Introduction
Arrogance can indeed stop learning in its tracks. It can never produce positive results for both parties that are involved in the learning process.
1. Ignorance
One of the ways in which arrogance stops learning is through promoting ignorance. Arrogance makes you ignorant. As far as learning is concerned, arrogance makes you think that you know everything. Arrogant people disregard the views of others, hence it stops them from listening to what other people have to say or considering their views. This is done under the illusion of intellectual superiority. If you are arrogant, you always think you’ve made it and refuse to develop with others. This will always make you lag behind. However, in fact, there will never come a time when one can know everything.
When it comes to competition, arrogant people never see the strengths of their competitors. They never learn how to minimize their competition simply because they assume that the competition can’t match them. This is detrimental and one could end up being locked out of opportunities.
When you are arrogant you always interrupt conversations. You always interrupt someone who is teaching you. Thus, you end up disrupting the learning process.
Arrogance hinders learning because it makes a person believe that they have answers to everything. You will rarely hear someone arrogant admit their mistakes. For effective learning to take place, you should be in a position that makes you admit mistakes and be able to learn from them.
2. Discourages Exertion
The second reason as to why arrogance can stop learning in its tracks is that it discourages exertion. This is because it instills the attitude that you’re good enough. If you think you’re good enough, you stop working. You stop exerting yourself and you don’t have the motivation to try. In essence, it makes you lazy. The implication this has is that you will not make any progress. You just can’t learn in a passive way. Learning is a proactive activity that requires exertion. It requires one to do extensive research. It requires one to put in a lot of hours of reading and revising. It also requires one to do a lot of write ups such as term papers, essays, and research projects. All these activities can’t be accomplished in a passive way. You inevitably have to put in effort and exert yourself. You can never learn anything without pushing yourself to work actively.
3. It Makes You Heartless
The third reason why arrogance can stop learning in its tracks is that it makes you heartless. Values and ideals that are specific to the learning environment no longer make sense to you. Your sense of humility subsides. You start undermining the value of other people as human beings. For a fact, all people in a learning environment are equal. However, an arrogant person will undermine others, thus they can get shunned. Even in case of instructors and educators, if you always undermine your students, they will end up not listening to you. The implication is that people will be repelled by you and learning will not take place.
You’ll always have the tendency to blame other people. This is because your mind is biased. It can never be your fault if any misfortunes occur. A key part of your daily utterances will be condescending phrases like ‘you are a jerk’ or ‘that was stupid’. Your speech will always be one that puts people down, even those who are helping you to learn something. When you always put down someone who assists you in the learning process, they will become demotivated and will ultimately stop interacting with you.
Therefore, we can conclude that arrogance is a vice that ultimately hinders learning from both points of the learner and the instructor.
If you have reasons to believe that you are arrogant, there are some actions you can take so as to remedy the situation.
Actions You Can Take So As To Remedy the Situation
1. Value Sincerity
It pays to be sincere. Start by offering compliments to people in a way that does not show that it’s forced. This will help you to develop people skills. Do not undermine the successes, opinions, and attitudes of another person. Always acknowledge the work and achievements of other people around you.
2. Accept That You Can Be Wrong
We are all humans and we are imperfect. Arrogance makes us think that we can never be wrong; that we’re always right. In any learning situation, there will always be something that is not clear and something that you know nothing about. Pretending that you know can never work to your advantage. You just have to point out what you know and what you don’t, and pick up from there.
3. Be Humble
Humility can never be overemphasized. All your actions should strive to have a humble touch. Maintain modesty and confidence. This will help you fight off any trace of arrogance.
4. Always Be Forthcoming
If you’re an authority in your field of expertise, the most rational thing to do is to share that knowledge in a positive way. If indeed you are superior in some sense, perhaps, you’re an expert in a certain field, it’s better to impart that knowledge or skill to other people instead of boasting about it. Exude your confidence at forums which can have a positive impact on other people. Write a book, blog or journal to share your experiences. Be a motivational speaker. The only thing you should refrain from is being arrogant and boastful.
What If You Are On The Other Receiving End Of Arrogance?
First, ignore the arrogant act. Don’t let the arrogance get to you. Always strive to be expedient. This will push the arrogant person to an edge where they will see no point in continuing with the arrogant acts as they will see that they don’t have an effect on you.
Secondly, change the conversation. If the arrogant person is dwelling on a topic that’s inappropriate or dominating the conversation, politely ask them to change the topic. Be firm in this resolve, so the arrogant person sees that you’re clearly not interested in engaging in a non-mutual conversation.
Thirdly, cease all interactions. If the arrogant person is notorious, you can help yourself by ceasing all communications and interactions. This will lessen the impact of the arrogance of the person on you or another party. You can also make it apparent that you don’t want to interact with the arrogant person by refusing to be drawn into a conversation with them. Make it apparent that you have other things to do.
Fourthly, offer polite and constructive criticism. You don’t have to agree with all that this person is saying. Have your opinion too and bring it up strongly. If you disagree with what they are saying, point it out and let them know you have a different opinion.
Another way how you can put off an arrogant person is by acting busy when they approach you. This is recommended when this person is your workmate, schoolmate or an acquaintance that you can’t avoid. If you see them approaching, act like you are up to something important. You can fake a phone call. You can attend other people first or you can feign distraction. The motive is to keep them waiting for so long until they see that there’s no point in interacting with you at this instance.