Intelligence
“the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills”
Each part of this definition could have its own blog post…it’s that loaded. For today, we’ll focus on the alliteration: the ability to acquire and apply. We often think of intelligence as having a lot of knowledge but what good is knowledge if we don’t/won’t apply it or don’t know HOW to apply it.
How many of us have a fabulous collection of how-to books and have yet to apply what we’ve acquired from them? Or maybe worse…have yet to even read any of them? (you can’t see it but my hand is raised).
How many of us have taken classes to acquire new skills and yet have not fully applied them? For me, I’d say I have yet to apply at least half of what I’ve acquired from classes.
So why is that? Whatever elaborate excuses we come up with…they all lead to the same thing…some form of fear. Fear has its place in that it’s meant to protect us from harm. But seriously how much “harm” can a new skill or new-to-us knowledge do to us or others?
I get it…most of us fear “failure” or “disappointment” or “rejection”…but unless you’re learning something new like how to disarm bombs or doing life-threatening stunts or performing delicate brain/heart surgery…so what if we “fail” or “disappoint” or “get rejected”…all of that is just feedback, information, on how to do better or differently next time.
What good is it if we only acquire knowledge and skills…it’s useless unless we apply it. So…today…we’re encouraged to put down the “books”, acknowledge the fear(s), and focus on applying our newly acquired knowledge/skill(s). People are waiting for what we have to offer.
How about you? Is intelligence a core value for you?
BTW…here’s what it looked like to begin with …
joyfully,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
bringing sanity to an insane world through the art of mandalas
About the 2024 Mandalas of the Day
Each day I will create and post a mandala inspired by one of 366 “value” words chosen randomly. The objective being to discover for myself which ones would best represent my core values…and by doing so, I hope it inspires you to determine your own.
Mandala of the Day 