One of my favourite quotes of all time is by the extraordinary gentleman by the name of “Will Rogers”:

This one line sums up what it is we all know in the great scheme of things - not a whole lot. We all have specialist knowledge that no-one else in the entire world knows. This may be trivia in the eyes of others but rest assured, you and I are unique in the fountain of knowledge we both possess.

Now before we get all cosy in the knowledge that we know something others do not, bear in mind that there is an infinite amount of things we do not know - none so ridiculously illustrated by the US Secretary of Defence - Donald Rumsfeld:

“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

What Donald was trying to get across only he will ever know!

So what is the value of understanding how ‘ignorant’ we all are?

For one thing, we can recognise there is soo much to learn in this life, no matter how much you think you know, there’s always more to digest. For another - no matter who you are talking with, no matter what you think of them, there is something they can teach you - this means the art of listening is one you should try to master, after all you were given two ears and only one mouth for a reason

Lastly, with respect to learning in general and Self Help Tips in particular, if there is information you already ‘know’ but hear/see again - be patient and remember no-one is trying to teach you to ’suck eggs’. Somebody else reading the same information is reading it for the first time and through repetition, the lessons you already have learned are being further strengthened.

You never waste your time provided you engage your brain.

Coming full circle back to a man as ignorant as the rest of us - Will Rogers. I’ll leave you with another of his thought provoking quotes:

Wishing you the best of success,
Tom O’Brien
Editor
http://www.SelfHelpTips.com

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