The Danger of Knowing Better Means Doing Better [Ep.07]

It’s been a minute since I’ve released a podcast.

This is partially due to the fact that my son had to have his appendix out.  There’s been a recovery process to that. Good news is that it didn’t rupture and he’s doing well, healing and happy. It was an important matter to attend to and the podcast was set gently to the side.

On top of that I’ve been preparing for my first workshop: Discover the One Little Skill to Finally Get Over Procrastination and Start Your Idea (NO! It’s Not Time Management). Join me to learn:

• Why you don’t need more time management, 
• What productivity traps you may be falling into (and might not even be aware of)
• The 3 elements needed to get started on your idea and not burn out

Registration is now live here.

An Incomplete Idea

There’s this adage, “when you know better you do better.” And I think that is incomplete at best. 

A lot of times, people already know better, but they’re not doing better. There’s a gap between these two and there is a huge danger when people hold on to the belief that all they need to be able to do better is to know better.

Certainly, I won’t argue that new knowledge is helpful if you I mean, if you don’t know how to tie your shoes, you can’t tie your shoes. So there is there is a level of knowledge that’s needed to do any kind of action.

But that’s not the only thing that’s needed.
It’s often not just more knowledge that will help you take action where you haven’t in the past. 

And when you when you believe that that’s all that’s needed, I think you can get into this distracted and default mode where maybe you’re not fully aware of the complexity of what’s needed to actually do better.

And What Does that Cause?

If you don’t know that there’s more that’s needed, then I think that you approach learning opportunities and knowledge as the source to fill that gap. Rather than focusing on what you already know.   

When you believe “if I know better I do better” and then find yourself not following through on the intentions you set earlier in the week, then you assume what you need is some new information to be able to follow-through. 

How many times have you caught yourself not doing what you said you would and going in search of new information?  I believe it’s called falling down the rabbit hole of the internet….

And we’ve all done it. It’s a natural response to look for new learning that will shore up what you’re not already confident and knowledgeable in. But just because you’re not confident doesn’t mean you don’t know enough to start. 

The Danger 

The danger starts to emerge when you acquire some new knowledge, perhaps a new course or book and you find you’re not applying it and not doing better. Women who are in distracted and default mode tend to have 3 different responses; shame, guilt and doubt.  

Self-Doubt

I’m going to start with the last. They doubt their ability to to do what’s needed or to do what’s next or to move forward because they didn’t in the past. It sounds like “I’ve learned new things before, it didn’t help so why do I think it’ll be any different this time. I must not be able to do this.” That’s what self-doubt sounds like. 

Guilt

Guilt sounds like “oh my gosh, I feel so bad that I bought this new planner or took this course and I haven’t done anything with it” or “I started but I didn’t finish”. It might also feel like worry that you’ve wasted time or resources on something that ultimately you didn’t use or that didn’t help. 

Shame

Shame is the most common response because you think “now I know better, and I’m still not doing better. This person or this course or this book had the information I needed, and it’s worked for others… so what’s wrong with me?”  That’s the sound of shame.  

It Takes More than Knowledge

In actuality, the doing better part of that equation, the actual application of knowledge takes a lot more than just the knowledge.

Off the top of my head I can think that it takes:

• Practice
• Courage
• The development of new skills and skillsets
• Creating new beliefs, like believing that you have the ability to do something you’ve never done before, believing that you have what it takes
• Support and community to hold this new knowledge as you work to apply it

Overall, this is why 9/10 new knowledge isn’t implemented. Knowing what needs to needs to happen and doing what needs to happen isn’t the same thing. 

Thinking “here’s what we need to do.” Or “here’s an idea about what can we can do” is not the same as putting one foot in front of the other and actually following through. The requirements for actually following through, on actually following a plan takes more, it takes a lot more!

Even if it’s a great plan, and even if it’s a full foolproof strategy, and even if you’ve thought through all the pieces knowing better doesn’t always equal doing better. Filling the gap between knowing and doing takes three elements and I’m sharing more details about these three in the upcoming workshop on Feb 22. Get more information here and register today. 

Conclusion

What I hope I’ve illuminated is the danger in believing that the only thing you need to do better is to know better, or to find more information to fill your gap.  Oftentimes it’s not a lack of information. In fact, it’s likely you have everything you already need to be able to take sustainably start and finish the wildly important ideas that are waiting for you.