I have a saying that I like to use, “We learn slowly by making mistakes, but we learn much more quickly if those mistakes hurt.” Knowledge is something that happens, whether we want it or not. Our gathering of knowledge starts long before we are even capable of know that we are getting knowledge. From the moment we enter this world we are exposed to stimuli that increases our knowledge, we start learning. We gain knowledge from learning and learning comes to us in many fashions and forms.

Every day we are bombarded with a plethora of experiences and data that for the most part overloads our sensory systems. They say the we are exposed in one day now what our ancestors may have been exposed to in a lifetime. This overloading of our senses is making it much more difficult to really understand things to a level of mastery. It is one thing to know something, and yet quite another to have mastery of the subject. What you do with the knowledge you obtain and how quickly you can put this information to use will be a strong indicator of your ability to succeed.

Gaining knowledge should never be a sprint to see how much you can cram into your brain as fast as you possible can. I think you can relate to cramming for a test the night before in order to get a passing grade the next day. You may have done well on your test but, how much of that information did you retain? Can you recall items that you crammed into your brain today? Compare this to something that you learned slowly and deliberately over time, something you mastered. Take riding a bike for instance, you didn’t do very well the first, second, or even the tenth time you tried riding it. But because you were persistent and deliberate in your learning eventually you were able to ride that thing. Today, you don’t even think about how to ride it, you just hop on and go. This is how mastery works.

When I was teaching college, I used to assign subjects to the students and have them present it to the class. I knew that the best way I could learn something was for me to teach it, and I believed it was a good way for the students to learn it too. I believe it was Einstein that said, “If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t know it well enough yourself.” I do believe that we could all learn from this statement. I for one have used it as a philosophy in my teaching methods.

Mastery of knowledge never comes quickly, in fact, you don’t want it too in most cases. To master knowledge, it needs to become embedded into you mind and become what my kids refer to as a “No Brainer,” it is just something you know. You don’t have to think about it or try to remember it, you just know it. Repetition and consistency are keys to this, and the longer and more frequently you use it the more deeply embedded this knowledge becomes.

We need to trust the experiences of others when it comes to gaining knowledge. As I said to open this section “…we learn much more quickly when mistakes hurt.” We don’t need to make each mistake personally to find truth in other’s experiences. If a person gets bit by a dog when he tries to pet it, you can probably bet on the fact that if you try to pet the same dog you will suffer the same consequences. We need to draw on the experiences of others to save time, to speed up our learning, besides, a hospital is not the most conducive environment to mastering knowledge.

Investing in yourself in the acquisition of knowledge is one of the most beneficial investments that you can make in yourself. This knowledge can come in many different forms and experiences, you should have no problem finding a way to learn something you want to learn. Online, YouTube, community education, outreach opportunities, etc. The possibilities are almost endless. If you want it bad enough you will find a way to get it.

When it comes to learning and gaining knowledge, invest in yourself, if you don’t, who will?