From Absorption to Application (Knowledge)
I am a sponge.
I soak up so much information. I dive deep into topics, I study, I learn and I continue this process across many fields. But, what do I DO with all this information?
There is a gap between absorption of information or knowledge and its application. It’s actually not a gap, it’s a chasm. The breadth between knowing something and doing something can be vast.
For me personally, I absolutely love learning. I am fascinated by many things and most of all the learning process itself. I think a wide range of interests skills built upon the foundation of accelerated learning is an advantage in life. That isn’t an original thought, it is echoed from the work of Tim Ferriss amongst others. (Tim is undoubtedly a huge inspiration to me)
Since I am being honest I’ll go further. I have absorbed a ton of information, tactics, strategies, and content in the realm of self-improvement and success. Translating what I have taken in and applying it is not something I’ve fully learned yet. I keep questing after knowledge sometimes detaching and observing myself while thinking “this next piece will be IT.” “It” referring to the one piece I’ve been missing, the one piece that will marvelously align all my dreams on a straight and simple path. Even as I am writing that it sounds like a complete fallacy because it is. No magic elixir or new article is going to make my dreams magically manifest. Part of my brain keeps thinking that it’s out there though.
The more rational side of myself, (the one that is writing and analyzing this dilemma) understands that I’ve absorbed plenty in enough realms to find some form of satiation. Transforming years of intake into real tangible action and progress is the next step.
Even without the years of intake, we all have an innate sense of what we “should” be doing. Our physiology can communicate it through intuition if we listen.
Here lies another issue with what I’m coming to define as an area I must work on. The more people are in your life giving information or advice, the less you can hear your own voice within telling you what you need to hear. An example of this manifesting is when after much deliberation, advice seeking, and research, you come to a conclusion you feel you knew all along — one that seems like common sense. Has that ever happened to you? I’ve lived that loop many times. My subconscious knew all along, but I decided to look outwards for answers.
So, between endlessly seeking more knowledge, and that outside knowledge clouding my inner compass, I find myself re-evaluating my intake of information. Thinking about changing my information diet. Trust me, I’m already on a pretty low information diet, but I can do a better job curating.
My love of learning is by no means on the chopping block — I won’t simply squelch my intake of knowledge to a pitiful dribble. But, I will add an additional filter to my existing way of discerning what to digest out of this all you can eat information buffet we currently have access to.
The additional filter is: will I act on this? How will I take this knowledge and fully utilize it?
Questions are powerful, and something that can shape us. I think those two questions can be immensely helpful going forward, both for me and for anyone else wondering how to deal with the constant tantalizing morsels of information hurling at us from every angle.
Let’s get back to a simple example. I can study every workout trend, or fad diet and quickly find information sources disagreeing with and even directly opposing the other views. Who is right? Probably neither.
What is right is what is simple. Get on the floor and do push-ups and sit-ups, go for a run, do yoga and mobility work. Don’t eat fake, processed, high sugar foods. That is a two sentence master plan for improving health. It’s not what’s new or what’s next — it’s what we can do now, with what we have, where we are. The simple actions can start the momentum of real change.
For a long time, I found myself questing after some advanced, masterful technique to improve myself. I kept questing after a new teacher, a new method, or a new strategy. But I was overlooking something as I was doing all this looking.
The fundamentals.
That solid foundation on which to build upon. I was spending time searching for skylights when the frame and base were absent. A tremendous amount of time invested in the final touches, before the first footings had been secured. Obsessing on my signature to a blank canvas.
I must be able to do the simple things right.
The gap between what I’ve absorbed and what I’ve applied is vast — but not everywhere. In some areas, I have taken appropriate action and made progress. My gripes are with an overall view of ingesting so much information without finding ways to maximize it. I am not belittling the quest for self-improvement and learning.
I just think it is important to make distinctions between knowing and doing.
We can intellectually understand something, but until we act on it we don’t KNOW it.
— -(Might not be verbatim but that’s a Tony Robbins quote)
The distillation of all this reflection and the summary of my message are as follows. Looking for more and more answers, information and knowledge, can at some point become its own impediment to advancement. Spending so much time preparing, amassing a wealth of understanding, and focused outwards might erode the time we actually have to execute on what we are studying.
I sit here now questioning myself deeply — is more absorption what I really need? Is my love of learning a way of romanticizing procrastination?
Maybe it’s time to ring the sponge out — see what value there is.
This is the 68th installment of Writing Wednesday. A RENEWED weekly commitment to myself to actually pursue my dreams of becoming a writer. I am a writer.
Let me know what you think, and follow my journey on Instagram/Twitter (@multitude27) you can also check out my blog www.27threnaissance.com
