YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
-Socrates
My dad told me that quote by Socrates when I was younger, and it stuck with me even though I didn’t completely understand the complexity of the quote until I was older. I liked the quote so much that when I got my first iPad, I had it engraved on the back of it, still not knowing what it entirely meant.
We all know someone that thinks they know it all, and become annoying very quickly. I’m not putting this lesson in here just so there will be less annoying people in the world (that would be a bonus), I’m putting it in here because if you think you know everything you are missing out on so much more. We have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth. We need to observe more, listen more, and talk less.
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something”.
-Unknown
I like to say that the moment someone stops learning is the moment they stop listening to another’s opinion.
When you learn something new, you have this urge to spew the newly processed knowledge onto the next person that you talk to. Instead, digest the new knowledge, ponder it, look at it from all angles, and then once it has made its completion through the digestive system, let it out.
Question Everything
Once you understand that you know absolutely nothing, this allows you to question everything. Siddhartha Guatama, the founder of Buddhism, said it best:
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
As a society, we have to be careful about believing everything we see or hear, especially with the implementation of social media. You don’t know what is going on behind a closed door, until you open the door. If you think about the history of journalism, it started out as a career that required great depths of factual evidence, knowledge, investigative research, and review before being able to publish a story–or so it appeared.
Now, with social media, there isn’t any research or factual evidence required. You are able to put whatever you want online, and there will be people who automatically assume that post is the truth. Train yourself to be able to look at the information given, look at the sources the post was developed from, ponder the counter argument of the statement, whether you agree with the opposite side or not, sleep on it for a couple of days and then, and only then, are you among some of the wisest people in the world.
Unlearn What You Have Learned
So many concepts and ways of thinking were implemented while we were young. We don’t even recognize them as possibly being the wrong way of thinking or the main factor to the cause of our pain. Being a parent is one of the toughest gigs out there because no matter how well you parent your child, ultimately no one can be perfect.
Do not blame your parents for your faults because you will almost definitely make mistakes when you become a parent–even if you don’t become a parent, you will make mistakes in other relationships. In the self-awareness journey, you will begin to understand what mental constructs suit you and the world better and which ones are better off to unlearn. There are many things to unlearn, which is why America is so divided. Americans haven’t recognized their thought process is wrong.
THE SHORT GUIDE TO 30