Knowledge is (dis)(em)power(ing)

There’s a whole wealth of knowledge out there just waiting for our brains to soak up and turn into insights that can improve the quality of our lives, help us to overcome hurdles and set us free. Yet there’s also a lot of information in the world that’s just junk: negative stuff, stuff that makes us feel bad about ourselves, stuff that distracts us from moving forward in life, stuff that’s misinformed, miserable and manipulative.

Knowledge is power (so the proverb goes) if you’re able to use it to your own advantage. Yet knowledge is disempowering when it’s used against you.

Learning how to pick, sieve, filter, accept and block information is a skill in its own right. So too is learning how to process information and adapt it to our own needs, learning how to separate truth from lies and learning how to retain and remember information.

Ideally everyone would grow up to have full control and command of their own learning. They’d learn how to think for themselves and how to learn for themselves. But sadly, many people lack the ability to think and learn independently, instead relying on others to provide the information and tell them what to do with it.

Is the time right for you to embark on some self-directed learning? Learning that you initiate and have complete control over?