Understanding is one of our minds superpowers. To understand something at a deeper level gives you God-like powers to bend reality to your liking.
The reason we can control animals but they cannot control us, is because we can understand their behavior, what drives them but they understand little about our behavior or what drives us.
There are more examples of this. The mother understands the child, the child doesn't understand the mother. The mother has a lot more power over the child, while the child is dependent on the mother.
If you pass next to an ant colony, you can stop & look, observe or even study them. You can understand how they live, they cannot understand anything about you.
Understanding is power, the more you understand the more powerful you are. I'm not religious in a traditional sense, but if God is all-powerful, it's because HE knows everything.
Real understanding doesn't happen when you hear about some new piece of information, to which most people would say: yeah of course you need real-life experience. Right? Well there is one more thing...
And I realized it, this this morning after thinking about three things I'm grateful for today; and nope, it's not gratitude.
A few days ago I heard Joe Rogan in his podcast speaking about this idea that some of the best things to do with your friends is to laugh and have fun. And immediately as I heard that, I thought, what a silly idea. Best thing to do with your friends is goofing around?
Since I am obsessed with self improvement and realizing your potential, I thought one of the best things is to have growth friends, a group where you can share feedback, learn and grow together. For me laughing or acting silly is not growing, It's not learning, it felt useless, so I dismissed the idea.
Yesterday night I had a video call with my brother and sister, and just as always we had a fantastic laugh and we had an amazing time. But even that didn't do it. I was laughing, I was having the experience, but it still didn't click. I felt great, I was just enjoying the moment, and that's it.
But the understanding of what Joe meant, the integration of that knowledge did not happen until this morning when I woke up.
As I was doing my morning gratitude, thinking about how amazing yesterday was, laughing hard with my siblings, I realized what actually Joe Rogan meant and why he was spot on. But now reflecting on it, it didn't felt like I was grasping his idea, but integrating my experience.
The map is not the territory.
And it was not because he said it, it was not even because I had the experience, but because I reflected on my experience and that made me fully integrate its wisdom.
I realized that what Joe was saying, it was pointing towards something, it was a perspective prompting me to take action, and until I had the experience myself and acknowledge it I was yet to get the value of his words.
And that's the key, because through this integration process, his idea became my experience and ultimately my understanding. I now own it.
When I heard from Joe Rogan this idea, it didn't make sense because I didn't have the experience; Once I had the experience it felt great, but I didn't have the knowledge because it was not integrated. Only when I sat down to think and reflect upon my experience making the connection with the knowledge that's when I truly understood.
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