Five pitfalls of knowledge and how to avoid them

How do you go about knowledge? What are the habits you developed? Are they working for you or against you? We created this list of five potential pitfalls and challenge you with a question at the end of each one of them, so you can avoid slipping into them.

1. Not putting knowledge into practice

Knowledge by itself may be useful to you on some spiritual level because it makes you feel smart, important, and capable. Still knowledge by itself doesn’t have much value without practice. You have probably experienced it after finishing your studies when you started your first job. Or when you learned a foreign language, but when the time came to speak it up with a foreigner, you were out of words. Staying in theory usually leads to avoiding taking action; therefore it can keep you away from experience. Having that in mind is useful and will motivate you to stand up and do something with your knowledge.

Ask yourself: How will I improve using my knowledge in practice?

2. Being insatiable

Do you know that person who has two PhDs and who is all the time finding new things to study and research? Collecting knowledge can make you feel it’s never enough and that can create an insatiable hunger for knowledge. The reason that happens is because you focus on what you don’t know yet, rather than on using what you already know. Even though such quantities of knowledge make people feel significant, smart and special, only learning more and more by itself usually means that a person doesn’t know how to capitalize on that knowledge.

Ask yourself: What do I already know and how will I capitalize on it?

3. Becoming arrogant

The thoughts ‘I don’t have to listen, I know it myself’ and ‘Who are you to tell me what to do’ are pretty common in today’s society. If you think you know everything, you have created a problem to yourself. Being too convinced that you know how to do a specific thing very often prevents you from listening to others or inventing new ways of doing things. The illusion of knowing everything eventually labels you as an arrogant person and makes you close minded.

Ask yourself: How often do I believe I know better and am I open to accept and understand someone else’s point of view?

4. Hoarding knowledge

Remember that classmate who wouldn’t share his or her notes from the class you didn’t attend? It was quite annoying, wasn’t it? There are people who are not willing to share their knowledge with others preferring to keep it a secret. And even though they find reasons to justify their behavior, this selfish habit damages human relationships and adds no value to anybody or anything. In today’s world, knowledge is a commodity and your skills and personality differentiate you from others.

Ask yourself: Do I act according to the motto ‘Sharing is caring’?

5. Creativity blocks

‘We always do it like that around here’ is a legit reason for many not to expand their knowledge. Having in mind that you know a way to do something can block your creativity. Sticking to only one way prevents you from finding out new and improved ways. After all, you don’t need to find a new solution because you already know a way to do it. That is when people fall into the trap of becoming average, less creative and not raising their standards. Always looking for improvement and finding better solutions and alternatives, is motivating and has a positive impact on you and others.

Ask yourself: How will I improve my solutions and raise my standards?

Everything is possible in the universe of knowledge. Maybe you are relieved, surprised, confused or you have different pitfalls that you have experienced. Share your thoughts and knowledge. This bonus question can get you started:

What is your biggest pitfall regarding knowledge and what will you do about it?