Here’s Where The Story Really Begins
05.21.2005 | Chris Bailey | Focused on MediaI feel that I have been less than genuine with myself and you, my reader, lately. Occasionally, I’ve written posts that were very prescriptive with ideas and things you can do to pursue your soulful work. The tone of the posts would suggest that I’ve successfully put these actions to work for myself. Sometimes I have and other times I have just regurgitated something I’ve read or thought. Not that the untested idea or action probably wasn’t useful, but I’m the kind of guy who believes that if I’m going to suggest something to a person, I really ought to have at least tried it myself. I’ve been told by more than one person to read some of my own previous writings in response to problems I face. And they’re right…I know some possible solutions, but haven’t bothered to put them into action. There’s a distinct difference between knowing and doing. It’s time to focus myself and this space on the latter.
I also notice that I’ve been less than genuine in how I’ve presented some of my ideas and suggestions. As I already admitted, I’ve been prescriptive to the point of being didactic. I don’t like being fed a load of crap and being preached to so why should I do these things with my blog. I admire those individuals who can help others learn through storytelling. What they are able to do is share an experience or a story and let their audience come to their own learning. That is where the power is.
If anything, it just goes to show how difficult it can be to put knowledge and ideas to practice. It also demonstrates the depth of thinking required to construct a meaningful story. But you know what’s really neat and what separates blogs from almost any other communications medium? We both get to grow together. Thanks for coming along.
4 Responses to “Here’s Where The Story Really Begins”
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Why “Just Do It!†is the huge magazine fold-out ad tacked to the wall above my computer
My friend Christopher Bailey has written a genuinely open post today, in sharing himself [and his aloha] with his readers of The Alchemy of Soulful Work. His words are thought-provoking. I read them when I decided to take a break
Practice: The key to “Practice what you preach”
Christopher Bailey really hit home with a post on his “Alchemy of Soulful Work” blog this week.
I found my way here from Scott Hodge’s blog and I’m so glad I made the click. I’ve been dealing myself with some of the same issues you address in this post. I love to read and learn and share about what I’ve read and learned. But, I’ve had a growing sense of unease about my lack of application of what I’ve read and learned.
I design and develop training programs and I would never think of designing a program without providing opportunities for the participants to practice and apply what they’ve (hopefully) learned and translate the knowledge into skill.
In my informal learning, I need to focus on that translation — getting it from my head (knowledge) into the way I work and perform and interact with others (skill). Thanks for your transparency. Now, I need to go apply what I’ve learned here.
Don’t be too hard on yourself, Christopher. It’s always harder to live out this stuff…talk and thought is much easier.
My attempt to develop a unified theory of how people can align their lifestyle choices with personal and collective values is fine in theory…but impossible in reality. The process is still important, I think.