Knowing Isn't Enough

There are few things I care about more in the world than what I’m about to share. As someone who has spent more than 10,000 hours on his personal development, who’s read hundreds of books, listened to countless podcasts, and has become someone that many people go to for advice… There’s a single truth that has emerged from all of it:

If you want to change your life, knowing isn’t enough. You need to do something with what you know.

There’s a classic quote from Derek Sivers that perfectly captures this, "If more information was the answer, then we'd all be billionaires with perfect abs." Look around. Most people don’t have either. The problem isn’t knowing what to do… it’s knowing what to do but still not doing it.

Bob Proctor has coined this the “Knowing Doing Gap”. Helping people bridge this gap, to help people follow through on doing the things that will change their life and change the world, is my biggest passion. Helping people convert good intentions into real action is my life-mission.

As someone who’s vulnerable to the same trap, there are a few things that have helped me and my clients get more consistent with the things they know they need to be doing. The first is to intervene at the very beginning and change their consumption habits. Don’t just learn for entertainment, but seek to learn so that it addresses the biggest constraint in your life. Pat Flynn distinguishes this as “Just In Case Information” vs “Just In Time Information”. You don’t need to know more things, you need to do more with what you know.

Another thing that really helps is to get clear on what the action is itself and when you plan to do it. Instead of having a vague idea that you need to workout more, define the criteria of a workout and when you plan on doing it. That way you’ve quantified the task and can organize your life around it. The important things we want to do often get pushed out by other priorities, and it’s hard to hit a target if you don’t know what it is.

And the last thing I’ll mention is, when it comes to actually following through, is to focus on the systems behind the action. There’s an underlying system for everything we do and when we upgrade the system, we improve its output. To keep using the workout example, an ineffective system is to try and squeeze it in at some point in the day. A more reliable system is that you’ll go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings… And you don’t check your work email or team communications until it’s complete. It’s a system that helps you execute a plan and keep you from getting pulled off track.

All of this is easier said than done, but when you do it, things improve much faster than you’d think. I’d love to meet you, hear about your goals, and support you with the actions you know you need to be taking to reach them. If you want to chat for 30 minutes about that, and meet each other, then grab a time on my calendar and we can connect!

‍