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Do you love Harry Potter and can’t get enough of it? Then you’ll like this list! Here are 11 life lessons we can learn from Ravenclaw.
As with all of these Harry Potter lists, remember that many of these ideas come from the fandom instead of the books or movies.
There are many characteristics of the four houses that big parts of the fandom have agreed on, and the following life lessons are some of them.
Read also: 11 Life Lessons To Learn From Slytherin | How To Be A True Slytherin
Read also: Reading List For Personal Growth
1. Seek Knowledge for knowledge’s sake
Knowledge is potential power, and Ravenclaws are aware of this. But few of them truly care.
They don’t aspire to hold powerful positions in society. Instead, they enjoy knowledge for knowledge’s sake.
That’s also why they often find reading about random topics that piqued their curiosity instead of issues targeted to be useful to them.
In our informational age, it is incredibly easy to gain new information. Yet only a minority of people use the internet and books for purposes other than entertainment.
2. Create! – that’s what humans are meant to do
Ravenclaws embody the essence of what makes humans so different from their mammal peers: Intellect and creativity.
Our capability to learn new information is unrivaled in the animal kingdom.
But even more unique is our ability to create new things, be it houses we live in, school systems for better education, or genetically modified food.
Animals might create a nest or den to live in, but they don’t experiment with ways to improve that structure.
Creativity is part of what makes us more than mere animals. This makes it all the more surprising that many humans dedicate little time to creating things. Even worse, some people seem almost exclusively focused on destroying things.
Ravenclaws, however, embrace their creativity firmly; look at Luna Lovegood being involved with the Quibbler production or Rowena Ravenclaw and her Room of Requirement.
A life lesson to learn from Ravenclaw is that we should be more creative, whether that means writing fanfictions in private or making a living as content creators. Just create something, anything.
3. Look beyond the obvious and see what others miss
It can be difficult to look beyond what you see. That’s why many people shy away from spirituality, and fake news is immediately taken for face value.
While Slytherins can see the less obvious on a psychological level, Ravenclaws see it on a more worldly level.
Think of Luna Lovegood and her almost seer-like remarks. She views the world in an entirely different way than the rest of us.
Sure, some of it may be far-fetched, but a lot is spot on and helps her navigate life much more smoothly.
When was the last time you tried to look beyond the obvious?
For example, look at school peers or coworkers. Surely, you’ve given some of them mental labels by now (e. g. know-it-all, lazy, naive, spoilt, etc.).
Try to look beyond that for a change. Actively seek out different explanations for their behavior that you have yet to consider.
Do the same with the news you consume. Always consider different sources of information and know that nobody is ever entirely unbiased.
4. Be curious and search for answers
Children are naturally curious. They ask questions about everything and annoy their parents during their ‘WHY’-phase.
As we grow older, we lose big parts of this curiosity. Sometimes we don’t question further because it seems like too much trouble, and other times we think we already know everything there is to know.
But a true Ravenclaw is a person who is curious about everything. They research and ask questions until that curiosity is satisfied or, rather, until they latch onto one of the many new questions that came up in their research.
As the Ravenclaws show, one should never underestimate the importance of curiosity in learning.
Curiosity is a big reason children learn so quickly and why Ravenclaws are the high performers at Hogwarts.
Try to explore your curiosity a bit more in the coming days. Do research on topics you’ve never fully understood but always brushed over.
Ask a friend about their current obsession and dive into that for a day or two to see if you’ll also latch on.
Just give it a try – that’s what a true Ravenclaw would do.
5. Sharpen the weapon that is language
“Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.” – Luna Lovegood.
Ravenclaws have a large vocabulary. It comes with all the reading.
That’s why they can express themself so succinctly and know exactly how to intelligently tell someone off.
A quick tongue is not only useful during presentations and negotiations but also for dating.
So endeavor to up your wit levels.
Read more challenging reading material than social media captions and instant messages.
Play act like your favorite witty character while you’re alone, to slowly adopt some of their mannerism.
Just don’t assume that it is an innate trait. It can very well be learned.
6. Get in touch with your intuition
One of the life lessons we can learn from Ravenclaw is to get more in touch with our intuition.
Rowena Ravenclaw was not a woman purely driven by logic and intellect. In fact, her intuition often led her so accurately that it seemed almost eerie to the other founders.
Luna Lovegood is much the same in that way, and Harry Potter, who could have been sorted into any of the houses, also has those moments.
You might wonder how you can get in touch with your intuition. Thankfully, many coaches and courses can help you with that nowadays.
They will hold your hand and help you eliminate mindset and energy blocks that make connecting with your intuition harder.
But ultimately, it comes down to practice. The more you feel like you can trust your intuition, the easier it will be to feel it out.
One way to trust your intuition is through games. For example, when you have no idea how to answer during multiple-choice quiz games, pick the question that feels good before you’ve even given yourself any time to think.
Or, during Sudoku, put the number into the field that feels right when you are stuck.
The more little successes you have while using your intuition, the easier it will get.
But is it good to follow your intuition?
The book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ mentions multiple studies that show just why you shouldn’t trust your intuition. Time and time again people have fallen prey to biases.
But then again, there is a difference between guessing and listening to your intuition.
Ultimately, it’s up to you when to follow your intuition and when to apply logical thinking.
7. Be unique and stand out
Nobody ever got remembered in history because they were perfectly ordinary.
And I bet what draws you most to your loved ones is never their ‘normality.’ No, it’s their unique quirks.
Luckily, you don’t have to come up with things that will make you unique. You already have them within you.
In other words, authenticity makes you stand out from the rest – to be unapologetically yourself.
However, being authentic doesn’t justify you being a nasty asshole who only complains about all their problems instead of attempting to fix them.
In a way, that nasty version of you is not your true authentic self, but instead, your real self is hidden behind all that baggage and waiting to come out.
A true Ravenclaw is a person who stands out from the crowd; think of Luna Lovegood and her quirky Quidditch hat or Filius Flitwick’s squeaky excitement as he fell off the books.
Have you been trying to blend in? In what way are you trying to ‘normalize’ yourself?
8. The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword decides who holds the pen
Ravenclaws can sometimes be idealistic. They know that knowledge can be power, and that makes them feel superior.
They think they only need to get all the facts straight and do ‘proper’ research, and then everyone will hear them out.
Sooner or later, they will all make the frustrating experience that that’s not how our world works.
Just remember how scandalized and frustrated Hermione was when she was met by the willful blindness and vicious lies of Umbridge and Fudge.
She could scarcely believe that they chose to ignore the facts.
In fact, the suppression of truth through people in power became so bad that the Ministry officially accused muggle-borns of stealing their wands from ‘proper’ wizards.
This highlights the difference between Slytherins and Ravenclaws beautifully. While Ravenclaws focus all their effort on acquiring knowledge, Slytherins strive to gain knowledge and power.
It’s unsurprising that, in the end, there are more Slytherins in positions of power whose knowledge is referred to than Ravenclaws.
10. You can’t live life with your head in the clouds
Since this list is about the life lessons we can learn from Ravenclaw, we also have to talk about negative personality traits the Ravenclaws have come to terms with.
For example, they must learn how to stop losing track of time. Luna Lovegood is a perfect example of someone who constantly has her head in the clouds.
But she’s far from the only Ravenclaw with that tendency. The ravens are always contemplating something, but only sometimes is it relevant to what is going on in the physical world at that moment.
And that’s ok, as long as the topic you’re thinking about doesn’t make you lose track of time. So, pulling your head out of the clouds will be hard if that happens.
Thankfully, there are some things you can do about this.
If you are on your own and want to let your mind run free, then set yourself a timer or five.
This also works if your mind keeps drifting off unconsciously. Set a timer for recurring intervals as a reminder to focus on the task at hand.
Another technique can be to write down whatever seems urgent for your mind to consider immediately. Once you’ve written it down somewhere, you can rest assured that it won’t be forgotten.
And if all that fails, consider taking up meditation and reducing your time on ‘short media.’
TikTok and Insta Stories lower your attention span to a few seconds. No wonder you struggle during 90 min lectures!
11. Not everything is a competition
Some Ravenclaws are too competitive when it comes to the knowledge department.
They pride themself in their knowledge and want to prove it to everyone around them.
Sooner or later, they will learn what happens if you are too competitive: You upset everyone around you.
Let other people raise their hand in class, too, for heaven’s sake! And if you do answer, make it brief, and don’t use the opportunity for a presentation about everything else you know.
These were the 11 life lessons we can learn from Ravenclaw. Do you have another lesson to add? Share your thoughts with us!
If you are determined to bring out your inner Ravenclaw, comment ‘DIADEM‘ down below.
Until next time, Felicity Seeker!
