Are You Teachable?

Have you heard of Dr Savai Kemeni Lihanda? He is one of the most educated Kenyans with five degrees in theology, law, education, philosophy and arts; plus a few diplomas. In Kibera where he’s lived for decades, he is fondly referred to as Mr. President, probably because of his failed attempt at the presidency in 2002. Dr Lihanda leads a frustrated life, blaming the government for failing to employ him. His only consolation is the conviction that no one can take away his knowledge from him.

Dr Lihanda definitely was willing to learn, and maybe still is judging by the heap of books and newspapers that take up all the space in his one bedroomed shack. Plus you need a high level of curiosity and open mindedness to pursue and complete five degrees and add a few diplomas on top. However there’s an ingredient missing in this recipe.

Last week I wrote about the importance of who you get advice from. This counts also for which books you read or which videos you watch. Once you’ve identified a good source of knowledge, you need to be teachable in order to benefit from this knowledge and change your life. Teachability has two important components: the willingness to learn and the willingness to accept change.

1- Willingness to learn starts with the acknowledgement that there’s something you don’t know, the knowledge of which could change everything. In fact what you know is always as much as the size of the palm of your hand. Everything else is what you don’t know, some of which you can’t even dream about.

How do you know that you have a high willingness to learn? You are ready to give up some of the things you love to acquire knowledge. Are you ready to wake up one hour or two earlier than usual to read a book, listen to a recording or watch videos on what you want to learn? Would you wake up at 3am for a webinar? Would you travel far to attend a talk? Would you spend a weekend away from your family for a workshop? And especially would you spend whatever money it takes to acquire that knowledge?

2- Your willingness to learn will not take you far though unless you are willing to accept change. Some of the knowledge you are exposed to may challenge your beliefs or what you have accepted as the truth so far. Your willingness to accept that there’s more to what you’ve known so far, that there could be other facets to what you’ve always accepted as the truth, and to give a try to the new found knowledge to see whether it can lead you to the results you’ve been seeking, will make the difference between success and failure.

Knowledge is not power. Applied knowledge is. And you can only put your knowledge to work if you are teachable.

So how teachable are you?

Angela

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