After my workshops or talks on life skills, I often receive comments saying that they are “insightful; wonderful knowledge; gyanvardhak (knowledge enhancing)”, to which my sincere suggestion is: beware of the knowledge.
The world functions on the principle of accumulation. It applies to our body, which is nothing but an accumulation of the elements of earth and our mind. Mind, in turn, is also an accumulation of information. The notions of being rich, powerful or knowledgeable are all are based on accumulation of respective ingredients. We accumulate money, power, property, knowledge, and relationships. This principle of accumulation works very well in the worldly sense; however, when it comes to one’s inner transformation, accumulation backfires.
For inner transformation, we must assimilate and not accumulate. Mere knowledge of any life skill will not bring any change in our life unless we implement it.
Life skills don’t take roots until we practice them diligently for a reasonable period. This is where we falter. When we learn life skills, our mind learns them first. Our mind gives us a feel that we already know the skill, yet doesn’t encourage us to leave our comfort zone to practice it. If someone refers to the life skill or its practice, the mind promptly replies: I know it. Internally, we all know that we don’t know the skill since we don’t have commensurate experiences to support our knowledge. Experience only comes with practice. Therefore, beware of the knowledge that doesn’t get translated into action.
Any transformation in life comes only when we alter the way we think or exist. The first step is to bring a little change in our daily life. These small incremental changes eventually bring big amendments. Remember the five point principle to bringing real transformation in life: knowledge, understanding, customization, practice, and direct experience.
Knowledge is getting the information from some source.
Understanding means to get the essence of the information in its correct sense (we tend to hear and interpret the information according to our existing database, while not listening to the source properly).
Customisation is culling things out to suit our life since different practices suit different individuals.
Practice means doing the chosen thing for a reasonable period that leads to direct experience.
Only then does the new life skill becomes effective in bringing transformation in life.
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