You Only Know What You Know
This week, I gave my daughter a bottle of unopened vitamins. When she opened the bottle, she said sincerely and confusedly, “I’m supposed to take cotton?” To which I said, “No honey, we don’t take or eat cotton. Cotton cushions the pills inside the bottle.” While this is funny, it reminds us that we only know what we know until we gain experience and knowledge.
Go back to that embarrassing moment where you had limited knowledge. What was that moment for you?
One of many moments for me was when someone made a snide comment about another person not using the formula function in Excel, but instead, this person was doing the math manually and entering the answer in the column. As he said this, I thought, “I do that. Is there a better way?” I only knew the little bit I had taught myself. I only knew what I knew, and I didn’t have the experience to know better.
What can we take away from these moments? Two things:
- What you knew at the time was enough and you were doing the best you could.
- There’s always something new to learn if we have the humility to become life-long learners.
I’ve known many people who beat themselves up for something that happened in their career, their relationships, or with their kids. Something they’d do totally differently at this point in their life. Knowing that you did the best you could with the information you had at the time can free you from the guilt you are feeling.
It won’t change the consequences or the outcome, but it can give you peace that you did the best you could at the time, especially if you learn from that experience.
Take, for example, anyone who has gone into business and had that business fail. They look back and think, “If I had only…” or “If I had done this instead.” The weight of that guilt doesn’t change the outcome nor does dwelling on it change the circumstances. Successful business owners fail. Regularly.
We’ve launched programs we thought would be great successes only to find there wasn’t a need like we thought there would be. Were there consequences? Sure. However, it didn’t bankrupt our business, but it did detract from profitability and focus. When I look at this as I didn’t know what I didn’t know, I can move forward, but only if I learn from what I didn’t know.
Let’s look at an amazing life-long learner, innovator, educator, author, and speaker – Simon Bailey. A couple of years ago, Bailey shared a massively vulnerable moment with his audience about his failed marriage. You can watch a clip of that moment here.
His message resonated with the audience and hundreds of audiences since then. But if Bailey hadn’t learned from his experience, it would simply be that moment of “If only I had…” Instead, Bailey took action and determined what he could do moving forward. He turned a moment of “I didn’t know what I didn’t know,” into “From now on…”
Becoming a life-long learner turns our “If only” into “Next time.” The choice in these circumstances remains our choice. We don’t know what we don’t know until we learn differently. There’s lots I don’t know, but I hope to continue learning always. I hope the same for you this week and always.
Keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant, Sarah Gibson, helps organizations leverage the power of communication, teamwork, and diversity to improve engagement and transform teams. To buy her book or inquire about her speaking programs, please visit www.sarahjgibson.com.
