When I grew up there was a lot of emphasis placed on knowing. In school, I had to get the right answers. Then I got into the workplace, and the focus shifted to a lot of doing. It wasn’t until I started my own business that there was talk around my “being” and how I show up. As we move from left to right along “know, do, and be”, we increase our capacity to have more in our life – more success, more results, and more impact.
Know
Knowing is important. It helps to understand how things operate. For example, if Little Bob doesn’t understand how a teeter-totter works, he might try to play on one all by himself with much frustration. We can solve more problems and solve more difficult problems and get more out of life when we understand the way things work. For example:
- It’s useful to know how the stock market works.
- It’s useful to know what makes business grow.
- It’s helpful to know that trash is picked up on Tuesdays.
- And it’s good to know that, while driving, you should stop at an intersection when the light is red.
Yet “knowing” by itself isn’t so useful. We must act on knowledge for it to be any good.
Do
There’s a whole lot of focus on doing these days. We tell people, “I’m busy.” We have to-do lists so long we’ll never get to all of it. We feel over burdened by all the things we have to do. And, honestly, we often measure ourselves by how busy we are and how much we get done.
We are so busy doing that we often neglect the last stage which is our “being.”
Be
Our capacity grows so much more when we expand our “being.” Our “being” is how we show up. We can show up so many different ways. We can show up carrying anger, or fear. We can show up resisting change or risk. We can show up manipulating others. We can show up with an, “I win at all cost,” attitude. We can show up as a people-pleaser, saying what we think people want to hear but secretly is a falsehood. Or we can show up being fully present, without judgement to be available to those around. This list is not exhaustive and could go on for pages.
Many conflicts arise simply because one or both parties have not worked on themselves to improve how they show up, how they interpret, and how they react. This, of course, is not easy work. But it’s worth it.
If you focus on “knowing,” you’ll be smarter. If you focus on “doing,” you’ll be a worker. If you focus on “being,” you’ll be a boss, a CEO, a leader, or a world changer.
