I know what to do but, If I don't do it, do I know?
This for me has been a question I have asked myself since I was quite young and the answer is straight forward but poses me problems.
The answer is: If I know what I should do but fail to actually act upon it, I do not know it well enough.
Knowing and doing are different and knowledge of something that should be done without the action to back it up is incomplete knowledge in my opinion. We may know what to do, but if we don't know how to get ourselves to do it, the knowledge is relatively useless as it is unable to make us change.
I would lay at night thinking about this especially when I failed to act ina way that was consistent with how I knew (even in the moment) I should have acted. In my young opinion, I let myself down as I was unable to overcome myself, I was my own roadblock.
Of course, this is not the whole story as essentially, we all do the best we can with the tools we have at that time and at those times, I didn't have the necessary skills to get over the walls. It of course doesn't mean that I would have failed 10 minutes earlier or later though but for some reason in those moments, I was compromised enough to manipulate my actions.
Sometimes when I write, I like to find some quotes that support my concept. I don't use quotes like motivational statements to throw away in the flick of a scroll thumb, I use them to bring in some more profound thoughts than my own.
As I was starting this, I found this one which I hadn't heard before:
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. ― Maya Angelou
This is quite an important one when I combine it with the mind of childhood where I tussled with the problem in the middle of the night. How can I find ways to act better when I already know I should?
The quote is both beautiful and true but without the thought to tease apart the difference between knowing and doing, it will fall short as most already understand the knowing part but struggle with the doing part.
And then there was this one:
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. -Leonardo da Vinci
Now, Da Vinci's use of impressed is in the form that it is a driving force that he must do. Action is a part of him and he cannot fall short of it as to stop at knowing only, is to fail at the last hurdle. he talks of willingness to act and that is akin to having the 'intentions' and we know that the smallest act is greater than the grandest intention, which is part of a quote attributed to several people including, Oscar Wilde.
The Da Vinci quote however energises me in some way, it makes me think that I must go further than my thoughts alone and start testing the boundaries of action, the space between steps in the process.
There are three steps to creation, thought, word and action and without the last, nothing can be made. This doesn't limit the action to the person who thought and spoke though does it? But, to overcome myself as I must to do what I know, the action condition of creation must be my own. No one can do it for me, no matter the quality of their advice or the forcefulness of their words.
Here is another quote I came across in my search that I haven't seen before:
How do you know you're going to do something, untill you do it? -J. D. Salinger
Now, this one speaks volumes in so few words and ties in the past and future problems we face by not acting in the now. It talks of assumptions and expectations and how we so often confuse intention with action itself. It also hints at the fundamentals of learning as 'when you do it, you will know' comes into play.
There is so much said in the unsaid of this that someone could write a book about those 13 words and still not be able to dive to the bottom of its depths.
And then, after all those words exploring and thinking and for the audience, reading, we would be right back at square one. Action is needed.
I remember laying there at night as maybe a thirteen or fourteen year old and coming to the conclusion that:
I do the best I can with what I know
It is not much of a quote I understand, but it has served me well as I have thought long and hard enough about what lies therein to transform it into an active force.
Change is the only constant and we are able to influence our own directions, reprogram our behaviours and even though we may never reach the lofty heights we aspire to, we can try. From a human perspective, knowledge is of a limited nature as there is always more for us to know and actions always have room for improvement for there is no perfect.
We are limited by what we know but through doing now, in the next moment we will know a little more and have a better swing in the now to come.
Taraz
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