Insight Without Action Makes No Difference

OK, so if we already know this stuff, why is it that we don't always create consistent results?

This was a question that came up in my Master Mind group today. We were talking about those moments when everything is clicking and we're on a high and all is well with the world. We talked about noticing how we're feeling in those moments and then tracing back to the thought that immediately preceded the feeling. It is possible, we all know, to recreate that experience (or produce one equally as rewarding) yet we still seem to find ourselves in the space of inconsistency.

So it's true that knowing doesn't necessarily equate to doing, which doesn't always produce desired results.

However, as we talked more about this phenomenon, we realized that perhaps the results we are in the process of producing are really at play at a higher level simply because we are aware of the process. In essence, instead of letting our lives run us, we are aware of the fact that we can have a say in the results.

We reminisced about times in our lives when we were on autopilot, or what I heard Seth Godin say today on Dr. Oz's XM radio show, "sheepwalking." According to Seth, this is when we do things that others tell us because others tell us to without thinking, coupled with being somewhat braindead, especially at work. (Read more about sheepwalking on Seth's blog post here.)

Before we knew any better, we would muddle through our lives, frustrated and, more often than not, carrying a heavy dose of victim mentality, mindlessly giving up all control of our own outcomes to some unknown and unnamed "them" all the time perpetuating the same results. The best we could come up with for a payoff in those cases was that we could at least be right about our belief that "we" were right and "they" were wrong which, at least in my case, I was able to prove by bringing it up to anyone who would listen and agree.

At least now when we notice the results being less than what we want, we know there is another way. It's almost as if there are two of us: the one who is having the experience and the one who is watching the one having the experience. The one who's watching has a much broader view and can much more easily point out alternative ways of thinking and being.

Today's "aha" came in the realization that it's actually being in the feeling space - FEELING the feelings and not pushing them away, no matter how "bad" they may be - that allows the feeling to dissipate. What we resist persists and, although we "know" that in our conscious minds, it's not until it penetrates the old familiar "gotta be right," or what I notice for myself as the "yeah, but" space that it has a chance to turn into a new action. New actions produce new results.

Sometimes I feel like a really slow study ... but it's not because I don't know better. Knowing and doing are definitely not the same thing, and knowing and pointing out to others the doing doesn't produce results for me either.

So I'm still in the space of teaching what I most need to learn. But the good news is that the lessons are much more evident and more quickly absorbed these days.

Where would you like new results in your life? Consider getting in some sort of Master Mind group where you can have a chance to practice new ideas in the safety of a group of likeminded individuals gathering for a definite purpose of support and challenge.

"A year from now you may wish you had started today." -Karen Lamb

(And to prove I'm trying something new, I found that quote using Bing instead of my beloved Google. Don't tell Blogger!)