Have you ever known someone who “talks a good talk” but doesn’t really live what they espouse? When you observe them you know their actions are speaking far louder than their words, and the incongruence is obvious to you.
In truth, we are all at risk of this dilemma to some extent. Because when we learn anything new, our knowledge will always outpace our ability to perform. The learning curves are different knowledge and know how.
Living congruently means that what you know and what you do are essentially identical. In areas of your life where it is most important, what would it mean if you could measurably improve your congruence? What I’ve discovered is that the resources of your genius mind can be activated to automatically reinforce congruence. It happens by leveraging deliberate practices that lead to personal greatness, making a positive self-fulfilling prophecy of your choices to create your life.
But here’s the trap that may be one of the biggest barriers to human development: Our schooling prepares us to know facts. It tests us on what we know. Consequently, we are trained from an early age to be satisfied with information that is known consciously but not embodied as a behavior, skill, attitude, habit, or way of being.
Just think of all the common expressions of this malaise: “Practice what you preach,” “doctor heal thyself,” “eat from your own restaurant,” and “walk your talk.” They are all pointing to a common chasm between what we know and what we do. My favorite phrase to capture all this was penned by Aesop around the 7th Century B.C., “When everything is said and done, more is said than done.”
As an educator and leadership development specialist, I’ve focused a good part of my professional career helping people minimize the gap between what they preach and what they practice. It can be a challenge, because as you know, it is definitely easier to tell others what they ought to do than to actually do it ourselves.
The burning question is this: What does it take to truly embody what you know that you can do, you want to do, but are not doing? It might be a skill like playing the piano, flying an airplane, painting landscapes with oil paints, surfing, public speaking, creative problem solving, or running a business. It might be an attitude like compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, persistence, or optimism. It might be a state of being like peacefulness, calm, intentional focus, willingness, courage, or self-motivation.
Embodied wisdom comes down to what you practice
The principles of deliberate practice for the acquisition of high performance are the focus here. It has been shown that practice is the only tool for transferring cognitive knowledge into embodied wisdom. When our “espoused theory” becomes our “theory in use” and ultimately becomes fully embodied, we have mastered the art of walking our talk. If your intention is to attain personal and professional excellence, it will come down to how you daily practice the art of living your life.
A number of excellent research studies have been published by K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues on the development of expertise and expert performance through deliberate practice. Subsequent books focused on this research, and include two by Geoffrey Colvin (senior editor at large for Fortune Magazine), The Secrets of Greatness (2006) and Talent is Overrated (2008), the bestseller Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (2008), and the bestselling business book by my colleague Stuart Emery, Success Built To Last (2007). The conclusion is that all performers, even the most “talented” ones, need approximately 10 years of intense involvement (10,000 hours) before they reach an international level in established in fields such as sports, sciences, business, and arts.
Colvin points out that we can become what we will ourselves to be—that innate talent is not essential. He recognizes that most people love to think that if they could only find their talent in life, they would easily coast to fame and fortune. “But that view is tragically constraining,” Colvin says, “because when they hit life’s inevitable bumps in the road, they conclude that they just aren’t gifted and give up.”
If we honestly believe we are not smart enough, talented enough, strong enough, we are not going to persist in performing the necessary practices to attain the levels of skill development that would bring us to greatness. At least part of my work with others is to help them identify the interior resources that can improve the likelihood of success at any endeavor they undertake.
What deliberate practices do you feel will lead you to the life you desire to create?
- Prosperity consciousness and greater earning power for increased financial abundance?
- Love and kindness toward yourself and others for more positive relationships?
- Strength, flexibility, and endurance for a healthier lifestyle and physical body?
- Mental agility and learning skills to acquire personal and spiritual development more rapidly?
Many deliberate practices were required to grow the company I started. Beginning at the place where my accountant said, “this isn’t profitable enough to be seen as anything more than a hobby,” and building it to the place where it was a multi-million dollar international enterprise, meant a lot of hard work over many years. My personal efforts focused on many crucial practices that categorize in the following ways:
- Daily practices bring balance and harmony to my day. There is a spiritual quality to them.
- Weekly practices build strengths of mind, body, emotions, and character.
- Monthly practices develop my professional skills and capacities to achieve long-term objectives.
- Yearly practices to attain goals.
- Lifelong practices achieve success.
The actual practices themselves can be simple daily routines. For example, how I awaken, stretch, cleanse, exercise, and feed my body and mind all have a powerful impact on my life. Other daily practices include how I exercise my mind and heart through meditation, prayer, gratitude, appreciation, and positive regard for myself and others.
Several practices are more complex, such as daily priority management and weekly practices of “dynamic steering” that keep my businesses, scholarship, public life, and home life functioning effectively.
It is clear to me that my personal practices bring balance, build strength, achieve goals, and lead to long-term success in every area of my life. What daily practices are shaping your life right now? Are they congruent with what you are choosing to create? My wife has a pet phrase, “Am you heading in the direction you are going?”
What practices (that you never learned in school) have become an essential part of your daily, weekly, monthly, and annual life? What success have you attributed to the practice of them? How might we educate others about the importance of such practices?
Management expert Peter Drucker, in an article titled, “Work,” quotes Verdi:
“All my life as a musician, I have striven for perfection.
It has always eluded me. I surely had an obligation to make one more try.”
Drucker goes on to say how Verdi’s words made a deep and lasting impression on him. He wrote,
At eighteen, I was as immature, as callow, as naive as an eighteen-year-old can be. It was not until fifteen years later, when I was in my early thirties, that I really knew what I am good at and where I belong. But I then resolved that, whatever my life’s work would be, Verdi’s words would be my lodestar. I then resolved that if I ever reached an advanced age, I would not give up, but would keep on. In the meantime I would strive for perfection even though, as I well knew, it would surely always elude me.
In my February, 2010 “Ask Your Inner Genius” free teleseminar, we will collectively explore the topic of deliberate practice as a means to professional and personal development. I’m most excited to share with you how to use deliberate practices with greater ease and grace, no matter how challenging the practices may be, so that you can embody any desired behavior, skill, attitude, habit, or way of being, as you create the life you choose to live.
Join the dialog by logging in at www.AskYourInnerGenius.com
To your Genius,
Paul R. Scheele
www.ReclaimYourGenius.com
