Episode 50: Knowledge Is Power… Only When Used

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We’ve all heard the saying, “Knowledge is power.” I think we’ve only been quoting half of it.

Knowledge is possibility. It can change the way we see something, introduce us to ideas we never knew existed, and give us an understanding we didn’t have before. But knowing something and doing something with what we know are two very different things.

At some point, knowledge needs somewhere to go.

That’s when possibility becomes movement. It’s when something we’ve learned begins influencing a decision, changing the way we respond, or giving us enough confidence to try something we haven’t tried before.

And maybe that’s where the real power has been all along.

We Carry More With Us Than We Realize

Every experience leaves something behind. The good ones do. The hard ones do too. We carry perspective, experience, and wisdom forward with us, whether we’re consciously thinking about it or not.

Think about what you understand today that you didn’t understand five years ago. Some of those lessons weren’t taught to you. You learned them by living.

There are things we can learn from books, conversations, classrooms, podcasts, and other people. Then there are things life teaches us in a completely different way.

You can learn what courage means, but life teaches you what your courage looks like. You can understand resilience as a concept, but experience gives you the opportunity to meet your own.

Some knowledge is given. Some is earned.

And once you’ve earned that kind of wisdom, it becomes part of what you bring into whatever happens next.

Eventually, Preparation Runs Out

I love learning. I love researching something until I understand it. There’s comfort in feeling prepared before stepping into something new.

But eventually, preparation runs out.

There were things I could learn before I started the Motivated Savages Podcast. There were things I could research before writing a book and things I could figure out before building an indie bookstore.

But there was always a point where I had learned as much as I could from standing still.

The rest happened when I began.

I couldn’t know what recording Episode 50 would feel like while I was recording Episode 1. I had to live the space between them. Every episode gave me something the previous one couldn’t. I learned, adjusted, changed, and became more comfortable with my own voice along the way.

I didn’t become ready and then start.

In some ways, starting is what made me ready for everything that came after it.

That distinction matters.

Action Introduces You to Yourself

We usually think about action in terms of what it accomplishes. We take a step because we want a result. We make a decision because we want something to change.

But action does something else too.

It introduces us to parts of ourselves we haven’t met yet.

You don’t know everything you’re capable of. How could you?

Think about who you were five years ago. That version of you couldn’t have imagined everything you’ve lived since. There were situations you hadn’t encountered yet, decisions you hadn’t been asked to make, and parts of yourself you hadn’t needed yet.

And yet, here you are.

That makes me wonder why we’re sometimes so quick to decide what we can and cannot do based only on who we are today.

What makes you think you’re finished discovering what you’re capable of?

There is still so much life you haven’t experienced yet. That isn’t something to fear. I think it’s one of the most exciting parts of being alive.

You Can’t Know From Here

We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to know what happens next.

We want to know where a decision will lead before we make it. We want to know whether something will work before we try it. We want enough information to remove the uncertainty.

Sometimes we can get those answers. Sometimes we can’t. Sometimes the truth is simply: you can’t know from here. You have to move.

One decision can change what you see from where you’re standing. That new view might give you information you didn’t have before, which influences another decision. Then that decision changes the view again.

Eventually, you can find yourself somewhere you couldn’t have imagined from the starting line, not because you knew exactly how to get there, but because you were willing to go.

That’s a very different kind of confidence.

Confidence doesn’t have to mean knowing exactly what will happen. Maybe sometimes confidence is simply trusting that you’ll meet yourself there. Whatever happens, you’ll learn from it. You’ll respond to it. You’ll bring everything you’ve already lived with you.

That isn’t certainty.

That’s trust.

Action Gives Us Something New to Know

This might be my favorite part of the whole idea.

We usually talk about knowledge and action as though they happen in a straight line. First you learn something. Then you use what you learned.

But it doesn’t end there.

When you act on what you know, something changes. You have an experience you couldn’t have had from where you were standing before. That experience teaches you something new.

Action doesn’t just use what you know. It gives you something new to know.

Then you get to move again.

Knowledge leads to action. Action creates experience. Experience changes what we understand. And suddenly, we’re making the next decision with more than we had when we made the first one.

We’re learning as we go.

We’re also becoming as we go.

That’s why I don’t think we have to wait until we know everything before beginning something. We couldn’t possibly know everything. Some of the information we need doesn’t exist for us yet because it’s waiting on the other side of an experience we haven’t had.

Leave Some Room for the Unknown

Maybe we’ve been giving the unknown the wrong job.

We treat it like something we’re supposed to solve before we enter it. But what if some of it is meant to be explored?

You don’t read the last page of a book before starting the first just to make sure everything turns out okay. Part of what makes a story worth reading is not knowing what happens next.

Our lives get to have some of that too.

There’s room to wonder. There’s room to try something without knowing exactly where it will lead. An experience might change your mind, introduce you to something you never expected, or open a direction you couldn’t see from where you were standing before.

You might even surprise yourself.

I love that possibility.

There are parts of our lives we simply cannot see yet. There are things we’ll understand differently a year from now because of what happens between here and there.

We don’t need to rush ahead and figure all of that out.

We get to participate in finding out.

Put Something in Motion

So maybe the question isn’t, What else do I need to know before I begin?

Maybe it’s:

What do I already know that I’m ready to use?

It doesn’t have to become some enormous, life-changing decision. Let what you know shape one choice. One conversation. One next step.

Then pay attention.

Notice what changes. Stay open to what you learn. Let the experience give you something you couldn’t have known before you entered it.

Then take that with you too.

Knowledge is possibility.

Action brings possibility to life.

And somewhere between the two, we become.

There’s so much of your life you haven’t experienced yet.

Maybe you don’t need to know exactly what happens next.

Maybe you just need to give yourself the opportunity to find out.

And maybe even surprise yourself along the way.

For more great insights, visit the Motivated Savages Podcast!