Knowledge is not power unless you apply it.  This is something that took me many years to reconcile.  I used to pride myself on the extent of my knowledge thinking it made me powerful.  There are certain benefits to having an extensive knowledge base and quite frankly, as a child, the emphasis was on expanding that base continually.  I watched people around me who seemed to know less progress further and further until it finally hit me that I knew all of this information but I didn’t know how to relate to myself, to others, or even how to apply what I did know.  I could answer an exam or rattle off random information at a party, but practical application, not so much.  The point of knowledge is to use it and discover that practical application.  Knowledge isn’t something to covet or hide away like a museum piece, it is meant to be applied and expanded.  There is no limit, there will never be a point of all-knowing, and passing tests isn’t something that happens in the real world.

If we feel stuck, the question becomes more about discovering the application of what we know—or a different application of what we know.  If we want to advance, we have to learn to look at things differently and we have to learn to do them differently as well.  The saying, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got,” seems appropriate here.  It’s also important to understand the point of power.  The point isn’t to exert power over people—that’s been attempted by limiting access to knowledge for millennia.  The point of power is expansion, and the best way to do that is to share knowledge and see how others apply it, to learn from others.  It’s the same for us as individuals: we aren’t meant to carry it all, we are meant to disperse the load and make it easier for everyone.  Knowledge is also about expansion within ourselves—growth.  When we are able to master ourselves we are able to master information.  We are able to see how things apply to us and we are able to apply them outside as well—but we always start with ourselves.