Learning to Recognize and Embrace Knowing What You Don’t Know
Recognizing and acknowledging knowing what you don’t know is incredibly freeing.
I love to learn.
One of the things that keeps me optimistic overall is that I know that there is always something new to be learned. More information to be found. New ideas to experience.
Yes, there are things that I could learn that have I zero interest in. There are things that I’m happy to have just passing knowledge of.
For most of my life, I have loved the sense of control I get from knowing something. Even if it’s limited, having knowledge feels empowering.
Not knowing something, not being in the know feels disempowering. Then, just to emphasize that, lots of messages we receive regularly are all about this. You don’t know? What’s wrong with you? How are you unaware of that?
This can be used and abused for good and bad. Depending on how it’s employed, the idea of not knowing is often used to control others and sway their opinions.
I used to fall into this trap a lot. And I would get frustrated by the things I didn’t know. But as I continue to learn – I’ve been repeatedly coming upon the same theme.
Knowing what you don’t know can be as powerful as what you do know.
How does this work?
As I wrote at the start, there is always something new to be learned. But in many instances, I don’t care to.
For example – I have zero interest in learning about how to code in Python, how to prepare lutefisk, how to speak or read ancient Assyrian, and other uncommon and common things. Yet I’m sure somebody among the almost 8 billion of us on this planet does want to learn some of these things.
And they are not even a fraction of a fraction of a super-small percentage of the number of things that we can learn.
For all the things I know, there are exponentially more things I don’t know. And even if I lived to be a hundred and started studying every single day of my life – I’d barely scratch the surface.
That’s the reality. Even topics I know well and a lot about – I have plenty more to learn.
I began writing fiction when I was 9. In the 40 years since I was that kid, I can’t even begin to tell you everything I have learned about the art since. And continue to learn all the time.
Not knowing something doesn’t disempower or lessen me. Not unless I allow it to.
Some people will make it seem like what they know is the end-all-be-all. They’re right, and you shouldn’t question them. In my experience – this is often the first sign that they are not so certain as they claim to be.
For all the things I do know, I recognize there are more things I don’t. And I have been working to be better about seeing how knowing what you don’t know opens you to more growth, potential, and possibilities.
What attitude you take towards knowing what you don’t know can say a lot about your willingness to work with change.
Why does it always come back to change?
Change is the one and only constant in the Universe. Like it or not – change is. And it ALWAYS happens. Sometimes so slowly and minutely that you don’t notice it until it’s already upon you. Other times, it’s sudden and abrupt. But mostly it happens at a speed somewhere between these two extremes. But change happens. Change is a universal constant.
Change will cause what you know to become incorrect. Because that’s how the Universe works.
When you embrace knowing what you don’t know as being more empowering rather than less – you make yourself more open, flexible, and adaptable.
This means change won’t throw you off or mess you up quite so easily and readily.
Knowing what you don’t know is freeing
Why is knowing what you don’t know freeing? Because it makes you more open to learning.
That also makes you more flexible in your approach to life. That lets you be more open to growth, evolution, and making active choices to have some say in your life direction.
It took me a long time to see that clinging to what I know doesn’t make me stronger. It makes me weaker. Why? Because due to the inevitability of change, what I think I know shifts and becomes less known or unknown.
For example – when I learned how to type in the 1980s, I was taught that a double-space followed a period. That was what I knew – and it was how I typed everything for decades.
The technology changed. The way we type has changed. Thus, the double-space after a period is no longer necessary.
I’ve accepted this and changed how I type. It took me some time to shift my thinking – but I accepted the change and went with it.
But you cannot have my Oxford comma!
What I know covers a lot of different areas. And what I don’t know covers far, far more. That doesn’t in any way disempower, weaken, or lessen me. It just means there’s that much more room to grow, learn, and work with change.
Knowing what you don’t know is accountability and ownership of your life. It’s a mindfulness practice that can open you to more self-awareness and knowledge. That can ultimately empower you. It can also free you from getting stuck or disconnected from change due to the isolation of you knowing what you think you know – and jealously guarding that.
Keep an open mind
Zen master Shunryῡ Suzuki is the author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. This was my introduction to the practice of Zen and all matters related to it.
In his book, he wrote about how even a master is always a student. And that the beginner’s mind is more open to learning and growing than many expert minds are.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
This is why knowing what you don’t know is powerful. It might feel like it cedes power – but it doesn’t. The opposite is true. It opens and expands it. This further expands potential and possibility.
Mindfulness is a great way to be self-aware about what you do and don’t know. That allows you to be present in the now to make the most informed decisions you can with the information you have. And if you need more info – you can see that.
Recognizing and acknowledging knowing what you don’t know is incredibly freeing. It also helps you to better work with, positively experience, and handle any inevitable change you encounter.
Recognizing and embracing knowing what you don’t know isn’t hard
It begins with mindfulness of thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
Recognizing and acknowledging knowing what you don’t know opens you to learning, growing, and gathering new experiences – as well as being more comfortable with change. And that is tremendously positive because it helps you to not get stuck somewhere you’d prefer not to be.
When we choose to embrace that knowing what we don’t know is not a sign of weakness, we give ourselves more space to explore the world around us. We free ourselves to gather more information from more sources and work on directing our evolution. This can empower me and you.
Taking an approach to positivity and negativity – from the vast space that exists between them – I believe shifts the concept in a way to open more dialogue. In that form, we can explore and share where we are between those extremes and how that might impact us in the here and now.
Finally, I believe the better aware we are of ourselves in the now, the more we can do to choose and decide how our life experience will be. If that empowers us, it might open those around us to their own empowerment. And that is, to me, a worthwhile endeavor to explore and share.
Thank you for coming along on this ride with me.
This is the four hundred and nineteenth entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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