I’m here to tell you that You. Know. Nothing.
Alright! Alright! Don’t shoot me. Just listen.
Ok, so maybe that’s a lie, maybe you know some stuff. Maybe you know, in fact, a lot of things. You’re worldly and wise and maybe even a little bit smartass on the side. You’ve done a lot of things as well. Had some great experiences. Met a lot of people. Seen a lot of things.
And I applaud you for that.
But there are maybe two ways this could all go down. Maybe you feel that you ‘know it all,’ that playing a game of trivial pursuit against you would be futile, considering what you know and how quickly you’d kick everyone’s ass. I mean, after all, you’re intelligent. You know things. You’re at the top of your game.
Or maybe you’re smart enough to realise that every day should be ‘Discovery Day,’ as if everyday you are seeing the world for the new time. Experiencing it in new ways. That every time you leave your house or not even, there is more to learn. That in the whole big grande scheme of things you know really nothing at all.
LETTING GO OF KNOWING
Life changes for the better when we realise that we don’t have to know everything and we don’t have to pretend we do. – Simon Sinek
Sometimes, to learn new things you need to let go of having to know everything, or at least thinking you know everything, or even having other people think you know everything, and come to the realisation that knowledge is limitless and life is open ended, but much too short to learn all there is to know. Sometimes that may feel like a sad thing, but what would happen if you knew EVERYTHING? What would be left?
Only the final frontier, death?
Instead embrace not being able to know everything and reconciling this with a sense of curiosity, and the enthusiasm to learn as much as you can. It’s exciting to think that everyday could bring you new insights, new experiences, new discoveries, if you’re only willing to open up to it all, to allow yourself to experience new things, to always be ‘on your Learner plates’ as you navigate this journey of life.
By not doing so you are ensuring that you are closing yourself off from growth. From the ability to be surprised. From discovering something amazing.
And how much does this facade of knowing all there is to know affect you? Does it stop you from asking the questions? Does it stop you from seeking advice from others?
Challenge –
How many things can you learn this week. Write in your journal every day something new to learn. Go and seek and find it. It might be knowledge, it might be something physical, a new recipe or a new approach. Start trying to learn AT LEAST one new thing everyday, and see how much your life changes from there!
EVEN YOUR “MASTER HAS A MASTER.’
I’m not sure where you feel you sit on the spectrum of creative to non creative. Or if you are a established business to start up. Regardless you should –
Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.
Og Mandino
You don’t always have to learn the hard way, or do the hard yards in terms of learning new skills, beyond the practice of such skills. You could struggle for years learning something, trial and error, believing that this is the only way to improve. That you have to go through it to gain anything from it. And in some cases this may be true.
However, you could go and seek someone who has been there and done that. And learn from them. Progression happens much faster this way. It’s what you do with knowledge that is important, your approach to learning, because sometimes you can’t have been there and done that, but it doesn’t mean the lessons should be lost on you.
It’s why even the best have mentors. There’s always something someone else knows that you may not. There is always an experience you haven’t had that someone else has. There is always knowledge you haven’t yet obtained in others. Always be on the look out for someone who can give you that little extra bit, that one little thing you’re missing, like Tony Robbin’s says, that 2mm can make all the difference.
So seek them out. Be willing to listen. To observe. To learn more.
You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward.
Conrad Hall
If you believe you’re at the top of your game (and you very well could be) and that you are somewhat untouchable then this is a delusion, unless you are always moving forward, always learning and never feeling comfortable in your current state. Never forget it’s highly likely that someone is coming after your spot, and it’s more than likely they’re feeling a lot less comfortable than you and that they will not only strive to reach where you are, that they will do what they can to topple you. They will take what you know and learn more. Will you let that happen?
Sometimes you outgrow people, even your mentors. Sometimes you reach a point where you need to know more. Find someone who knows what you don’t – or does something in a different way than you do. Have many sources of knowledge and experiences. Be an allrounder.
So slap on the L plates and go be the Master of your own destiny, but a ‘learner’ of the world.
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Challenge –
Do you have a current mentor? What is it that they teach you? Who are their mentors? Find out.
Is there a skill you need to learn that you could acquire from someone else? Who is at the top of their game and what can you learn from them? What are you a master at and what can you teach others?
Go seek out the best of the best in whatever field you are working with and learn all you can from them?
DON’T ALWAYS WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT
So you may not be embarking on the next great novel, or even a short story, but if we start to consider that we should not always write what we know about, if sometimes we just branched out and took on this philosophy, don’t you think that you would learn so much more?
Don’t you think that the stories you tell others, whether through copy, or content or social media, would be so much more enriching?
I mean if you consider that it is stories that make the world go round (those we tell ourselves and those we tell others) wouldn’t you want to use them – go and collect them through experiences and new discoveries – and use them to connect to others?
Consider the more stories you have, the more connections you will create.
Write about what you don’t know. And go learn it. Figure out what interests and excites you and go seek it. If you only ever stuck to ‘writing what you know’ how far do you think you’d go? How interesting do you think you’d be? This is not to say you shouldn’t write about what you know (because obviously if you have taken any of my advice you are out there learning all the time) just that sometimes you should forget about what you know, and that damn old adage, and go write something maybe completely left of centre.
BE A LIFELONG LEARNER
Never stop yourself from learning, because in comparison to ALL the knowledge in the world – You Know Nothing – and that’s how it should be.
Challenge –
Begin writing about something you know nothing about. Maybe choose a random topic or something you have an interest in but aren’t yet too familiar with. First. Begin to write stuff down, maybe in a rough short story form, or just make some notes.
Then go out and research. gather all you need to know. And then rewrite with this new found knowledge.