Why Knowledge Isn’t the Most Important Thing

{Written by Jason}

“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.” — Socrates

Lately, I find myself saying the phrase, “I don’t know” more often than ever. Not because I’m using it as a dismissive term to obviate myself from an interaction with someone, but rather because I’m realizing that the more I think I know something, life has a tendency to show me I know nothing at all.

We hold knowledge at the throne of experience. That simply knowing facts, theories or concepts makes us qualified to teach those things. But there’s a giant chasm between intellectually “grocking” a concept and actually living it, breathing it, and ultimately… BEING it by integrating it into your very cells.

I’ve noticed how many coaches, thought leaders, social media influencers, and transformational “experts” talk about improving yourself, loving yourself, and accepting things as they are. But simply understanding something on a cognitive level isn’t the same as integrating it into your cellular memory and having it become a part of your experience of life.

It’s like there are four stages to the process of actually finding wisdom and perhaps even mastery with something:

1) Unconscious incompetence

This is the stage where you don’t know shit. But you’re not aware that you don’t know shit. Ego runs rampant here and is often disguised in the reply, “Yeahhhh, I know, I know!” when something is explained to you. Simply put, you don’t know what you don’t know, but you think you know something.

2) Conscious incompetence

Here, you KNOW that you don’t know shit and you’re willing to admit that you may be just a bit ignorant about a subject — but you’re curious, interested, and willing to learn more about it. Maybe you even engage with the thing: playing a new instrument, learning a sport or a language, or starting to work on your education. You know you don’t know something, but you want to become more proficient at it.

3) Conscious competence

Also knows as practice. Say, if you’re playing the piano, you maybe be playing notes or chords, but you’re fully aware of what you’re playing. Repetition, practice, focused intention to get better are all hallmarks of this stage. You’re doing the thing, but you’re THINKING about doing the thing. You’re nowhere near mastery. This is the learning stage; the experiential stage of immersing yourself in something. You’re aware you’re in it, doing it, experimenting with it, but your mind is still running things.

4) Unconscious competence

This is the realm of mastery. It’s where you’re not even thinking about the thing you’re doing. Some call it channeling, flowing, or “being in the zone”. All the practice, learning, experimentation, and immersion results in an unconscious movement where you’re not even thinking about what you’re doing. It’s as if it’s just BEING done and you’re the vessel for it to live and breathe in the world. You see this with improvisational artists, whether comedians or musicians. There’s no roadmap, script, lines, or sheet music; they’re just off to the races and the beats, jokes, notes and moments are writing themselves in real-time. You may be witnessing the unfolding of the creative process, but you’re not thinking about it or micromanaging it cerebrally.

No matter the process of how we unfold or how we perceive our own growth, knowledge is not the arbiter or the watermark of our success. Imagination, persistence, humility, grace, and accepting what is — are all qualities that have equal if not greater weight than knowledge.

Knowledge in a vacuum holds no value. Applying that knowledge to your life experience and then living with the results brings wisdom and perspective. It’s almost like building a recipe. A pinch of knowledge with a dash of experience and a heaping dose of perspective with some reflection and humility on the side… now that’s living. Yet so many of us are missing the glorious, confounding, beautiful kaleidoscopic experience of BEING by only focusing on how much we know. It’s a beautiful starting point, but the essence of your life is fueled by far more than rote facts.

To be truly successful, to live a full and inspired life, you must apply the knowledge you’ve gained, make some experiments with it, fumble your way through this existence, maybe get some wisdom and insight and find a few treasures along the way. So don’t worry about messing up or making “wrong” choices. There’s always more to learn and every choice is leading you to exactly where you need to be in each moment.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” — Albert Einstein

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Originally published at https://www.wellevatr.com.