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Three Hard Words
There is a saying and common belief that “knowledge is power.” However, I would argue that there is a lot more power in three words which can be extraordinarily difficult to say; those tricky words are “I don’t know.”
What exactly is it that that makes uttering these three words so challenging?
For one thing, our egos get in the way. So many of us like to feel like we are on top of things, we are valuable, and we have so much to contribute. And we probably do. But our ego can be bruised by admitting that we don’t know something.
The other reason, probably the main reason in fact, that these words are hard to say is fear. We are scared. Everyone deals with some level of self-doubt. Everyone. Admitting that you do not know can escalate that “impostor syndrome,” that feeling that we are in over our heads. We are scared that people will think that we are incompetent.
People look to people in authority to have answers. That is just the way that things are, the way that our society has been conditioned. Think back to when you were young; you probably felt like your parents had the answer to everything. That no matter what question you threw at them, they were able to answer. Your teachers were the same; seemingly all-knowing. During our formative years, we continually experienced people in authority having the answers, so we feel that to “be…
