Want to Keep Leveling Up? Let Go of What You Know

The biggest obstacle to learning is thinking you already know.

One of the major problems we run into when trying to grow, improve, or apply what we’ve learned is this:

We confuse familiarity with understanding.

We hear something in a podcast. We read it in a book. We nod along because we’ve heard it before, and our brain goes, “Yep, got it.”

But we didn’t get it.

We don’t apply it in our day-to-day actions and wee couldn’t explain it simply if we tried. We skip the hard work of experimenting with it, reflecting on it, or teaching it to someone else. We think we know, and that illusion is what stops real growth.

What we have as children, then lose as adults, is the beginner’s mind.

Children learn fast not just because their brains are sponges, but because they don’t pretend to know. They ask endless questions. They try, fail, and try again, without shame or overthinking. They’re not attached to how they look or how smart they sound. They just want to know more.

A beginner’s mind is curious, humble, and willing to see things as they are. Not through the filter of “already knowing.” And if you want to keep growing, especially in areas where you’re already good, you’ll need to return to that mindset again and again.

Because every level of learning brings a new ego trap.

And the only way to keep levelling up, is to stay open.

The 5 Stages of Learning (and the Ego Traps That Stop Us)

As I was reflecting on the importance of keeping a beginners mind, I started to think about the stages of learning that we go through.

There are many different models for this, but the one I like the best is the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition, which maps out the five stages we move through as we build any skill. I think this can equally be applied to gaining knowledge or expertise in any area — from poker, to business, to relationships, to understanding yourself.

Let’s explore each stage and the ego trap that tends to show up.

Level 1 – Novice

At this stage, you’re brand new. You need structure, rules, and clear step-by-step guidance. You haven’t made enough mistakes yet to understand how things work. The danger here isn’t overconfidence, but discouragement. Because everything feels hard, it’s easy to assume something must be wrong with your approach.

Ego Trap: “This is too hard, maybe I’m just not good at this.”

We'll come back to how to get past this stage shortly.

Level 2 – Advanced Beginner

Now you’ve picked up a few tools. Maybe you’ve watched some videos, read a few books and picked up the lingo. You’ve seen some early results. You start feeling like you're “getting it”. But this is where a subtler trap appears: the illusion of understanding.

Ego Trap: “I know how this works.”

You know just enough to talk confidently, and that’s when the ego starts to think you are better than you actually are.

Level 3 – Competent

At this point, you can stand on your own. You’re capable of getting results. You know what works, and just as importantly, what doesn’t. People might even come to you for advice. It’s a great feeling, but also a dangerous one.

Ego Trap: “I’ve made it. I'm good at this.”

When you start getting results, the ego gets comfortable. The majority of people get stuck at this level, even in their chosen careers.

Level 4 – Proficient

You’ve been doing this for a while now. You see the bigger picture and you can make subtle adjustments instinctively. You use less cognitive thinking and you have efficient ways of doing things. But with familiarity comes rigidity.

Ego Trap: “I’ve been doing this for years. I know what I’m doing.”

And if you aren't careful, curiosity starts to shut down.

Level 5 – Mastery

This is where everything looks effortless. You can adapt. You can innovate. You’ve internalised the craft so deeply that it almost feels like second nature. At this stage you don't rely on rules, instead you trust your intuition and pattern recognition to make decisions.

But mastery brings its own trap, one that’s harder to spot.

Ego Trap: “I’m the expert, I know everything.”

Now the ego identifies with knowing — and that identity can block further growth.

Each stage of learning brings new capabilities, but also new traps. If you’re not careful, you can start looping in place. You keep doing the same things, assuming you’re improving, but the growth slows. So what actually creates progress? Not more knowledge, but a better approach to learning.

This is where Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle comes in.

Looping Through the Learning Cycle

If the ego is what makes us plateau, then what keeps us progressing?

It’s not more information. It’s not another strategy. It’s staying in motion.

Kolb’s model explains how real learning happens in a four stage loop:

1. Concrete Experience — You do something. You try.

2. Reflective Observation — You pause and review. What happened?

3. Abstract Conceptualisation — You draw conclusions. Spot patterns.

4. Active Experimentation — You try again, applying what you’ve learned.

And then the loop repeats. At the heart of the model is this idea:

You don’t just learn by doing. You learn by reflecting on what you’ve done — and applying those insights in new ways.

The most effective learners aren’t just collecting ideas. They’re turning experience into insight.

In a digital world flooded with information, it’s easy to mistake consumption for understanding. But unless you close the loop with reflection and application, learning doesn’t deepen.

So what goes wrong at each stage? And how do you keep learning when your ego wants to coast?

The Learning Cycle in Practice

Once you understand Kolb’s learning cycle — experience, reflect, generalise, apply — you start seeing why people get stuck.

It's not because they’re not smart enough or disciplined enough. It's because, at every stage of development, there’s a different way the loop breaks.

Let’s walk through each stage again, now through the lens of Kolb’s model:

Level 1: The Novice Dilemma

Mistakes feel like failure, and because you don’t have much experience yet, it’s hard to know what’s working and what’s not. So you hesitate. You seek more information. You wait until it feels safe to begin, but that moment never really comes.

Where the learning loop breaks: there’s no action to generate data.

Beginner’s Mindset Tip: Just start. Let action be your teacher. Every rep is data. Reflect after each attempt, not to judge, but to learn.

Level 2: The Illusion of Understanding

Now you’ve got a little momentum. But that’s where the trap lies. You feel like you “get it,” when really you’re just repeating what you’ve heard. You haven’t tested it. You haven’t made it your own.

Where the learning loop breaks: there’s no real reflection or personalisation.

Beginner’s Mindset Tip: Stay curious. Ask: “Do I know this because I’ve lived it, or just because I’ve heard it?” Test your ideas. See what’s actually true for you.

Level 3: The Competency Plateau

At this point, you can perform reliably and get solid results. But with that comfort often comes complacency. You stop experimenting. You fall into routines. Which results in an inevitable plateau.

Where the learning loop breaks: you keep doing the same thing without reflecting or adjusting.

Beginner’s Mindset Tip: Look for friction. Ask: “Where have I stopped reflecting because things are working?” Add a new challenge. Break the loop with novelty.

Level 4: The Proficient Trap

You’ve internalised a lot by now. Things feel automatic. You rely on intuition, and it usually serves you well. But over time, you stop asking why things work. You become so good at doing that you forget to reflect.

Where the learning loop breaks: efficiency replaces curiosity.

Beginner’s Mindset Tip: Question your assumptions. Pause before you act. Look for what you could be missing.

Level 5: The Mastery Identity

This is the stage everyone admires. You’re seen as an expert. But that title can be a trap. You start identifying with what you know, and stop inviting challenge. Reflection disappears as you marinate in what you know.

Where the learning loop breaks: the ego starts protecting its status instead of seeking new understanding.

Beginner’s Mindset Tip: Stay open. Approach everything as if it could still teach you something. Let go of being right.

As you can see, there are challenges at every level, and even mastery is not the end point. It's important to know which level you are roughly at for any skill you are trying to get better at, so you can avoid the inevitable pitfalls that keep you stuck there.

Know Your Learning Style

As you navigate the learning journey, it’s also worth understanding how you tend to learn best. According to Kolb, people develop preferences across two axes:

• Feeling vs Thinking — How you make sense of experiences

• Doing vs Watching — How you engage with experiences

This makes a lot of sense to me and explains why different approaches to learning work well for different people. Some people are very hands on and learn my feeling and doing. Others are more reflective, and learn from thinking and watching.

Kolb put this into four primary learning styles which are worth reflecting on:

Diverging (Feeling + Watching)

You learn best by reflecting on experiences and exploring different perspectives. You’re strong in imagination and emotional insight. You prefer to watch, gather information, and make sense of the whole picture before acting.

Assimilating (Thinking + Watching)

You like ideas, logic, and abstract concepts. You learn by analysing, modelling, and understanding theories. You prefer reading, listening, and reflecting before doing.

Converging (Thinking + Doing)

You’re a problem solver. You learn by testing theories in the real world and figuring things out through experimentation. You like practical, results-driven learning.

Accommodating (Feeling + Doing)

You thrive on hands-on experience. You prefer to learn by doing and adapting on the fly. You rely more on gut feeling than logic, and learn best through trial and error.

Which one do you relate to most? I lean toward Converging, as I like thinking through things and applying them quickly. But the more flexible you are, the deeper your learning becomes. If you’re a thinker, take more action. If you’re a doer, make time to reflect.

Return to the Beginner’s Mind

So what does it all come down to?

Here’s what we’ve covered:

• The five stages of learning: and the ego traps that block growth at each level

• The learning loop: how true growth comes from doing, reflecting, and applying

• The four learning styles: and how your preferences shape how you make sense of experience

But beneath it all, the core message is simple: If you want to keep growing, you have to keep learning.

And if you want to keep learning, you have to stay open.

That’s what the beginner’s mind is all about.

It’s a mindset of curiosity over certainty. Humility over ego. Awareness over assumption.

It reminds you that even when you’ve been doing something for years, there’s always more to see. It helps you reflect more deeply, apply more intentionally, and resist the urge to coast on what you already know. And most importantly, it keeps you evolving, not just performing.

So whether you're at the start of your journey or deep into mastery, ask yourself:

• Am I still learning from experience?

• Am I still reflecting and adjusting?

• Am I still challenging what I think I know?

Because in the end, it’s not what you’ve learned that matters.

It's how willing you are to keep learning.

Adam