Issue #132: Know How?
July 20, 2007
THRIVE! Talkin'!Don't just read the newsletter, live it!Jump into the THRIVE! forum and get set for success!  Know How?Matthew Poepsel, LeftBrain/Co-FounderThe other day, I was standing in the lobby of my hotel, waiting for a friend to arrive. I had a few minutes to kill. This never happens. I'm usually racing from one meeting, conversation, or task to another. I barely have time to tie my shoes, much less ponder ways to pass the time. To make matters worse, it was that "in between" kind of time. Too few minutes to get any real work done and too many to just check out for a bit. I thought about ways I might pass the time. I could count ceiling tiles. Nah. I could play solitaire on my Treo. No thanks, my wife has demoralized me by constantly winning when I only seem to lose. I looked around the lobby and noticed a large bookshelf full of musty old books. Now, I'm a self-proclaimed technology guy, but I have to admit that I love books. Especially old books - the mustier the better. My dream would be to get locked into the New York City Public Library to absorb as much knowledge as I could. I'd work my way from Aardvarks to Zygotes back to aardvark zygotes. (I'm a big animal husbandry buff.) As I pored over the titles on the shelves, I thought about my favorite genre - self-help. I've mentioned many times before that I'm a success junkie. I get downright giddy thinking about human potential. I don't know why exactly, but for me, the thought of setting and achieving goals is electifying. And by the way, it's not that I don't realize how lame that sounds, I just don't care. I looked across the stacks of books. I thought about how easy it would be to fill those shelves with all types of self-help books from the last 100 years. (Not that you should, but you certainly could.) More has been contributed to the success literature than even I will ever be able to consume in a lifetime. But here comes the ironic part: despite all that's been written about success and achievement, too many people continue to struggle in their lives. How can that be? I've come to believe that there's a pretty substantial difference between knowing and knowing. (Did you catch how I bolded and italicized that last one for extra emphasis - pretty cool, huh?) The first type of knowing occurs when you hold some piece of information or a way of doing things in your head. I don't know the word for aardvark zygote in swahili, but I do know the capital of Nevada. (No, it's not Reno or even Las Vegas, but Carson City - crown jewel of the desert.) I know how to do certain things, too. I can tie a bowline knot, and I can balance my checkbook. (I'm a double threat.) Knowing is like knowing in that you have to know something, but it also requires that you actually do something. That's a subtle, but all-important difference. It turns out that there are several things that I shouldn't really claim to know. Here are some fun examples:
I know I should backup my computer files - I just don't do it. If we truly want to be successful, there are likely going to be things we need to learn. Still, most people don't need stacks of books to fill some knowledge gap. They just need to follow through on the things they know they should be doing but aren't. Do you know how to set goals? Do you know how to write them down? Do you know how to ask others for help? It turns out that what you need to know is the easy part. Back at THRIVE! world headquarters, many people have asked us what it takes to succeed. In the spirit of keeping things simple, we developed the "THRIVE! Step Plan". Not surprisingly, it has thrive - I mean five - simple steps:
If you've ever wondered what the basic building blocks of success were, now you know. Now comes the tricky part - proving to yourself and others that you know them. That part takes way more discipline and effort. Personally, I find it incredibly motivating that there's not some mystery when it comes to being successful. For most of us, it's not missing information that's holding us back, just missing follow-through. Addressing that part is something we can start to do at any time. Know what I mean? |
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Coaching Quickie:How many steps in the THRIVE! Step Plan have you mastered in your life?Follow the link above to vote for your response. While you're there lend us your feedback, or share some goals with fellow readers. Check back next week for results! Last Week's ResultsCoaching Quickie: Like Sands through the Hourglass |
