I was watching a replay of a seminar the other night and they quickly touched up an obvious yet profound truth – most people go out looking to learn how to accomplish something that’s fancy or flashy but they are never really interested in learning how to create a solid foundation.

I don’t know why, but the way it was presented sent off mental fireworks and dozens of of examples immediately sprang up about how true that really is. People want to learn how to break bricks but never want to learn the forms of the martial artist. People want to learn how to be a great dancer but they never want to learn the basics of balance and form. People want to become Picasso but never want to learn the difference that a color can make.

While having a firm foundation in place is important, the concept immediately clicked with another important set of principals – internalizing the knowledge you’ve learned so that it comes as naturally to you as breathing and from it creating a teachable point of view that can be shared with others.

By the way, I am all for short cuts and “improving the process� but overall you may end up wasting more time trying to find that shortcut than you would have spent learning the material the ‘old fashioned way’. Be careful of that trap.

Ciao,

- John