HOW TO BE KNOWLEDGEABLE

There are no secret tricks, or magic methods to becoming knowledgeable. There is also no one single way of being knowledgeable. Knowledge has many varied facets encompassing skills from book learning to understanding how to build or create, to knowing how to manage your finances, to resonating with mother nature.

Beginning to collect knowledge

Keep an open mind. Learning often challenges our assumptions and our pre-wired reaction is to ignore the ideas that conflict with ours. Don't automatically dismiss something because it does not fit neatly into your current vision of the world. 

·        Understand your own bias. Bias, or leaning toward a certain way of thinking, arises from your upbringing - both at home and within society - and forms your core belief set. Recognize that everyone has a viewpoint that is a function of upbringing and past experience and that each viewpoint has validity within the context that person's life. Realize, too that each person's perception of reality is colored by bias and does not actually correspond to reality. One way to mitigate the effects of bias is to consciously practice adopting different viewpoints and internalizing those alter-biases.

·        As you expand your knowledge, even in the most basic forms, you will have to revise your opinions and the way you do things.

·        Learn how to be wrong. As you learn, you will encounter people and situations where you will be in the wrong. Treat these as a learning experience.

Decide what kind of knowledge you are looking for. Are you seeking to have extremely specialized understanding of writing code? Are you looking to be a historian focused on the Medieval Middle-East? Or are you trying to have a broad knowledge base covering abilities from home appliance repair to ancient Greek? Any and all of these are valid. Knowledge is not simply college learning.

·         For generalized knowledge you will want to focus on breadth rather than depth. Read and experiment widely. Talk to as many different people about as many different subjects as you can.

·         For specific knowledge you will need to focus on the depth of the information or skills you are looking to acquire. This means reading on the subject, talking to experts in that field and lots of practical practice.

Get out of your own comfort zone. Learn about things that might not be your keenest interest. You may find new hobbies and interests you never dreamed of.

·        This means getting out in your community. Check local announcement boards (often at the library or grocery store) or on your community's website. This will give you access to a variety of learning opportunity: dance classes, economic aid, community theater. All good ways to start learning.

Don't be afraid to fail. Above all, this is the most important advice in learning to be knowledgeable. You don't know everything and you will get things and information wrong. Owning to your mistakes and learning from them will help you gain knowledge and help you remember better the correct information.^[2]

·   Examine what you did wrong and come up with solutions for what you might do differently in the future. This way you'll be prepared and will show that you are taking your knowledge accumulation seriously.

·        You will be wrong at times, especially in the beginning. This step ties back to keeping an open mind. Accept your failing, learn from it, and continue working hard.

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Author : Motivational speaker

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