It's true - we don't know what we don't know. And if you're like me, when you do come upon some new learning, you're often found wondering how you got 'this far' without knowing it. It's a mind bender!
No matter who you are or what you're walk in life, we're all on a trajectory of ever-learning and we'll never reach that summit. It's just the way it is. How exciting for all the new discovery made and yet to be made, and how daunting for all the new discovery made and yet to be made. Only this week as part of a new course I'm undertaking (see.... ever-learning!!), I found myself in that familiar reflective mode of what it may have meant to have known or understood some of the new ideas and concepts sooner and what it might mean that I didn't. The reflection threw me back in time even more-so, as it had particular pertinence to an aspect of parenting. It was very up close and personal indeed.
With my daughter now in her teens, I found myself wondering if I'd missed the boat on some crucial aspects of early parenting and child rearing because I didn't know what I didn't know. In better understanding brain development through my reading (and of course, we already all assign some agreement to how children are raised informs the teens and adults they become), I wondered if I'd got things entirely or just slightly wrong.
Then I remembered a very real fact. That we are all (generally speaking) doing our best at the time, with what we have and what we know. OK, so this isn't a post about whether I'm an adequate parent, but through my recent learning example, is more a post about the virtue and value in engaging with ever-learning. Taking on board new learning, distinctions and then, applying things learned to improve, enhance or remedy situations.
For some of us, it's a passionate affair. I'm definately that person. I've always loved learning and I guess this was inspired by a desire to better understand the world around me that I remember seemed so confusing - especially as a child. But then our brain's as children are not yet fully formed and of course our understanding of things around us will be limited by that. It turns out that for females, brain development isn't fully realised until between ages 16 - 18 years. And for males, it takes a little longer to between ages 18 and 21 years.
But it is always curious to me (and I'm sure I was the same back then) how my teen purports to know, well, pretty much everything, referencing the difference in our era's as the key reason for misunderstandings or differing ideas about things. Never that she simply may just not know something yet. And there it is again - we all don't know what we don't know and with great certainty hang our hats on what we do, (or think we do!). Being teachable and coachable - another way of perhaps expressing the idea of constant learning, is key I would suggest, to everything, for that simple fact.
But knowledge and learning is only of value if like any 'tool' it's actually used. Perhaps it can organically inform our lives but the real dividends are in the conscious application and a new effort exercised towards a different outcome. Haven't we all come across the adage, 'if you do what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always got'. To create a different outcome or result, yes - you will likely have to do something different/differently and without new learning, that could be tricky. Without some new distinction to apply, you're at the mercy of what you already know and have already been doing which has been giving you what you have and well... same - same!
New learning takes different form. It can be via the conventional modes of research, books, journals and other writings, to courses, be they in person or online, informal or formal. But let's not overlook the more organic learning that we often don't pay heed to, especially as adults perhaps. We accept that children 'absorb like sponges' from the people and environment around them, but hey - so can we as adults. There's a saying 'we become what/who we surround ourselves by', and that would speak to this more organic exposure-based learning. Immersion in something, or a kind of somebody, helps to invoke that in us too.
It pays to aware and as another favourite saying of mine states, 'stand guard at the door to your mind and your soul'. Beckoning us to be aware and awake to who/what we let in for we might just become that. And it's true right..? If you hang out with 'happy', don't you too start to take on 'happy' and vice versa. That's a learning. An infused one!
Something to think about!
Here are some benefits of engaging in new learning:
It improves mental health - an active mind reduces our risk of cognitive decline and promotes our overall mental well-being.
It enhances brain function
It boosts your adaptability - in a time where things are rapidly changing, new learning and information helps you to stay relevant and current by developing new understanding and skill.
It increases your confidence - it's a big boost to our self esteem to learn and master new things and is motivating to boot.
It fosters creativity - it goes without say that learning opens the mind and engages new ideas which goes on to enhance creative thinking and problem-solving.
It expands opportunities - new learning opens new doors, be it new career paths, new hobbies and activities and new growth opportunities.
Engaging an I'm teachable and coachable attitude to life is definately a win and while my list above is just a sampling of why, I'm hunching it really speaks for itself. While you may not be as em-passioned as me about it, I'm hoping you'll come back to what we can agree upon - that, we don't know what we don't know, and by seeking out learning and keeping that door open all the way through life, we continue to bridge the gap.
Keep learning and keep growing. Learn about you, learn about others, learn about life, learn about things. You'll never be bored!