Minding the gap

What is on your list of things you want to do, or know you should do – but don’t?

I saw this quote from Bruce Lee who was a philosopher in addition to his better-known Hollywood exploits…

“Knowing is not enough. We must apply. Willing is not enough. We must do.”

This has been called the ‘knowing-doing gap’.

What things are in your knowing-doing gap, and is that a useful place for them?

What happens to them in there, and what happens to you when you have things in your knowing-doing gap?

As they say on the London underground stations, “Mind the gap!”

Here is more insight on why we want to do something, and four fascinating questions.

What are your dreams?

Many people take holidays in the summer, and it is often a time of reflection away from the busyness of work. It is a time to get back in touch with your dreams.

What are you pursuing? What is the juice that makes life worth the squeeze?

“Pursue the thing inside us and others will help us. Pursue the things outside us and others will compete with us.” Simon Sinek

What is it that is true for you that means it is worth getting out of bed in the morning?

In trying to answer that question, many people run into one or more of these myths and misunderstandings – including ‘size does matter’.

The habits of time management

Some people seem to get a lot out of their time, others not so much. What’s the difference?

I think it’s our habits.

What do we habitually do when we are ..given extra work? ..pushed for time? ..stressed? ..have some spare time? ..running late? ..tired? ..up against a deadline? ..spinning lots of plates?

Do those habitual reactions serve us well or make things worse?

Now, changing habits is not always so easy, so just pick one easy thing to work on.

Here’s an easy one…

At the end of each working day, get in the habit of writing down the five things you want to achieve for the next day. Leave this list where you will find it in the morning.

“For every minute spent organising, an hour is earned” – Benjamin Franklin

Here are 10 more tips. Number 9 is a good one that most people don’t think of.

Communication is the response we get

I was reminded of this principle a few days ago watching a movie. From my perspective, as the watcher, I could see both sides of the story, but each character in the movie could only see their side and interpreted the same communication event very differently. Chaos ensued, but looking on as the watcher the chaos seemed avoidable and unnecessary.

In a way, both were right, and both were wrong.

Think of a current misunderstanding or argument that is ongoing in your life. What is your perspective, what could be their perspective, and what is the wider perspective?

If we communicate something by word or action, we need to look at the response we get to understand what the other person received after our communication passed through their filters and biases and beliefs. What they got and acted on may not be what we intended to send, hence the principle above.

By the way, we can’t expect people to change their filters to suit us, even if they could. If the response we get means the communication didn’t work, then it is up to us to communicate differently.

Here is some more on how your filters affect the communication you receive, and how other people’s filters affect the communications you send to them.