We’ve all heard the phrase knowledge is power. But knowledge is so much more than just power. It is a multi-dimensional bridge. Knowledge connects people, it links the heart and the mind, it serves as a gateway to the soul of one’s self and the soul of others. It is a transcendental means of transmitting culture and tradition down through the ages.
Knowledge can be obtained in a variety of ways. Are you a reader or an experiencer? Some believe that it is best absorbed from conversations with others, particularly elders who have seen and done much more. Others believe that travel is the best way of learning. Many report that getting a degree from a traditional institute of education is the way to go, while others believe that leveraging online courses is the ultimate mode of knowledge acquisition.
No matter what method you view as superior, there is a kaleidoscope of ways to gain knowledge and wisdom. What is inarguable, however, is that learning is ideally a human-to-human transaction. If you’re traveling, conversing, or simply reading a book, then you are taking the hard-learned lessons of another and transforming yourself through that wisdom.
To help drive this concept home, I have compiled five of the best quotes from some of the most brilliant minds. Each of these echoes the value held in education and how knowledge helps people form deeper relationships with their hearts, souls, fellow citizens, and the world at large.
If you’re ready to have your heart and mind cracked open through the power of knowledge and education, then dive on in.
Educate to Inspire
Most teachers in our public education system don’t make a ton of money. As unfortunate as this is, these noble individuals go into their respective fields of education because they know that they are helping to push our society forward and to create a better tomorrow by sharing their knowledge with young adults.
Artist and architect Maya Lin expressed this notion beautifully when she stated:
“The only thing that mattered was what you were to do in life, and it wasn’t about money. It was about teaching, or learning.”
Teachers don’t teach because it makes them rich with money; they teach because it is what makes their lives rich with meaning.
To Teach, You Have to Reach
So many people today have powerful lessons to share with others who are walking similar roads or who are in search of a better way to live.
One of the hardest parts of distributing wisdom, however, is trying to reach the folks who are in search of your message. Thankfully, the digital ecosystem now includes several platforms that you can use to build an audience. But to do it right, you’ll need to be humble, framing your expertise as a work in progress. This is the very approach that entrepreneur and teacher Bob Helig has taken:
“If you create your videos not from the perspective of, ‘Hey, look at me: I’m a super successful expert,’ but you take them from the perspective of learning out loud, then all you’re doing is sharing things that you’re learning that are helping you on your journey.”
Helig started going on Periscope and Facebook Live every day, sharing his thoughts about entrepreneurship. By the time he launched his first paid course on the Kajabi platform, he had built such a large and engaged audience that the course earned him over $200,000 in its first month of existence.
Train to Transform
Dr. Jordan Peterson proclaims that when an individual learns, a small piece of him or her dies and something new is born; that learning is a transformative process.
Becoming increasingly educated makes people more capable in their lives, more understanding of the world around them, and more effective in pushing the society forward in a positive direction. Victorian-era art critic John Ruskin articulated this idea when he eloquently posited:
“Education is the leading of human souls to what is best and making what is best out of them.”
Acquiring an increasing body of knowledge and applying that to culture helps create better people and a better world.
Enlighten Others to Improve Oneself
The teaching process is a transformative endeavor for all who participate. This means that the teacher is equally changed through the process as the students are.
This is something that psychologist and author of Grow Rich While You Sleep Ben Sweetland was pointing to when he shared the notion that:
“We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own.”
By helping to brighten the lives of others through education, that shine cannot help but bleed into our own experience of life.
Teach and Create More Teachers
Much of what education does is to expose us to our true selves. It is through learning that an individual comes to understand the capacities and capabilities that live within. Once a person comes to understand and see this, it forever changes their sense of self and what they think is possible.
This idea goes perfectly with the wisdom shared by actress and philanthropist Doris Roberts before her passing in 2016:
“Everybody’s a teacher if you listen.”
As a natural byproduct of teaching, more educators are created. This is how humanity has continued its progressive upward journey for the past several hundred thousand years.
Go Share Some Light
So, go out there; teach, share, inspire. You have brilliant lessons to share with the world. Don’t let them go to waste by merely allowing them to exist in your head and heart.
Bring them forth and share your light with others.
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This content made possible by site supporter IJMA Deere Holdings.
Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
