Don’t Be a Baby Boomer Know It All

After age 50 you can feel like you have done it all – and you probably have.  It’s the “been there done that” feeling and attitude.  A lifetime of experiences remain with us boomers and we recall them to help us deal with life today and sometimes to share with others to guide them with our lessons learned.

At this stage of life you can feel confident in what you are doing and feel you can handle anything thrown at you. But if you think you always have the right comprehension of every situation, you may be a know it all.

If you have an opinion on everything regardless if you actually know anything about the subject, you may be a “know it all”.

Know it alls like to bombard their ideas and perils of wisdom to impress and show their perceived superior knowledge of a subject to elevate themselves above others. (Sounds like most of the talking heads on TV doesn’t it!)

Know it alls have a way of putting others down by implication since obviously they know it all and you know nothing except what is learned from them.

Sometimes we Boomers use our experience to give “what you should do..” advice to those younger than us.  Too much of this can be tiring to those on the receiving end and will qualify you for the “know it all” moniker.

So what can you do to overcome being viewed as  a “know it all”?

Be a lifelong learner curious to learn new things and asking questions to gain more knowledge.   Being a student rather than a teacher.  A know it all attitude will make it harder to learn.

Realize you can’t impart your knowledge just by giving a discourse of what you know.  You can spark an interest in learning in others and let them learn from their own experiences.

Don’t do all the talking or be overbearing when talking with a less experienced younger person.  This will result in the other party not contributing to the discussion because you already know it all.

At this age do you really need to impress others with an impression you know everything.

It seems the older you get the more we reflect back and recall some boomer stories of our life experiences from our past.  But in conversations with younger people when listening to one of their current experiences don’t try to top it by telling your story about doing the same thing (only bigger or better).

Be humble and respect other people’s views and experiences.  You may actually learn something.   If you don’t know something, say so.

Realize your comprehension of truth is yours but others may have a different comprehension from their experience. Respect differences.

These are some things that I will try to keep in mind myself so I don’t appear as a know it all. I would love to hear your comments and suggestions.

Someone said “I retired from being a know it all, it was too hard to keep up!”

Originally posted 2014-05-26 10:09:07.