I used to think I was pretty smart. There are certain things I “knew” and was sure I had figured out.
For those of you who have been reading a long time, you might remember when I first came across the Mark Twain quote, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” (Ironically this quote was at the beginning of the movie The Big Short and people have been quoting Mark Twain because of it, but it’s not actually his quote – guess they must have “known for sure” too).
Reading these words had me questioning everything in life – my “know it all for sure” self became a “know nothing at all”. It rocked my world for a while because my ego had to really take a back seat – all of the good things happen once you get that bad boy put in its place.
What I discovered was a whole new way of seeing the world because I became curious about why things were the way they were, even the things I thought I knew for sure. I started asking “what’s this for?” And “why” all of the time.
Why is being alone so scary?
Why do we want to be with people we love during the holidays?
What is marriage for?
What is money for?
Why do we have laws?
Everything I encountered I questioned and I started to see the world differently. I began to see how we all have the same wiring, but it also helped to stop resisting life and the ways in which I was wired too.
I learned the value of connection, which helped me dive deeper into it and taught me about vulnerability, shame, and living with an open heart.
I learned that importance of love, which has helped me discover a universal love for all things, which has taught me compassion.
And I learned that understanding my value as a human was the greatest gift I could give another person, because hiding in the shadows wasn’t helping anyone.
These are some pretty big, life changing lessons… and to think it started with a quote about the difference between knowing versus knowing for sure.. that I couldn’t even comprehend at first. Which by the way, I’ve discovered is the difference between being wise and being smart. And when give the choice between those two, I’ll choose wisdom any day.