What pushes us towards greater understanding is when we choose to learn more about something. Learning can never be forced upon us. The desire to seek it must be within us. When we are interested, focused, and care.
Learning leads to understanding. But it is never sufficient by itself, though, to achieve better outcomes. You need the understanding to realize better outcomes. Understanding involves an aspect of the judgment we forget to consider. Does our new information fit or seem too extreme? Could there be other possibilities? Why don’t I see the connection the new information talks about between A and B? What am I missing? How does the new information fit into our lives? Do I have the skills and confidence to use what I now learned?
As you see, there are multiple questions that should be answered in order to nurture and create understanding. As you see, new information learned can never be taken at face value. And should not be. Especially when trying to solve a problem or obstacle you face. The evolution and depth of your understanding will grow over time. Placing new information learned within the context of the situation you face. Giving you a better opportunity to see if it “fits” or not.
Sometimes we are told something over and over again but fail to “get it” or understand why. We may not know the importance of what is being said. Our innocence or ignorance may keep us from understanding what we now learned.
When we don’t understand but think we know, we rush to indiscriminately apply what we heard without understanding the risks and impact of what we choose to do. Most times leading to diminished and/or less desired outcomes.
Understanding is difficult. Most times it does not come easily. It rarely appears without practice and repetition. There is an aspect of understanding that needs “a perspective” that can place what we learned into the context of our lives together wrapped in our goals.
This process of hearing, reading, listening, then learning, is different for each of us. Not all of us learn at the same rate. Our prior knowledge or lack of it will also play a role in how fast we learn something new. I find that people who ask questions “around” what they hear are actively trying to learn more as they pursue understanding to “tie everything together”.
Our humanity always gets in the way of our understanding. How much do we use of what we heard? What is our emotional state when we are trying to learn about something and then decide the next “course of action”? Are we at a stage where we finally begin to accept what we hear as helpful, truthful, and possible? What biases do we have? How ready are we to search and learn? Our ego piles on by rejecting what we now understand because we want to be right clinging to what we already believe to make us feel good.
Developing a new understanding from learning takes time. As well as a personal adjustment to being more open to what we learn and now understand that is different than before. Working hard to not be frustrated by either the process or the time it takes to get there as well as be open to the new possibilities it reveals. For it can help make our choices, so much better.