Tai Chi Chuan – vs. the IT!
As we go through our study in tai chi, we work very hard
to find out what IT is: Correct, irrefutably right, perfect.
Then we take that IT and put cement around it so that it
can’t NOT be IT. And if we run into a different IT, that other IT is
unrecognizable because our IT is sooooo IT that there is no other IT out there.
Feel about right?
What I like to look for is the thing that is so not IT
that you have to let go of your IT and do something different. This is where
students get irritated. Up comes their IT, how this new thing CAN’T be IT, how
this new thing is wrong, unhelpful, and irrelevant to our IT campaign. And that
new thing (is it right? Is it wrong?) becomes something to ignore, disregard,
refute, dismiss, fight off…
How sad, methinks!
Because sometimes that other IT may help you.
Your IT may in fact be right, correct, irrefutable… and well
worth developing.
But I want to get rid of the cement and the mental
blockade that comes with this.
It’s good to try
on new clothes once in a while; listen, really listen to music you are
not familiar with; read a poem even if you hate poetry. Try on a hat, even if
you dislike hats, to see how it feels.
Disable that JUDGEMENT app. That “WARNING! DANGER!” symbol.
The dialogue inside that erupts when your IT is being set aside for a moment as
you try something else.
The hardest part in learning is the willingness to try
something new.
The hardest part in teaching is getting students to put
down their barriers to new experience and simply get them to explore.
Here is a fundamental question: What do you know today, that wish you knew
20, 30 or 40 years ago? And what did it take to discover this - how did this
come about? And why did it take so long?
Change is hard. Joining an IT crusade is easy. Somewhere
in the middle, nearly impossible!
