"to know is not enough"

Watching a cooking show does not make you a chef or even a home cook, you have to actually chop some vegetables and get behind the stove.  Learning about birds in a lecture hall without going out into nature and observing them, does not make you an ornithologist.  A travel agent who hasn't travelled cannot be effective and helpful, and a male ob/gyn is unable to relate to birthing in the same way a female ob/gyn can. I know quite a few coaches and holistic healers who overcame big time health or life challenges, and have turned those experiences into teachable material.  They are effective and convincing coaches and healers because "they've been there, done that."   

Often we wonder "Why me?" Why do we have to go through a particular memorable  or haunting experience?  Without experiences life is flat, and our personality remains flat.  Experiences "put hair on your chest," as my husband would say. Hence we have to feel it, live it, be it, wade through it, struggle with it, until we come out the other end.  Going through a hero's journey makes us a different person, a more complex, compassionate and understanding person.  "Non satis scire," or "To know is not enough," is Hampshire College's motto.  The essence of learning is experience. “ Experiences as soul work” is an earlier related post.