it sends repeated reminders until I finally "get it."
Strange coincidences start happening. Articles show up.
Friends are suddenly talking about a principle or emailing
me until I pay attention and take action.
This week, it happened again. Recently, I re-read Jack
Canfield's book, The Success Principles. I was nearly done
when I came across this sentence: "The key to success is to
take what you have learned (or re-learned)…and put it into
action" (p. 427). That hit me like the proverbial ton of
bricks. The challenge to actually "do what we know!" What a
concept!
After years of studying success and achievement, I
know a lot! I've coached thousands of people. I've set and
achieved hundred of goals. I've been blessed and I've been
"lucky." I have much to be grateful for, and yet like most
people, too often, "I know more than I do." I forget, and I
procrastinate. I write things down and lose the note. I
ignore basic principles, or promise I'll get to it
"someday." I know this is foolishness! And yet it happens,
over and over.
This week, after being struck by the sentence in Canfield's
book, the lesson came home a second time, in a dramatic
way.
Philip Humbert shared, "A friend of mine owns a sporting goods store. He sells
hunting and fishing supplies, tents, sleeping bags, pretty
much everything you might need for a trip to the
wilderness, including a selection of firearms. I don't know
the details, but apparently his firearm license strictly
limits him to traditional, ordinary rifles and shotguns for
hunting, and he's very careful with them.
Then, carelessness or that old devil, hurry, raised its
head. He was invited to buy a collection of firearms from
the estate of a collector. He placed a bid, wrote a check
for the entire collection, and moved the lot to his store.
Where disaster struck. In his rush or distraction he had
not noticed that the collection included a gun that the
Federal Government considers a "Class III." I don't know
exactly what that means, but my friend suddenly had an
illegal gun in his store, and it was a big deal.
He called the ATF, reported the problem, and within a hour
they sent an agent to collect the offending weapon and
begin an investigation. My friend called his lawyer,
worried all day, and finally learned that the ATF
acknowledged an honest mistake and would take no further
action.
Long story to make this point: My friend knows the law and
he is an honest person. He knows to how appraise a
collection and to be careful about what he buys. In this
case, he knows better than to buy a Class III firearm.
We've all done similar things. We know the importance of
reading a contract before we sign it. We know the
importance of written goals. We know how to provide
superior customer service, and we know how to save for
retirement. But that old devil, hurry, gets in the way.
We over-look the obvious. We allow self-discipline, even
common sense, to fall by the wayside. We get distracted, or
we're tired. Our actual behavior fails to live up to our
values, or our priorities.
And unfortunately, most of the time, we get away with it.
Tragically, we don't have to call the ATF, confess our
errors and correct them. Most of the time, we ignore the
gap between what we know and what we do, or at most we are
mildly annoyed with ourselves, promise we'll do better, and
promptly forget the lesson.
So here's your reminder: Do what you know!
You know the daily tasks that create success. You know your
values, your priorities and your ideals. Live by them!
Take a few moments to review your behavior over the past
few days. Ask where you've let yourself down, where you've
taken a short-cut or violated your principles. Acknowledge
the gap between your actions and your ideals.
Then, commit to making appropriate changes. Maybe you need
to get up earlier, read more, spend more time with your
spouse, take better care of your customers, or catch up on
your bookkeeping. Wherever you find a gap between what
you're doing and what you know, fix it!
One of the essential keys to a great life is being who you
truly are. That's called integrity and it requires that we
live with few or no gaps between what we know and what we
do.
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