I don’t know about you, but this week I’ve been resitting a training course I attended about 12 months ago and it’s like I never attended.

As we went through the exercises, I kept thinking, “I don’t remember this. I can’t recall doing that before.”

I’m guessing this has happened to you. How come?

Because this week I presented the final session for a 6 month internal customised training program for a client and as we revised what we had learned over the period, it was clear that some of the participants, like me with my course, hadn’t fully taken in the information when first presented.

As I reflect on this, I’m reminded of past participants of the Leading Yourself and Leading Others experience who have attended more than once. Their feedback has been similar to my experience.

“I’ve picked up so much more this time around.  I’m getting more and more distinctions.”

So, if you’ve already graduated from our LSLO experience, it might be time to consider attending again.

The real lesson here is to keep practising and improving.

My favourite quote in the whole world is by English Philosopher, Herbert Spencer, who said, “The Great Aim of Education Is Not Knowledge but Action”.

It’s not enough for us to attend training and pay attention and learn and then think we “know it”. 

We only know it when we embody it.

We demonstrate that we have embodied the knowledge when we actually use it, ie. we do the thing we have learned. We take the action.

For example, you can read a book on how to swim. You can watch a video on how to ride a bike. You can watch a live demonstration of both of these things, however you will not be able to swim or ride a bike until you get in the pool or on the bike and start swimming or riding.

It’s not rocket science.

Do the thing. Keep practising and improving.

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My 87 year old uncle lives alone.

A few years back he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome in which he experienced muscle weakness of the legs.

Over time, his legs became more painful and his mobility was severely restricted.

Unsteady on his feet, when he fell, he was unable to get himself up.

Despite having a special alarm that would summon the ambulance or other help within an hour if he fell, he refused to carry it.

Hence the “pigheaded” description.

No amount of pleading, arguing, bribing etc. would get him to use the alarm.

And this week he ended up in the hospital after having fallen through the night in the bathroom. There he lay for approximately 17 hours in nothing but a pair of pyjamas on the cold tiles.

If only he had agreed to wear the alarm, he could have been quickly helped.

So what has this got to do with you?

Well, according to Google AI review, “Pigheadedness refers to the quality of being stubbornly unyielding in one’s opinions or plans, often to the point of being unreasonable or annoying. It’s a characteristic of someone who resists change and is unwilling to consider different perspectives.”

If you’re honest with yourself, are there times when you are pigheaded?

Do you resist change at work or at home?

Are you willing or unwilling to consider different perspectives?

Are there times when you are unyielding in your opinion or plans?

If so, please reconsider.

Please take my uncle’s experience as a warning.

You can be too pigheaded.

And one last point, being pigheaded doesn’t only affect you. It affects those around you, who often have to clean up your mess or spend time supporting you being inconvenienced for something that could have been prevented.

As they say in America, “I’m just sayin’”

Let’s all take a look at ourselves and our attitudes and behaviours and ask ourselves, am I being too pigheaded?

If so, you know what to do.

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Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.