Identify The Behavior First
Level 4: Serious Player
A traveler is walking the path of life.
He comes across another person by the side of the road who is selling fancy looking walking sticks.
"This is made from the wood of this forest, it is special, it will help you get where you want to go faster and more consistently"
The Traveler thinks "I want to get where I'm going faster and more consistently." So he gets a stick.
He keeps walking.
Awkwardly at first with the new stick,
But he focuses on applying it.
Each step,
Placing the new special wood stick in the right tempo with his alternating steps.
He starts to get a good rhythm.
He is learning.
Soon it feels like he's flying down the path. Now he's really getting somewhere. Out of the forest through meadows up hills.
Dusk comes.
He is getting tired.
He has traveled far today. Further than any day before. Into bare dry rocky foothills of the coming mountains.
He sits down.
Placing the stick next to him with reverence.
Pulls out his canteen for a drink of water, and discovers it is bone dry.
In his exhaustion he looks around,
And now starts to wonder ...
Will I find water before the end?
Dear Future Guardian,
We are very effective creatures when it comes to figuring out how to use things. But that does not mean that using the thing always serves us well.
This can be easier to see when it’s a physical item or tool.
Harder to see when it is stuff we are actively learning to try to increase the likelihood of getting what we want.
When we have invested resources into acquiring new information and new understanding, it is easy to feel compelled to apply that information and understanding.
It may even sound like that's exactly what you should be doing.
After all if you are trying to increase your intelligence and learn you have to apply ...
Quick refresher on intelligence and learning.1
Our definition of intelligence: The ability to get what you want.
Our definition of learning: Exhibiting a different behavior in the same situation.
So if you are studying something ... reading a book, watching a youtube video, taking a course, going to an event, and you wish to learn, increase your intelligence, increase your ability to get what you want ...
Then it would make sense to apply what you have discovered, right?
If learning requires different behavior in situations, then that means you have to apply new understanding in those situations in order to learn and demonstrate that changed behavior. And ideally this is done in the context of getting what you want (so you increase that ability with new behavior).
Remember the learning cycle:
1 - Consume
2 - Reflect
3 - ENGAGE
4 - Reflect
5 - Repeat
But there's a problem.
It's actually just a feature of The Human Mindset2.
We're very good at figuring out tools and applying them. Here's a tool, how do I use this? What can I do with it? Our biology has essentially evolved around this dynamic.
Often we talk about this in the context of Form vs Function3. If you pull it apart this way, it looks a lot more obvious:
Ever get a brand new hammer and then walk around everywhere with the hammer thinking "golly gee gosh, what can I hammer with this today?"
No.
Except ... probably yes - only not in such an obvious dynamic.
When you focus on the thing you are doing, you are focusing on the form and not the reason you are using the form in the first place, which is the function you are trying to achieve.
Back to learning and ENGAGING to apply new ideas.
When we pick up a new idea and start applying it and trying to make it work for us ... it is not unlike picking up a tool such as a hammer and walking around trying to hammer things.
The deeper problem is,
The situations in which we are learning and seeking to apply new understanding and knowledge are not simple black and white situations where the tool has an obvious use. You get a hammer to hammer nails. If you aren't building something with nails and wood, it's likely clear you don't need a hammer.
Life is not as simple.
We go forward in our everyday lives amidst the context of our ongoing challenges, goals, and focus, to hopefully achieve the outcome we are headed towards.
It's really easy to come across a new idea, and think "oh this is the thing I'm missing." Or even just "hey this thing can definitely get me closer to my goal."
But consider our Traveler.
He has this goal of moving along this path towards his destination. He may even be doing a really great job of being present in the moment and seeing the path around him and taking each step ...
Which is perhaps why he even came across this "walking stick vendor" to begin with.
The promise seemed to align with his goals. He decided to take this new thing and apply it to learn and change his behavior and increase the likelihood of getting what he wanted.
EXCEPT
He didn't fully realize the entire context of behavior around the actions he was taking. He was focused on what he thought the problem and solution were.
(Side point, It's probably an entirely separate article on it's own, our inclination toward predetermining our understanding of the problem and making us blind to what the real problem is)
In the end, he ran out of water.
You might look back and think that if he was just a little more aware, or slowed down, or changed his path, he could have been fine.
And you might be right in hindsight.
But there's another perspective our Traveler could have taken which would create a more beneficial outcome altogether.
Instead of trying to apply a new idea to change your behavior, identify the behavior that you want to change and then see if there are useful tools to help with that.
If you know Form v Function, that will sound very familiar.
In the context of our Traveler, what behavior was he affecting and what behavior might he have wanted to think about instead?
By identifying this faster traveling tool, he affected his walking speed, his consistency, his endurance perhaps.
But do those things even really matter in terms of getting him closer to what he wants?
He might die without water now.
Maybe he would have been better served to consider his behavior around managing his resources along the path?
I could obviously dig into that however I want ...
I certainly completely made the entire thing up to illustrate a point.
We're also in danger of me spinning off into tangents (like, the complexity of the above scenario includes that the tool he identified could still be useful but the behavior being focused on changes the outcome).
So let's come back to reality.
This whole idea came up at last month's Gray Wolf Summit.
As we began the first day and settled in to prepare for opening ourselves to new ideas, not closing loops, and figuring out how to get the most out of the weekend ... we were encouraged to think about it this way.
Instead of taking new ideas and looking for places to apply them to change our behavior, start by identify the behavior we really want to change first, and then we can more clearly, effectively, and valuably apply anything which comes to us.
So that's my suggestion to you
We're at the end of this year 2024, still yet one more Friday to go.
For many it is a time of reflection and preparation. New years resolutions and all that. For us this is just another day and another week. We're always here, it's always us, it's always now.
But, the ticking of the calendar marks a social occasion.
It is an opportunity to consider. How far have I come? Am I going in the right direction? What can I do to increase the likelihood of getting what I want given all that I know and where I am?
(Btw, you can take any day of the week as opportunity to ask yourself those questions)
If you want a perspective to take in the new year, if you feel inclined towards making a new years resolution ...
May I recommend you take the above.
You may be more and more mastering the art of learning and applying new knowledge and information through taking action,
But whenever you have the opportunity to take in new information, before you do, first slow down and identify what behavior it is you are trying to change.
Then proceed, knowing you have the ideal lens for identifying what is useful and not useful to you.
If you want some help thinking through your behaviors and what you might consider your focus, I'd like to invite you to comment below. Let's have a chat :)
Be Useful. Be Present. Love the Journey.
Joseph Robertson, CMO The Guardian Academy
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Inspiring insights. Thank you, Joseph.