Transformation or Training?
Lindon's Keyboard - Transformation or Training?
What are you seeking?
Assume that people want to improve the quality of their life. Maybe because they are not satisfied with what they currently have; maybe because they are driven to constantly improve, or maybe because they have something specifically in mind for themselves and they are committed to having that. The first challenge then is what to do.
Transformation by definition means: to change or alter completely in nature, form or function. Training by definition means: to instruct so as to make skillful or capable of doing something; to aim; to direct.
First you must decide if you believe that you need to change the nature of who you are or if you need to develop knowledge skill or character. I believe that the course of action for transformation would differ significantly from one of training. Personally, transformation seems a little extreme and sometimes not possible. However there may be some who wish to attain certain things that require such work. Another possibility is to seek improvement through growth. This would assume that you believe that the capacities already exist within yourself.
I was working with my children when I came across the quotes above. They are at that age where they are developing the habits that will become their character. Each challenge that they face provides the opportunity for growth in knowledge, skill and character. As they worked to meet these challenges I noticed that they where limited by the weakest of the three (knowledge, skill, character). What was more important to me was when I noticed that they wanted to solve their problem by relying on the strongest of the three and avoided the weakest. Ultimately they would not progress or if they did it would be very difficult. Well, that is not surprising you might say. I would agree but what might be is the prevalence that we still apply the same strategy. As adults we still prefer to try to get where we are going with what we already have tried. The thoughts that we have determine our action, which results in habits.
If this persists over years by the time we reach our adult life we will have developed in a very unbalanced way. It becomes increasing more difficult to do/have the things that we truly want but have yet to find a way to achieve. A simple example would be the difference between a shy ten year old who decides he/she wants to be a part of a group and an introverted 40 year old who is faced with the same challenge. The habits that have become the character of the 40 year old will add to the difficulty.
Now let's go back to our quest for improving the quality of our life and see how this perspective fits in. If we have some success with getting what we want, we will tend to think that is the way to do it. From there we build our habits. These would include habitual thoughts as well as actions. This is a process that will continue throughout our lives.
From there we might conclude that the quality of our life might be the result of the habits that we have formed. If we want to change the quality of our life, we must change our habits.
If we are going to change our habits, why not do it in the same kind of environment that so many of them originated, an environment of education and play? This has proven successful in my life and as I watch my kids mature I can see that it is successful in theirs as well.
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