Daily Mood Quote
Day 190 – November 10, 2011
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
~Attributed to Harry S. Truman
What was it Master Chief said? Oh, I remember (I'm paraphrasing), “when you're 18, you know everything, no one can teach you anything. When you're 25, you realize that you know only half of what you thought you knew at 18 and by the time you're 40 you realize you know nothing and you are now open to learning everything.” I thought he was a nut when he said this, until I turned 40 and realized that what I knew was nothing, I went back to school at 42, and earned a Bachelor's Degree at 46. I will achieve my Master's by 48. The interesting thing here is when I started grad school, I made the assumption that it was going to be much like my experience as an undergrad. Boy, was I wrong. Soooo wrong. I never knew how much is involved in learning and how learning never stops.
In my undergrad work I got an overview of my chosen field, leading to a degree. That's just the way it is with undergrad degrees. I thought then that I was stuffed with information. But in my grad program we dig deeper into the subject of the specialization, the “whys” “the history” “the future.” I found an understanding about learning and myself, that demonstrated, "if you fail to stay open to learning, no matter where it comes from, then you doom yourself to fail." Life is a unceasing highway of information and we must travel it with our eyes, ears and hearts open.
I recently ran into a group of people who have been doing the same thing for a very long time and believed that they need no new input. I am all for experience, but like I once heard “If a carpenter hammers nails wrong for 20 years, it doesn't make him a master carpenter.” or something like that and I think it applies. It's so easy to get into routines and bad habits. They creep up on us like thieves in the night. We begin to generalize, then compartmentalize, then we begin to overlook things that run counter to our experience. That's when the trouble starts.
What do I mean? Simple, when we think we know it all: that's just about the time that we run into someone, or something that directly challenges our view of things. We have to choose to accept or ignore the new facts that have entered our life. Funny thing about fate, it usually doesn't offer “door number three.” So, we too often choose to ignore the facts right in front of our face, or information that others are willing to offer, because “We know it all, we've seen it all and who could possibly tell us anything?”... or something like that. Ego, pure and simple. Unfortunately, that's how little problems become very big issues in our life. And we invite them in on the wings of our arrogance.
I have only one question; if you know of a resource that is available to you and this resource could help in a challenging situation, why wouldn't you use it? It's amazing that information can come from anywhere, from anyone. We all have built filters, those filters can run against us and hurt us as much as they protect us. Much like in the movie Titanic when Brock Lovett (played by Bill Paxton) said to his team, “26 years of experience working against him. He figures anything big enough to sink the ship they're gonna see in time to turn. The ship's too big with too small a rudder. It doesn't corner worth a damn. Everything he knows is wrong.” I believe in experience, it has a lot to offer, but in some cases hanging onto self-generated dogma can be detrimental, not only to you but to those around you. Especially to those whose care you have been entrusted with. Just look at the current Penn State University scandal. Enough said about that.
There are so many cases where overlooking the information right in front of you has caused tremendous damage, in-spite of the opportunity to adjust thinking and change course. An old saying goes, “don't cut off your nose to spite your face.” What do you think?
How will you view new information today?
Tune in tomorrow to read the daily mood quote
Thank you for reading.
