Last night, David Allen tweeted the following:
I felt like David was providing an insight that I needed, but I couldn’t fully grasp it. So, I tweeted to him asking if he could rephrase it. Although David obviously cannot reply to all the tweets he gets, he fortuitously saw my tweet and graciously responded:
A great clarification and one that I truly needed to see. For example, since my wife died 8 years ago, I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on books on spirituality, theology, near-death experiences and their implications, various schools of metaphysics, defense of atheism and agnosticism, and so on. Yet, during that time, I have actually been to church maybe a total of five times.
In short, in the area of spirituality, I feel like the guy who is always planning but never executing. All of my reading has not made me more spiritual … it seems to have made me less so, as I am not a very spiritual person at all.
But, I think David’s insight applies in a broader sense, too. When I look at his words, what they say to me is “Are you really engaging with life? And, are you engaging at the right level? Are you chasing after something that’s right in front of you?”
Consider the example of the man who wants to be a great father, but is always reading about how to be one instead of just engaging with the opportunities he already has. Picture him in his den reading a book about how to be a good father, and his young daughter walks in and says “Daddy, can you help me with my homework?” And, he replies “Not now sweetheart … I have to finish reading this. See if your mother can help.”
In a way David’s insight also reminds me of one of Drucker’s sayings, which I have paraphrased in a couple of different ways:
Never confuse activity with productivity.
Effectiveness is more important than efficiency.
You can probably see other wisdom in David’s remarks. His statement deserves a lot of thought.
Now, what I would like to do is to find a quick-fix way to apply this insight to my life, because, like most people, I have a quick-fix mentality. But, I also know that there is no quick fix here. I need to make some significant changes to my thinking, and to my doing.
I mention this to you in case you need to make changes as well.
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Bruce,
My experience with the “spiritual” has simply to do with finding out what’s true, what is, at whatever the most “real” level of that I can, and participating with it – experiencing and expressing whatever the most elevated level of consciousness I can. Quieting ourselves and the outer world simply means engaging with myself and the universe at its more refined levels. The universe is always on; and there’s lots of ways to experience the river.
Thanks for sharing your reflections.
David
David,
Thank you for sharing. You are exactly where I want to be, and your description of investigating and experiencing the real resonates at a very deep level with me.
Thank you for stopping by and sharing, and thank you very much also for all of the ways in which you share your insights (books, videos, Twitter, etc)!
Best
Bruce
Wow, this was an awesome conversation. I follow you both on twitter and really enjoyed reading your reflections.
Thanks,
Ellen
Thank you, Ellen. I hope others are able to benefit as much from David’s thoughts as I.
Bruce, what an intimate and heartfelt ‘confession’ of sorts
I wish you all the best with your endeavours!