We Are All Ignorant About Something
In today’s society, there is an absurd belief like this: “I have to be able and show intelligence and wisdom in everything I do.” In other words, we should be completely infallible, at least in the eyes of other people. We have no permission to make mistakes and ignorance is a sin.
Many times, people who take on too many tasks take on a strong fear that they would appear inferior, ignorant, or less intelligent if they did not take on all that responsibility. They feel that if others think they are not good enough in some area of knowledge or in some skill or ability, then they are rejected. And this is an experience of something unbearable and gives rise to an immense amount of anxiety in them.
If we consider this a little, we will realize very quickly that this is irrational and harmful fear. It is true that demonstrating certain skills, attributes, or wisdom is satisfactory. When others admire us, praise or congratulate us, we feel good in our own skins. We feel proud, glorious.
However, it is a different thing to enjoy praise than to be in a situation where our very self-esteem is tied to how intelligent, civilized, or skilled we are. Our self-esteem should not depend on these things.
Self-esteem should never depend on superficial values, physical things, intelligence, success, achievement, or gaining the approval of others. Because these values are very easy to lose at the moment at any time, and therefore if you really lose them, you will lose your self-esteem with them on its smooth path. This in turn makes you a very vulnerable person.
There will always be someone more handsome or more beautiful than you, smarter, smarter, more civilized, more successful… For this reason, if you let your self-esteem and your values depend on others, you will be emotionally weak. Feeling uncomfortable and fighting your own self will take over your life.
Where did this belief come from?
Unfortunately, we have been taught from a very young age that we should “study hard,” “be someone important,” “be the best,” because if we don’t do that… There will be something bad happening! For example: we are not the smartest individual in the conversation, we do not have a respected and honorable job, we are not successful… What would other people think? We would have been doomed to average life! What a shame!
Imagine how a child feels when he or she is taught these thoughts. He grows up worrying about being number one and constantly trying to show his own worth. He decides to compete with others to “be the best” instead of competing with himself to challenge himself and have fun. This child is growing up anxious and will experience the threat of not recognizing his worth… Quite mind-boggling and crushing, right?
To unravel the belief taught, we must provide ourselves with arguments to convince ourselves that what we think is completely illogical, unreal, absurd. Therefore, we need to combat it and replace the old model with healthier beliefs. Here are some arguments you can use:
- Intelligence is not the most important value: just as we mentioned earlier, whether ignorant or not, whether intelligent or civilized, is not very important. We can live perfectly and to the fullest even if we are not very intelligent, and ignorance does not diminish anyone’s value as a person or as an individual at all. The real value that matters is love. Love life, yourself and others.
- We are all ignorant of something : ignorance afflicts each of us to some degree, we just close our eyes to different things, and this is very true. Your doctor may know a lot about medicine, but nothing about computers. An electrician may have a great knowledge of electricity, but perhaps he is a full trump card in photography…
That’s how it just goes, that we strive to be perfect and know so much until we reach this imaginary boundary that ultimately doesn’t even exist. It lives only in the minds of others. So let’s accept what’s real: we’re all ignorant of something and the number of these things is endless, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The world continues to spin.
When we accept this, our relationship with other people improves: We often imagine that by showing ourselves in some way to be successful, intelligent, or wise, we win the appreciation of others, and this may be true often or sometimes. Especially and especially when this appreciation comes from empty people who share the same inferior value scales.
Fortunately, however, there are countless people in the world who really appreciate genuine people who look like they are. They appreciate people who admit that they are not good at everything or perfect, but are willing to have fun while learning. These are the real heroic people of our reality.
Obviously, if we live our lives with this kind of mindset, our relationship with others will improve. We do not engage in debates or foolish disputes to find out the truth or to be right. We simply enjoy being there and learning along the way because we each have something to learn.
Allow yourself to seem ignorant and you will find that nothing bad is happening: Are you afraid to raise your hand in class to ask the teacher something because you are afraid you seem ignorant? Note that if you don’t ask, that’s exactly when you’re ignorant. Such paradoxical effects are typical of psychology: because I’m afraid I seem silly, I’m silly after all.
We should ignore this fear, which claims to us that something bad will happen if we don’t know the answer to the question or if we fail. Nothing happens, you go on with your life. So dare to do all the things you haven’t dared or dared to do now : ask questions, raise your hands in class, answer questions, and learn something new along the way.
