you are sure to keep for the rest of your life. You will learn lessons. Every person or incident is the Universal Teacher. There are no mistakes, only lessons.
Growth is a process of experimentation.
A lesson is repeated until learned. If you don't learn easy lessons, they get harder. External problems are a precise reflection of your internal state. When you clear inner obstructions, your outside world changes. Pain is how the universe gets your attention.