Understanding before action?

In my last blog I talked a bit about syntax and the ordering together of things and related that to commitment first and handling the considerations or circumstances second. Essentially the idea is that without the commitment circumstances will always seem too big to handle; however, with commitment you can work out almost any set of circumstances.

One of the circumstances or considerations that people usually have in not taking new action is that they want to understand something before they do it. Sometimes they want to know if there is another way to do it. To give you an example, let's say you came to me and wanted coaching on becoming a great public speaker. More than likely I'd say something like, "Great, let's go jump out of an airplane, go skydiving!" You might think I'm crazy and ask me how skydiving has anything to do with public speaking. You'd want a rational explanation of how the process works or gain some understanding to the methodology first. Completely understandable and completely reasonable. I'm not so nuts that I think your thought process is unreasonable, but in my mind that's exactly the issue, it's reasonable. It's this line of reasonable thinking that has people stuck. They want something to make sense to them before they take new action. Well let's think about this completely irrational yet reasonable thinking process that many people think is rational.

You've never been good at something, so you go to someone who is good at something to get coaching. They give you coaching and you question the coaching. You even go so far as to believe that it won't work. Perhaps you will say something to me like, "No I just want you to teach me what to do with my hands, make sure I'm not moving them too much, and count how many times I say 'Um' and 'Uh' and 'Ah'. Can we just do that?" (I've actually had these conversations, by the way) This all begs the question in my mind, "How in the world would you even have any clue as to what works or doesn't work or what you need or don't need, when you aren't any good at what you want to get good at and that's why you sought out coaching in the first place?" Are you with me? Most people think that reasonable and rational are the same things. Clearly they are not! Is it perhaps that you are using the reasonable "understanding" conversation simply to mask your fears? After all what I'm asking you to do doesn't fit in to that little box of thinking you have, and perhaps breaking through those fears is exactly what is wanted and needed, much more important than any new skills you could learn.

Here's what I've learned and experienced. Do it first and then the understanding will come. What I've also learned and experienced with people is that if someone is committed to an outcome, then they really don't care about how to get it done; they just do it. They don't stop to understand why they should do something; they just do it. The ones who've succeeded in working with me are the ones who move at the speed of coaching. I say jump and they just start jumping. I think the ones who are truly committed to an outcome are that coachable. Are you that committed to an outcome or are you just giving it lip service? I know if you're committed or not simply by how quickly you respond to new direction. If you're moving as the words are coming out of my mouth, you're committed. If you're attempting to understand before taking action, I know that you're not. It's that black and white from my perspective.

Perhaps the understanding will never come, but the results will. In which case how important is the understanding? Does it really matter? Do you want the understanding or the results? I don't fully understand how a lot of things work, but I enjoy the results. As someone very wise once told me, "Knowledge doesn't necessarily lead to action, but action will always lead to knowledge!"

Until next time...

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