FINALLY: The secret to a fulfilling life. It's not just in understanding, in knowing what to believe. Nor is it just more money, nor to have more time. It's not even in having outstanding relationships - although all these are indeed important.

A fulfilling life is deceptively simple: - to achieve what you really want. Although you probably have many areas that need attention, this is a very good place to start. Find out the difference between...

Understanding vs Real Knowledge

Do you believe what other people tell you? Do you think you really know as soon as you understand? Or do you know the fundamental difference between understanding, just knowing about something and authentic, real knowledge?

My Brother's Shiny, New, Red Bicycle

Many years ago, when I was just five years old, my older brother got a bicycle. A deep red bicycle. I was so jealous, I really wanted one.

Actually, I wanted his red bicycle, not just any old bicycle. But I had to wait until he outgrew it and got a larger one before I inherited his red one. When you're five, two years is a long time!

Then, one early spring day in Sydenham, South London, my father took us down to Newlands park, next to the library. It was time to learn to ride.

I was so looking forward to an exciting experience. I got on the bicycle, started pedaling, and what happened?

You guessed it, I immediately fell off. So I got back on, started pedaling, and again fell off.

This process continued for a while. Got on, fell off. Got on, fell off. Got on, wobbled and fell off. Hey, real progress! Got on, wobble, wobble and fell off.

Then after a while - I'm not going to embarrass myself by saying just how long it took - I got on, and wobble, wobble, wobble... "Daddy, Daddy," I shouted, "Look at me! I know how to ride," as I wobbled my way unsteadily over the grass.

It's amazing how easily we fool ourselves. I was more or less out of control as I wobbled toward the trees and the fence. Yet my Dad was kind, he simply said, "Okay, turn around."

So I turned around. And fell off again immediately!

My mind had just told me that I know how to ride, and I just voiced that vast stretch of imagination to my father. But experience showed that I didn't yet have the expertise. Reality knows the truth!

Did I Really Know How to Ride?

Now the day before I went to the park to learn, did I really know how to ride a bicycle?

I thought I did. I'd listened to my Dad explain how to ride, and I'd watched my brother ride. But when I got on the red bicycle for the first time, I promptly fell off!

But I only understood, I knew about riding, and I thought this meant I knew how to ride. Yet I didn't! I believed I could ride, but believing you can do something tells you nothing about whether you actually can or not. Experience is the key.

Catch the distinction here between knowing about and authentic knowing. I thought I knew, but I only understood! I believed I could ride, but had no practical experience.

Yet can you learn to ride a bicycle without experiencing it for yourself?

Maths was Easy at School

I'd always been good at mathematics. I have a very rational mind and found maths logical. At school, all the maths teacher had to do was explain something once and I would usually get it immediately. The complexity level was pitched at the average student level, and so understanding maths - but not much else - came easily.

Along with Alan, the other boy good at maths, we topped maths exams in our class. So what would I study at university? The answer wasn't difficult - maths didn't require much effort - and I was accepted into the special honors class to study mathematics.

Yet I Flunked Maths at College

At university, it was a very different story. My class-mates were all equally good at maths. At school, I'd never studied for a maths exam, or bothered to learn, yet had always passed with flying colors. Why would I change a winning formula which had worked so well?

There were many distractions. New relationships - especially women - took up a lot of time. So did snooker. I was also keen on judo and made the university judo team... Who needs to study? Who even has time to study?

Then the first college exam came along. I expected to pass with flying colors as usual. But I flunked it. Failed! And I continued failing my exams until I eventually learned the two vital lessons that I had been missing.

First, my winning formula was no longer working. It had worked so well at school, but now the environment had changed. A university is very different from school, they expect you to be an adult and be self-motivated. And I was indeed self-motivated - but not to study mathematics!

The other big lesson that took me an embarrassingly long time to learn was that understanding and real knowledge are two different things. There's an enormous difference between knowing about something and authentic knowing. Authentic knowledge requires time and energy.

But I hadn't bothered to put much if any into the subject I was there to study! I wasn't doing what I needed to do to pass university exams. I hadn't bothered to study and learn the material. No wonder I failed!

Knowing How to Do It

How do you get to know how to ride a bicycle? You need experience!

You need to do it and to keep doing it. You practice, exercise, fall off, make mistakes, fail, and get back on. And keep getting back on. Then you become proficient at it.

Just listening, watching, and reading about it is not enough - then you only understand how to do it. And understanding says nothing about whether you can actually do it or not.

If you don't do it when the time comes to do it, then you may know about it, but you don't really know. And yes, this may contradict much of what is taught today.

Experience gives you the know-how. It's actually doing it, repeating it, exercising, studying, failing, learning, and making mistakes that's so valuable. Without practical experience, the thought that you do know is pure self-sabotage. You only understand.

What is wisdom? Doing it when you know how, whenever the time is right.

The Essential Difference

Yes, but what's the essence, the essential difference between understanding, just knowing about and real knowledge?

• When you watch someone ride a bicycle, who's putting in the energy? He/she is
  
  
• When you listen to someone explain how to do something, who's putting in most of the energy? She is
  

• When you're reading about something? Although you need to pay attention, most all the effort has come from the author. So he has
  

Yet when you are doing it, who's putting in the energy? You are.

When you're exercising, who's putting in the energy? You are. When you're gaining experience, who puts in the energy? You are. Repeating? Failing? Studying? Learning? Making mistakes? You are.

You recognize that you don't get fit by delegating your exercise to someone else. You have to do it yourself. And developing wisdom is very similar.

Experience is the essential difference between knowing about it and real knowing. So be wise, invest the time and the energy to gain the experience needed to be effective.

We Don't Believe in Believing

We believe in authentic knowledge - which requires you to have your own experience. Other people's knowledge is second-hand, so don't just believe other people. We don't believe in believing.

Why do you say you believe something? You only say you believe because you do not know. If you did really know, you would say you know rather than you believe.

How accurate is this last statement? Is there any truth here? What do you think? This is not the only perspective, of course, but it's a powerful one. Does this explain why you may often find that belief has little or no personal power?

Belief is on a par with understanding, with knowing about something. But real achievements take real power. And real power comes with real knowing, which comes with authentic expertise. Becoming an expert takes lots of practice!

The Dilemma

The temptation to think that once you know about something, you really do know it is very real.

Yet every manager in industry who has hired a new MBA graduate knows the difference. New graduates generally think they know it all, yet it takes quite a while before they have gained any relevant experience and can start making a real contribution.

The difference between authentic knowledge and just knowing about is crucial. The success of German Industry owes considerable thanks to its strategy of having apprentices gaining real experience while studying under master craftsmen.

At Life Strategies, you learn how to empower yourself with these invaluable distinctions, how to achieve what you really want to achieve, and not to end up with what you don't want. Studying the crucial difference between just knowing about and real knowledge is an important step toward this.

Yet if this wasn't already abundantly clear to you, then self-sabotage has probably stopped you reaching this conclusion!

But I Know All This, some say

Some believe they know all this. But if what you know is not bringing you the results you want then you do NOT really know it, although you may know about it. You can't fool the universe, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Much of the human race lives in denial. And this doesn't mean on the river in Egypt! We say we want:

• to care for the Earth, yet we chop down her rain-forests and plunder her resources as unlimited
  
  
• a society free of rage and violence, then we entertain ourselves - and our children - with TV programs of graphic rage and violence
  

• our young ones to be responsible, yet our school "Zero-Tolerance" laws take that responsibility away by mandating totally disproportionate responses
  

• the truth, yet we follow Adolf Hitler's strategy of lying whenever we think it expedient. After all - doesn't The End Justify The Means?
  

Do any of these strategies work to give us the outcomes that we desire? Isn't there sufficient evidence of their inevitable consequences right in front of our eyes?

If you are not experiencing the results you genuinely want, then you cannot really "Know All This." Don't believe your thoughts without questioning them! Your experience will change once you change.

If any of this speaks to your heart, then you know that truth has its own beauty. The elegance of truth gladdens the heart. If you continue exploring these truths, they will bring amazing joy into your life.

The difference between just understanding, and authentic knowledge, is a crucial distinction which makes a world of difference, one which self-sabotage has obviously been keeping from you.

Stop your Self-Sabotage

Achieving what you really want means learning how to overcome your self-sabotage mechanism. Everyone has one, and it operates all the time.

The self-sabotage mechanism generally operates through context, not through content. What's the difference?

• your context is where you come from when you do what you do
  
  
• your content is what you do, how you handle your affairs
  

So learn to manage your context, and stop your self-sabotage. Find out how to do what works, and not do what doesn't work for you. Do more with less! Invest to learn how you can achieve more while saving both time and energy with this ground-breaking, twenty-first century, e-book program and action plan.

Why Invest in Improving Your Capabilities?

An investment has a return, and your return in stopping your self-sabotage is enormous. There's no bigger return than in improving your capabilities, in becoming more effective. Life Strategies clients experience becoming at least 20% more effective, and one client recently reported an increase of ninety percent after just one year.

In the long run, your increase in effectiveness will increase your earnings by at least the same amount. And the increase is permanent. As Benjamin Franklin famously observed,


How much will a twenty percent increase in earnings amount to in dollars over the rest of your life?

Work this out right now! Don't allow yourself to self-sabotage, take the time to answer to this crucial question this very moment - it'll change your life!

The result of your calculations will prove to you beyond doubt that your increase in earnings will pay for your investment in yourself many, many times over.

Yet, just like heat from a fire, results always take some time and effort. You first have to buy the logs, then you need to put some kindling in the stove before putting in the wood. Only then can you light and look after the fire, which after a delay gives you heat.

Enjoy a big 25% discount - as well as some very special bonuses - if you act today. There is no better way to improve your income than by stopping your self-sabotage with...

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Food for Thought