Language can either empower you or strip you of your power. Usually, it's phrases in the negative that limit us. Phrases like "I can't do that" or "It's not for me" or "I'm not lucky" or "The timing was wrong."


This 3-word, positively constructed sentence, however, is absolutely the most limiting of all:

• I know that.

In an earlier post (Your Comfort Zone), I referenced the movie "What the Bleep." (If you haven't seen this, you absolutely MUST!) That movie provides the following stats:

• We are exposed to over 400 billion (that's right, BILLION) bits of information per second


• Of that, we can process 2000 of those bits, per second


• On average, we have 1 (one) thought per second

Envision the above stats as a sort of a funnel, a picture of each and every second in your life. The top is extremely wide (400 billion bits), and it narrows rather quickly (2 thousand) and leaks out at a mere dribble (1 thought). Every time you say "I know that" you have put on blinders that automatically restricts other information from entering into your mind; it dulls your world and deadens your growth.

The Truth of the Tree

Imagine if you will two people standing facing towards each other. In between stands a tree. Person A begins describing what they see in front of them. This is that person's world view. The evidence is there, tangible and concrete. There's the moss, there's the robin's nest, there are the limbs and there's the green. Person B politely listens, waiting for Person A to finish droning on (they are Canadians after all) and then proceeds to describe what is is actual fact before them. There is NO moss, the bird is in fact a squirrel, the tree is splitting and there are dying limbs.

If each of these people in the exchange adamently argue their world view with the grand statement, "I know that," then each is limited in both their knowledge and their growth.

If each of these people accept the truth of a conflicting view, then they will be open to venturing around to the other side of the tree, and noticing a conflicting truth.

Opposites Co-exist

We live in a world where conflicting information co-exists all the time.

Consider the sunrise and the sunset. Experientially, it's true and we witness it every day. In actuality, there is no such thing. If you were sitting on the moon observing the earth, you would notice that the sun never rises and the sun never sets. The world spins, and the earth continually has a shifting bright and dark side.

Consider the shape of the earth. Experientially, the earth is flat. In Manitoba, you can watch your dog run away for three days (as the saying goes). The water in a pond sits still. On a flat road, we can never gain "down hill momentum" by merely sitting on our bike; we have to propel it forward with our own energy. This "flat world" is what most of us will ever really know through our senses. Yet, we simultaneously know that the world is round. Not because we have each flown or sailed around and experienced it, but because a globe is placed before us in grade two and we are told this.

The next time you hear yourself saying (or thinking) "I know that," realize that you are limiting your world-view tremendously. Your knowledge may (or may not) be accurate, but that is never all there is.

Be open and receptive to learning. Expand your world view. Enrich your experiences. Stop knowing that and start receiving other views, even (or especially) views that conflict your own experiential knowledge.

And without doubt, your world will expand, more opportunities will seemingly come your way, and your growth will accelerate.

Stop knowing and start receiving!

To your continued growth,

Britt