Day 342: The Space Between Knowing and Doing

It's 5:00 in the morning
Do you know where your Doing is?

The Space Between Knowing and Doing

Yesterday, while talking with a friend, the subject of knowing and doing came up and we both had to admit that sometimes we even forget to breathe.

My friend shared her father’s favorite quote; “To know and not act is not to know.” She said that he said it often, but she did not know the source of it.

Later on, I felt compelled to find the source of the message. I learned that it came from the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu from the Tao Te Ching, The Way of Virtue.

Still, as much as I like to research the source of things, knowing it only told me that acting was virtuous; it did not tell me how to fill that space between the knowing of something and the actual doing of it.

I looked a little further and came upon Paul’s epic battle between the flesh and the spirit where he said that “The desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.” I reread the passage from Galatians 5 and saw that this knowing and doing thing has been going on for a very long time.

Throughout time, apostles, teachers, philosophers and our own heart have taught this lesson and so today I’d like to add the perspective of one who has learned from the others.

This space between knowing, which happens in the brain and doing which happens in the body is that millisecond of breath that informs you that you can and you should.

This split second in time is informed by our daily living; the more you feed it with the notion of doing, the more you do; the more you fill it with procrastination---which for most people appears in the form of doing everything but what you want to do—the less likely you are to accomplish the thing you need to accomplish.

Every day, I hear from people who say that they also want to write a blog. “Then write,” I tell them. They ask a ton of questions about how I started, how I’m able to do it every day and what inspires me.

I started by doing, I do it daily by constantly doing it and I’m inspired to do it by doing it. As the year progressed, so did my writing. The comments of readers have inspired me daily and I am moved by the lessons that I need first.

At first, I thought, “Why did I commit to doing this?” Now, like with anything, it is a habit that I need to do.

Life does not happen in big leaps; it happens in little steps. Keep on stepping.

Be you, be well, be doing and doing and doing.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

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