The Knowing-Doing Gap

You already know how to be great, yes you heard me right.

March 17, 2024

Hi!

How was has your week been? I created a little banner for this email and I’m loving it! I think “Everyday Courage” to take action, to try something different, to stand up for yourself and be your own hero everyday sums up what I’m trying to bring to you 🌻.

I recently came across this concept of Knowing-Doing gap in a book called You Already Know How to Be Great by Alan Fine .

I feel that this observation/phenomenon helped explain so many things I, and people around me, struggle with. Why can’t we lose weight even though we know we need to eat healthy and exercise Why can’t we present confidently even though we know we need to project our voice, have the content and maintain strong body language?

❝

If knowledge were all it took, we’d all be incredible managers, teachers, parents, and performers. But we’re not. Why? Because the biggest obstacle to great performance is not knowing what to do; it’s doing what we know.

Alan Fine

It’s not a matter of seeking out even more information or attending more training. You may ask then why do we have difficulty doing what we know? In our quest to performance, we pay attention to interferences, instead, that cause us to be in our own way.

It then becomes more important that we build a dependent system to pay attention to what can move us closer to our goals. Alan Fine developed a framework called GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward) which maps out a process you can use to create that focus repeatedly. Is it helpful for you to have a template of this? Reply me with a ‘YES’ and I’ll send it over.

As usual, I believe in your possibilities. 

👉I would love to hear from you! Reply directly to let me know any suggestions on this series. If anyone could benefit from reading this, feel free to forward along.