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By Michael Angier
"Wisdom is meaningless until our
own experience has given it meaning."
I was trying to counsel a young man
the other day who was less than receptive to taking advice.
He said he wanted help, but in fact
he wanted someone to fix his problems. He said he wanted advice, but
instead he wanted to be right.
Isn't it interesting when people
have all the answers and no money?
Here was someone who was broke and
had no job. His life wasn't working. You'd think he would be willing
to learn, but sadly, this was not the case.
I'm reminded of the story of the
young mystic who traveled a great distance to study at the feet of a
revered sage. When the young man arrived, he proceeded to try and
impress the master with how much he knew and how wise he was.
Instead of asking questions, the
student went on about his beliefs and philosophies. The master
listened quietly for a long while.
Finally, the student stopped
talking for a few moments. The master asked his guest if he would
like some tea. "Why, yes," the young man replied.
The old man began to pour the tea
into his visitor's cup. But he didn't stop when the cup was full. He
continued to pour as the tea over flowed into the saucer and then
onto the table top where it began to run out on the floor.
"Stop!" the young man said. "The
cup is full. Can't you see? It can hold no more."
"It's true," the wise one said. "We
cannot put more into an already full cup. And you are like that cup.
Until you empty yourself of yourself, your fullness will prevent you
from learning."
To some extent, we're all a bit
like the young man. We sometimes have to let go of what we think we
know in order to embrace new ideas.
We're always free to pick up our
old beliefs and "knowings" at a later time, but we need to be open
in order to look at things in a new way.
We need to approach knowledge with
the wonder and openness of a child. This way, we keep from missing
important lessons and learning helpful life strategies.
It's not easy, but we can learn to
suspend our beliefs in order to listen with a clear and open mind.
If we do, we won't be one of those people referred to when people
use the cliché, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."
Where is your cup too full? In what
instances do you close yourself off because you "already know that?"
It's easy to finish someone's thoughts in your head when they are
speaking.
But in doing so, you may very well
miss what they have to offer because of the filters you've created.
Watch yourself over the next week
and look for times when your cup is too full to learn something new.
It may surprise you.
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Michael Angier,
founder of SuccessNet.org, recently released the New SuccessNet
Resource Book “Top Must-Have Tools, Products, Services and Resources
for Running Your Business Effectively” |
