Why is it very important for us to be mindful of the concept of the knowing-doing gap?
Do you do what you know you should do? Will know just do?
At times or in fact most of the time we know it all! But does only knowing to mean you are halfway there? We are aware that if I didn’t go for it or if I didn’t prioritize things, or it could be anything you might think of which can add value to your unwavering self, I might well have to face the consequences in near future. But despite being sensible of the consequences that will follow, important things are made to appear to diminish by our own selves. Here’s where and why one’s knowing-doing gap broadens. In other words, knowing and not doing is it.
“We don’t reject informal talk, formal presentations, and quantitative analysis. These are often important precursors to intelligent action. It’s just that they are not substitutes for action.”
― Jeffrey Pfeffer, The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action
But the thing is, you are always a realization away. Now, this realization does not come easy, one needs to look upon the solutions of perfect questions asked. By this I mean,
Questions like, What is the reason that I can’t stop thinking about it but in spite of knowing it all, I am unable to take any steps further?, If not now then when? When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done???
Questions like the ones above, trigger one’s self. In other words, when a question formed with just the right placement of words, is encountered, it holds the potential to touch and shake your inner self with a sharp realization. In the process of answering such questions, one’s self becomes conscious and it makes them easily comprehend the current happenings with a little more clarity this time. But it is also very necessary to peacefully anticipate the solution with one mind. When one tries to answer such questions, they start to see the obstacles and at the same time the solutions that had been there always before their eyes but were being neglected only because of the knowing-doing gap.
I ran into this concept of knowing-doing gap while reading through the book ‘Attitude is Everything’ by Jeff Keller in which he has beautifully elucidated it. Though, we somewhere did always knew the concept of the Knowing-Doing gap, but maybe we never paid heed to it.
It’s when you become mindful of the things that are there right before you, will you just know that they are there. And it’s not all. Only when you have the courage to start off by doing something significant enough each day and you are capable and efficient enough to stay consistent throughout, only then will the knowing-doing gap not widen.
To sum up, it’s all in your mind.
An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.
~Arnold H. Glasow
