I find it fascinating and empowering, this ability to go online to draw down information on people, places, animals, things, issues. Without a doubt, the rapid change in technology has allowed me to witness within my life time, the transition from mail delivered at the snail pace of the General Post Office (Trinidad & Tobago) and that delivered by Royal Mail (United Kingdom) through rain, hail, sleet or snow; to current internet and social media technology, that allows the instantaneous transmission of electronic mail and sequential rapid receipt of response if the Receiver decides to treat your email as priority.
I am also very much aware of the twenty one thousand plus (21,000+) unread emails in my inbox, that will never be read and the three thousand plus (3,000+) that have just been deleted without being read. One thing that is certain in our current era, is that there is no dearth of information. If anything, there is an overabundance of information and as recipients, we have the mind-blowing task of discerning what is relevant, what is important and what is just pure distraction.
In a recent article “The Secret to Time Management” Daniel Goleman (author of “Triple Focus – A New Approach to Education”) noted that “People on average take in 5 times more information today than they did 15 or 20 years ago. And it takes time to absorb all this information. There was an observation made that information consumes attention. So, a wealth of information means a poverty of attention.”
When do we make the time in our busy schedules to absorb this information and translate it into meaningful action? How do we transition from Knowing (Knowledge) to Being to Doing (Action)?
I recall a client sharing with me, that the member of his team who demonstrated the least Emotional Intelligence was the manager with the most knowledge on the subject, a good example of the gap that can exist between Knowing, Being and Doing. Consider our daily lives, we are continuously gathering knowledge through the internet, through our experiences, through our senses – vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch and perhaps less acknowledged, through intuition. Some of this knowledge passes directly to doing. How many of us switch to AUTOPILOT – the direct transition of Knowledge to Action, as we drive to work, barely seeing the landscape as we pass – was the traffic light green? What was the colour of the car you just passed? Did you see the cows crossing the highway?
BEING can best be expressed as our full presence – mind, body and spirit, to what is unfolding in the present moment and making choices that align with the desired outcome. In an era, in which some of us or dare I say most of us are challenged to unleash ourselves from our electronic devices, we can appreciate the difficulties associated with being fully present.
When we are fully present and mindful of what is unfolding in the present, we bring the relevant knowledge to the moment, we are conscious of our choices and the need for congruence between our values, who we are and by extension how we manifest that being, how we act. Our Being is what impacts the quality of our intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships, differentiating between the authenticity that exists when our Knowing, Being and Doing are aligned and when our Knowing and Doing are not aligned with our Being.
Join me as I continue to explore this subject in Part II of this series and I look forward to hearing of your experiences that manifest the gaps between Knowing Being and Doing. Can this gap be closed? What steps you have taken to close the gap? (Feel free to contact me directly at judy@meredithmcsween.com or call 868 684 9827)
are you ready for a time out? 