I’m taking a course right now and the teacher made a good point in her introduction that got me thinking. She talks about the different types of students she encounters; there are the enthusiastic students, the readers, and the implementers.
It served as a reminder that knowledge is only as good as what we do with it. We can take all the courses in the world, attend every personal growth seminar and read all the books, but if we don’t do anything with the knowledge we gain, it’s kind of a waste, isn’t it? What’s the point in spending all that time learning new things if we aren’t going to incorporate it into our lives in some way?
I think that the challenge comes from the fact that the implementation of the things we learn is going to take work. It’s going to require a change of some kind and that’s not something a lot of us are comfortable with. Whether that change is releasing an old habit or stepping outside of our comfort zone, it means entering the realm of the unknown.
It’s important to remember why we sought out the knowledge in the first place. There’s a reason we signed up for the course, bought the book or registered for the seminar. There was something that we wanted to learn more about. I don’t think that most of us want knowledge for knowledge’s sake, we seek it to make our lives better. The only way that’s going to happen is if we implement the things that we learn after we gain the knowledge we sought.
I feel like it’s important to mention that implementation is a process. It’s not likely that we’re going to see results right away and that’s okay. We have to realize that we didn’t get where we are right now overnight, so any significant shift is going to take time as well.
The reality is that without actually implementing the things that we’ve learned, we’re just hoarders of knowledge. A gym membership isn’t going to get us in shape if we don’t actually go to the gym. Buying healthy food isn’t enough to make us healthy if it just stays in the fridge and goes bad. It takes more than intentions to make meaningful changes in our lives. We have to be willing to take action.
Are you ready to implement what you’ve learned?