Many of likely heard the phrase “knowledge is power.” But few realize the very important aspect of taking action. Therefore the truth in life to attaining your highest level of self, is understanding the proper formula. The fact is that once you have knowledge, you must take action and use that power. This is why knowledge isn’t power until acted upon. Knowledge + action = highest level of self.
Over my life I have been guilty of consuming and consuming more information and knowledge. And while that is great, it doesn’t do us much good if we don’t put that knowledge to good use.
Here are some tips that you can put in place around the mental, physical, personal, and professional aspects of your life to ensure you take proper action from the knowledge you consume.
Self-Care of Mind and Mental Abilities
Chances are have all likely heard of mindfulness and meditation by this point in time. The benefits of each are astounding and can help us in profound ways both personally and professionally.
There is so much information out there are the benefits of mindfulness and meditation that is can be overwhelming. So gathering information on this topic isn’t hard. Applying it however sometimes can be challenging. How to practice mindfulness in small easy steps is the way to go. Don’t bite off so much information that you fall victim to paralysis by over-analysis.
You can begin with daily journaling. Start by either beginning to write out what you want to accomplish for the day, or end your day with thoughts of accomplishment. Being able to capture your thoughts on paper is one important aspect of realizing knowledge isn’t power. Taking the action of reflection certainly helps in regard to becoming more mindful.
And becoming more mindful is a great way to take action in regard to improving your overall mental health. It’s one of the most important aspects of self-care in my honest opinion.
Improving Your Physical Health
There may actually be more information available on caring for physical health than there is for mental health. Regardless of which one is the winner here, we can likely agree at every turn we can find the latest health craze information. That never means we’re going to benefit and become more healthy from simply reading about the latest diet trends.
The best way to put our physical health knowledge into action is to find what we most enjoy doing. Are you a gym junky or an outdoor fanatic? Do you like accountability partners or would you prefer to hold yourself accountable? Do you need to change your diet or is it more about getting more active? These are questions we need to answer for ourselves before going to the next step.
Choosing to take action in our health is of supreme importance. We cannot serve the world or others without taking care of us first.
Once you decipher through the loads of information out there on health trends, decide on whether you are going to spend time on your physical health during the morning, afternoons, or evenings. Once you decide, stick to it.
Then, you can begin to find what type of exercising you most enjoy. Combine that exercise to your favorite activities. For example, if you enjoy Yoga but like being outdoors – easy – do Yoga outside. Same goes for running. We don’t need to bore down on a gym treadmill if we want to enjoy running outdoors. You can even do your weight lifting outside if that is what you prefer.
They key is find what works for you, and combine it with activities you enjoy. It will keep you far more motivated and ensure that you deliver on commitments.
Improving Personal Relationships
Knowledge is certainly not power in the personal relationship aspect of our lives. So much information exists on relationships and how to improve them. It is absolutely incumbent upon us to take action and do our own work in this area if we want our relationships to improve.
There is a lot of great knowledge out there on “love languages” and what each of us prefer our partners to affirm for us. Once we understand each others love languages, it’s time to take action.
The key here is to really work this into our daily lives. The time we spend with our partners is critical to the overall happiness of the rest of our daily lives. If there is a problem at home, that problem will spill over into the other aspects of our mental, physical, and professional life. So this is a important one.
Begin with carving out one night each week to affirm your partner with their love language. If that is cuddling and watching TV, make one hour for that. Maybe it is affirming your appreciate for them and mentioning what one thing they did that you really appreciate about them.
Taking this simple and meaningful action will reap major rewards at home and ripple positive in all other aspects of your life.
Serving Yourself in Your Professional Life
With all the Leadership books out there that exist it can be hard to decide where to begin in order to gain your edge in the professional world.
Start with looking for what it is that you personally need to grow with. Ask peers, direct reports, and even subordinates what it is they think you need more growth in. Then go seek out that information.
If you have a job or career that involves any travel, downloading the learning and taking it with it on travel time is a great way to digest it. There are many ways to invest in yourself in today’s highly technological society. If you work from home, you’ll need to be more diligent and perhaps plan in the listening on morning or evening walks. Or plan some old school reading for fifteen minutes before bed each night.
The key here is upon finishing what you have spent time on learning – put it into practice. Develop a presentation, share a recap, or simply begin putting your newfound practices into daily use. Show the people in your business around you that you care enough about your personal development path that you want to share your learnings with them.
This will go a long way for those in your professional life to begin to take notice that you are person of action.
Summary – Knowledge isn’t Power
What this all boils down to is understanding we can consume and consume more information for the rest of our lives. We can think we are quite knowledgeable about many facets of life, but until we take action on what we learn we aren’t bettering ourselves.
What habits or activities have you learned over time that help you take action from the knowledge you gain in life? How have you seen these actions improve your quality of life?
Would love to hear from you and engage in the conversation…