This 90s movie, the Matrix had me sitting on the edge of my sit the very first time I watched it and if my memory serves me right it was 2009, yes I'm not that old.
There is truly a clear distinction between knowing the path and walking the path. Morpheus said this.
Knowing the path only implies that you could explain it to people, you could talk about it when asked to or even think that you understand it. Basically, you have all the steps in your head, you could even coach someone to get good with the path.
However, it is an entirely different thing to walk the path.
Having knowledge of a task is different from doing it. You would have to take action, try and that means face the possibility of failing and then trying again until you get the work done or achieve the set goal.
I would argue that most people only get to the point of knowing the path and never doing and that explains why there are less successful people than there are people who never accomplish their goals or dreams.
They read about it, think about it and feel like they understand it, dream about it buth day and night but never take action. Facts are facts and the fact of life is that you only have half the story until you actually walk it. The walk is not nice at all. It's mostly hard or even feels wrong sometimes. You will make all the mistakes, you will experience burnout and get tired.
You get to a point where you start to question whether you should quit. When you experience this, you're simply walking the path and that's what will bring the success. So many books on how to be a millionaire, you've read them for years, but are you a millionaire? That's the thing, applying is so much harder than reading such books. It takes real life discipline.
You may know how to ride a bike in theory, but riding it is something else. You know you have to just sit and paddle, but doing it for the first time you'd realize it's much more complex. Such is life and everything in it.
When it comes to virtue, you may know how to be kind, but to be kind requires you to put forth real effort, sacrifice that will bring you much pain.
You can learn theoretically about school, sports or life, but doing those things teaches you way more than words ever could. Walking the path has an effect on you and that effect changes who you are. I am more concerned about who I become while trying to achieve goals than the goal itself.
The path teaches you something that you did not know before, with each step you take. The things you do wrongly and which you learn from, stay with you for a longer period than the things you read in books. Don't get me wrong, reading is so important and basically the first step anyways. Don't start anything without information. But also don't expect to know everything before you start because somethings can only be learned through experiencing them and that would come from walking the path.
