Everything you know is in the way of you being able to act powerfully
That wasn’t the exact expression… I said: “Everything you know is in your way of being creative…”
I said this to the first person I coached in the United States. It was 1986, and she volunteered to be my ride to and from Landmark Education… of course at the time it was called Werner Erhard and Associates.
She worked as a sales person in her parents’ Janitorial supply company, selling toilet paper and such. She had an aspiration to become an artist.
Her tiny bedroom was darkened by the hundreds of figurines on the shelves. Every one of them, in its own way, a thought frozen, and she had not a creative thought, not a thought of her own.
She was about 20, somewhat pudgy, long hair with a bow in it. I was 39, typical immigrant, still wearing the style and style sense from the country I came from.
But my speaking didn’t come from there… It came from a place I didn’t know.
She ended up hating me and not driving me any more. She cleaned up her room, painted the walls white, and the emptiness scared her… it reflected her emptiness.
I had no guidance how to get from empty to the depth to the beyond from where all creativity comes from. Although I walked that path every day, it wasn’t conscious: it was how I was born: connected.
It’s been 30 years, and I suddenly had an insight.
Thoughts, frozen… is like life frozen.
A parable comes to mind: A king who had three sons decides to test them to see who should inherit the throne.
He tells his sons that he is going on a pilgrimage. He gives each of them a packet of seeds, and tells them to guard them. The one who best guards them will be the next king.
- The oldest one puts the seeds in the safe with the gold. It will be there when his father comes back.
- The middle son goes to the market and sells it for gold, and knows that he can buy seeds for the gold when the father gets back.
- The youngest goes and sows the seeds in the garden. The seeds grow into beautiful flowers.
After about a year the king returns and summons his three sons into the throne room.
A year ago I left you each with a packet of seeds. I told you that the one who preserved them best will inherit my throne. What did you do with the seeds?
- The oldest son says: I have the seeds exactly the way you left it with me. Here is the packet.
- The middle son says: I sold the seeds, and now I bought new seeds… here is the packet.
- The youngest son says: I sowed the seeds in the garden, and look how many beautiful flowers we have, each bearing hundreds of new seed.
Of course the youngest became the new king. He didn’t just store the seeds, he multiplied them. He allowed them to do what seeds want to do: get more seeds.
And, or course, the same is with thoughts, the same is with knowledge.
- The mind is like a safe… you can store knowledge with the gold. It will be there when you need them.
- You can go and become a teacher…
- Or, like the youngest prince, you can allow your knowledge to blossom, and bear new seeds and new seeds and new seeds.
In life. In reality. In your business. In your health. In your relationship.
Most of you are like the oldest son. The knowledge never becomes yours. It is something that you hoarded, but never allowed to live through you, through your actions.
And, unfortunately, unless something lives, it is dead. Dead knowledge is not knowledge.
It is actually the poison that paralyzes you into staying the same… dead.
To go back to the title: is your knowledge worth a damn? Does your knowledge make you worth a damn?
Unless your knowledge is seeds sowed and bringing flowers… your knowledge is NOT worth a damn. Actually, I’ll go a step further than that: unless the knowledge is flowering, in life, in your life, it’s toxic. It is what is holding you back… like that girl back in 1986…
And, to my dismay, you can use any knowledge like that. Reading my articles… Watching the 67 steps… You become a black hole gobbling up life.
The 67 step coaching I am offering is to bring the knowledge to life.
So far I can see two kinds of toxic responses:
1. no response… black hole
2. turning useless knowledge into even more useless knowledge. Neat and toxic.
I call that very clever… Because the moment you sow the knowledge into the soil, you let go of it… but you, toxic responder… you don’t want to let go of the seeds.
I have said before, and I’ll say it again: unless you forgive the person who harmed you, unless you pull all your power back from that person, you’ll never be able to grow.
But first you need to get that you are toxic. Killing life.
The grass doesn’t grow where you walk…
Hi Sophie, as it relates to forgiving someone, where do you start? I did an exercise before where I wrote that I forgave various people, but it didn’t work for whatever reasons. Thank you
you need to have the capacity to own what belongs to you: your access to power.
If you get more perceived value from remaining a victim, then it will be in your best interest to not forgive. They you’ll have a good reason why you never amount to anything.