Funny ole times. We are in a time of more information than we have ever had access to, but with more health crises (especially mental health) than have even been experienced before.
Clearly, this is a complex and multifaceted issue (and this is Wellbeing Wednesday so I like to keep things light!) but this fantastic graphic (image credit @gapingvoid) for me sums up one aspect of what is SO wrong with a lot of the wellbeing industry 👇
Good, right? I have said this before and I will say it again: INFORMATION IS NOT POWER.
Unless information is INTEGRATED AND IMPLEMENTED, it isn’t helping!
I went on a course many years ago, delivered by a VERY well known practitioner and author, and I have to say her information was AMAZING. Like WOWSERS amazing. Blew our collective minds!
She delivered so much content our brains were buzzing with it. WOW WE CAN BE THE HEALTHIEST WOMEN EVVVEEERRRR everyone was thinking!
There were so many questions about the intricacies of what she delivered almost every hand went up…but…she only took the first 5 questions…so those questions were left unanswered. There was no follow-up after the day, just a “thanks for attending (and please buy some more of my stuff!)”. It was helluva a day though, I mean WOW! SO MUCH INFORMATION!!!
A month later, I caught up with the girlfriends I did the course with. We reminisced on just how amazing all that information was. So WOW! The bits we could remember by then, anyway. I asked sheepishly what they had CHANGED in their own life since the course (knowing full well I hadn’t done anything, there were about 500 things I needed to do differently so somehow I just hadn’t started…but I would…one day… ). Turned out, not one of them had actually integrated a single practical thing into their lives either. It was all just too much. Fascinating! Illuminating! But…totally overwhelming. And so our lives and bodies improved not one jot from that day, other than the fact we had spent some good girly time together.
Such a shame, yes?
How many times have YOU had that experience?
Read a brilliant book! Decided YES THIS IS THE ANSWER! And closed the book and implemented….not one thing into your real life. But you will, right? One day…
Done a virtual course. Learned LOADS! WOW WHAT A STRATEGY! SO MUCH GREAT INFO! Then finished the tutorial and implemented….not one thing into your real life. But you will, right? One day…
Been to a lecture or a course live and loved the buzz in the room! WOWEEEEE SO MUCH GRAT LEARNING HERE! YES I WILL DO ALLL THESE THINGS! Then gone back home, put your comfy pants back on and implemented….not one thing into your real life. But you will, right? One day…
And that, my friends, is the true difference between INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE.
When we learn something FOR REAL we can see how and where it is going to fit in in our life. Where it applies to us. The information connects and alters with other information to become personal, and then to LIVE IN OUR LIVES.
IMPLEMENTATION is what makes it knowledge.
When we have EXPERIENTIAL KNOWLEDGE of actually practicing a new tool or strategy in our lives, and going “aha!”
Personal growth (mental and physical) is literally one AHA! Moment after another.
Those connections, each one is an AHA moment! It’s…
AHA! I see how that fits my life/brain/situation
AHA! I just tried that and it worked! Whoa!
AHA! This is helping me! Right now in real time (not one day)…I feel BETTER IN SOME WAY
AHA! That makes SENSE to me now I have tried it
AHA! Now I’ve asked that question, I KNOW this and how it applies to me on a whole new level
AHA! Now I have worked on this for a month, I can never un-learn this. I know myself and what works for me on a level I can never unlearn as I have PRACTISED IT.
That is knowledge that sticks. That is knowledge that IMPROVES lives.
Information is something in a book or on a webpage. It becomes knowledge when you make it live and breathe by joining the dots.
Benjamin Franklin famously said: “Tell me, and I will listen; Teach me, and I’ll remember; Involve me, and I will learn.” and so it is.
For the record, this principle is WHY each module in my Coaching Academy is 30 days of PRACTICE. The tutorial is only 30 minutes (less IS more) and on Day 1, and then you have 29 days of a 2 minute experiential PRACTICE to EMBED THE INFORMATION SO IT BECOMES KNOWLEDGE that improves your life.
Information does not get you results. It’s your KNOWLEDGE that you IMPLEMENT that gets you results 🙂.
Not getting what you want? Stop chasing information. Implementation is where it’s AT.
