“A teacher may reveal your path. A teacher may show you how to follow the line of the path. A teacher may help you to reach the doorway of Truth. However, the teacher cannot open the door for you, for only you can achieve this.”
Page 197, Chapter 9 - The Guru: The Insidious Line
I was recently looking over a review of a book I helped edit. It was a detailed critique running to over 6,000 words - it was neither a bad review nor a good review. I passed it over to my fellow editor. She read it and commented as follows - ‘You know Paul, this is a classic example of someone thinking the Work rather than doing the Work.’ Which of course led me to think...
In the initial process of writing The Insidious Vine Trilogy there was less thinking than might be assumed. For me the thinking started after the first draft - editing, proof reading, re-establishing the purpose and intention behind the book, and then, finally, marketing and sales. Obviously thinking should make way to doing - unfortunately for me I get stuck at the final stage - marketing and sales.
The irony is that many years ago I wrote a whole manual on marketing and sales for the South East Tourist Board and even run courses for managers of tourist attractions. So what is my blockage - why can’t I move from the thinking into the doing.
For many of us working in leadership and development there is the risk we are coaching our thinking rather than our understanding. We learn many different management theories - a whole range of different psychological approaches to leadership. Some we learn so well we even start believing we developed the theories ourselves. And yet many of us have no direct management or operational experience in the fields we practice in.
So what... In many respects this is not a problem for those we coach especially if we help them reach the performance targets they are seeking. Nevertheless, there may be a problem within our own personal development, or lack thereof.
I am reminded of an old analogy concerning camels. I may read a book about keeping camels. I may learn so much that I could bore you rigid explaining how camels should be kept - for by now I have gained a certain level of knowledge concerning camels. But where is my understanding of camels in relation to a person who actually owns and looks after a few. And where is my knowledge and understanding in relation the the person who keeps camels and then wrote the book.
I once met a professor of Buddhism at Oxford University. I asked him about the benefits of meditation. He replied he had never ever practiced Buddhist meditation or any other form of meditation whatsoever.
In my last article I spoke of suffering from imposter syndrome over my writing. I finally practiced what I had been preaching with great success over many years. I had to turn my thinking into actual doing. This was actually harder than I imagined because - very much like the person who reviewed the book - I thought my thinking was actually doing.
So now the process starts again - this time with marketing and sales.
Any questions? Best wishes to all.
Paul
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