We all laugh at Little Britain’s wheelchair-bound Andy Pipkin when he constantly retorts ‘Yea – I know’ to just about everything his selflessly dedicated carer Lou says to him. That’s because he clearly doesn’t listen, doesn’t understand, and plainly doesn’t really know at all.

To be open to the learning process, we must be careful not to subconsciously assume that we know all about something, when often our understanding of a subject is quite limited. Two people might both have the same amount of knowledge on a topic, but the one who feels he/she knows least and is open-minded to learning more will ultimately be the better educated one, with a much deeper comprehension.

Mentally assuming ‘I know’ is a directive to our inner consciousness that all is well, and there is nothing more to be learned about a subject. Adopting such an ‘ignorance is bliss’ type attitude is hardly conducive to learning and study, as our depth of understanding will always remain shallow.

We might be physically present at a study session, but new information is likely to pass us by when we’re viewing a lesson from a ‘know it all’ perspective. What’s the betting that we could have gleaned more, and used our time more wisely if we’d had the presence of mind to be receptive.

School’s never out for the professional, and it’s a fact that everyone in the world knows something that you don’t know, however clever you are. Keeping an open mind yields new perspectives and avenues that weren’t seen before, and this can lead to a deeper understanding all-round.

There’s no shame in repeating a topic several times to really get to grips with a subject. Every time you open-mindedly look again at something you already know, you’ll find new titbits of discovery. Think about a film you’ve enjoyed. When you watch it for the second time, you notice more sub-plots, and you pick up on key pieces of dialogue that have more meaning now.

Occasionally we can experience a revelation when objectively going over previously learned material. A different approach to teaching might throw into question our perceived wisdom on a subject, and lead us to better comprehend that which we’d mis-interpreted in the past.

Society has developed over the years because of open-minded people keen to progress the thinking of their age. Those who ‘know everything’ can never improve, and their ‘knowledge’ becomes stagnant. Those who embrace the ideas and wisdom of others become the most valuable people on earth.

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