3P Random Reflections Blog

For the last 4 years I've been teaching a sales course that is mostly about talking less and listening more. The focus is on trying to drop the assumptions and judgments that automatically pop into our minds about ourself, our customer, and the situation, so that we can actually learn more, before jumping in to providing our solutions. The quote from Stephen Covey sums up the course objective well... "Seek first to understand, then to be understood".

Shortly after being certified to deliver the course, I had the opportunity to share some of the course content with a training team in our company. I knew most of the team members quite well, and we shared a common sense of humour, so I was very much looking forward to delivering the course and having a lot of fun. And so I got the idea to start the class with a sign hanging around my neck that said "I know nothing". Mostly I thought it would be funny, but it also drove home a significant point from the sales course.

And that is... What gets in the way of our ability to connect with others and to sell well (and in their case, consult, train, and sell themselves and their ideas), is... "we think we know stuff".

And what's somewhat ironic, is that I'm now discovering this in a whole new way, and at a whole new level, through my understanding of the Principles.

I really really really do know absolutely nothing!... And yet myself and everyone else, live our entire lives as if the exact opposite were true. And if I had even the teensiest inkling of the truth of that sign hanging around my neck several years ago, I'm now simply dumbfounded at the immense ramifications of it today.

With my initial awakening a little over a year ago, I was given the gift of being able to see through the illusion of all thought, and as a result was also fortunate to experience a brief glimpse into the infinite. And lately I've been seeing more and more how our access to infinite thought continues to reinforce the truth of "I know nothing".

Here's some of the things I've been reflecting on:

• As a trainer I get to ask lots of questions, and am now more consciously aware of the number of answers that I couldn't have dreamed up even if I tried
• As a fun activity on Facebook this year, I decided to post one question a day for 365 days, and have been seeing how often the answers are completely different than I could have ever guessed
• With the coaching course I'm taking this year, we have a safe forum for sharing our thoughts, feelings, and experiences about EVERYTHING... and so the range and variety of the craziness that pops into everyones' minds (including my own) continues to astound me, along with how everyone's thoughts and perceptions change from moment to moment
• And now having the opportunity to coach clients, with the privilege of hearing their most vulnerable and varied thoughts (and sharing my own), I continue to be amazed

So here's why it's so clear to me that I know nothing. The more I get to really see inside my own head, and inside the heads of others, the more I get to see examples of infinite thought, and the more I get to see how unique each thought is in each moment, and the more it all shows me just how little I know.

And all of this is incredibly humbling and inspiring at the same time. Our lives are just a string of continually changing thought, being renewed in each infinitely unique moment, as each fleeting second passes. How could I possibly know anything? And even more interesting, what yet do I get to learn that I don't know?

And here's the craziest thing of all... the more that I know that I don't know, the easier life gets. Go figure!

How thankful I am for just a glimpse into infinite Mind, Consciousness, and Thought.

PS. The day after I delivered the course to the training team, the training team manager walked in with a sign around his neck that said "I know everything!", which is especially hilarious knowing this particular manager and his controlling nature. Fortunately, his own self awareness and sense of humour always previaled, and showed up again a moment later when he turned the sign over to reveal "I know some things". First of all, how much fun is it when someone is willing to "play along", and second of all, how different the world would be if we all really knew the truth of it.  

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