An overview
If you want to increase your success in life, you must increase your efforts to learn. Otherwise, get used to where you’re at, because that’s where you’re likely to stay.
Individuals who want to truly impact the world—who want to make a difference, build and maintain momentum, and succeed and surface in today’s highly-competitive economy—need to up their game.
Organizations that want to continuously outperform their competitors need to be organizations who prioritize and invest in learning and development—who foster a culture of curiosity and support and reward formal and informal education.
Walking in darkness
Every year my family likes to go camping at the Tetons, and every year we try to pick one night to walk down to the lake together well after dark. We lie down on the rocky shore and stare in wonder at the Milky Way galaxy splashed against the black canvas of the night sky and marvel at the wonder of it all.
Once we’ve had our fill, we then try to navigate our way back to camp with our flashlights, which can be terrifically entertaining.
It’s always a little precarious, because at any given time only a portion of the path is illuminated.
While you’re focused on trying not to trip over some malicious root, you’ll get whacked upside the head by a conspiring branch. Then, when you try to focus on not having your eyes poked out, you’ll stub your toe or trip on a rock.
Making this journey with seven kids (yes, I have seven!), means your attention is also distracted by the hilarity of the forest wreaking havoc on your children, and of course the simultaneous worry of stumbling into a bear or a moose or something similar. In the day, it’s no problem. In the night, it can be delightful chaos.
the limits of awareness
One of our greatest constraints in life is simply our ability to be aware of everything in our environment at once.
We’re only able to act upon or react to what we’re aware of… what we can “see.” We can only plan for what we can perceive. Like walking by flashlight over rough terrain on a dark night.
But there is always so much more outside of our awareness than within. And these things, whether we perceive their presence or not, are still there and impact our journey.
They’re indisputable elements of the systems within which we operate, and which we are subject to, whether we are aware of them or not. The branch that we don’t see is no less present for our lack of awareness of it.
lacking knowledge, we become victims
When we are not conscious of the principles and powers and processes inherent to the life-systems within which we operate, we become victim to them. Our lack of awareness of them doesn’t make us immune to their influence.
A child burning their hand on a hot stove, because he didn’t understand the meaning of the bright orange glow emanating from the burner, still gets burned.
A business that fails to sustainably differentiate, because they don’t understand and plan for value entropy, still loses market relevance because they fail to continuously innovate.
A manager whose employees continually underperform, and who experiences high attrition because she doesn’t understand how to inspire, engage, and align them to do great work, still loses the potential productivity of engaged employees.
Someone who fails to rise in success within their role—or their life—because they don’t know or understand the principles that would lead to their success, still experiences heartbreaking lack of success.
We’re often “acted upon” by, and become victim to, principles outside of our awareness. And then we feel victimized because we fail and don’t understand why. When this happens we often falsely (and tragically) attribute the blame to our identity: We think we’re not strong enough, or good enough, or smart enough, etc. But the reality is that we just didn’t know the principles that could have led us to success.
with knowledge comes power
When we are aware of the fundamental principles that govern success in any given endeavor, we have power to act instead of being acted upon. We have power to leverage them and gain advantage because of them. This knowledge gives us power in life; and it’s often what distinguishes those who move forward—who build and maintain momentum in life and who do great things—from everyone else.
In life, in business, in school, in parenting, in relationships… in every endeavor, our ability to learn the governing principles is one of the primary drivers of success.
lifelong learning
If you want to increase your success in life, you must increase your efforts to learn. Otherwise, get used to where you’re at, because that’s where you’ll stay.
Individuals who want to truly impact the world—who want to make a difference, build and maintain momentum, and succeed and surface in today’s highly-competitive economy—need to up their game.
Organizations that want to continuously outperform their competitors need to be organizations who prioritize and invest in learning and development—who foster a culture of curiosity and support and reward formal and informal education.
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