Earlier this year, I went down to Columbia. I went down to Columbia for a spiritual experience. Went down to Perodua Yage in the middle of the Amazon jungle, an amazing experience that I recommend to many people, not to everybody, but to many.
Now while I was down there, I was trying to communicate with my broken Spanglish the best that I could and oftentimes it would lead to miscommunications and I wasn’t able to actually get the end result that I wanted, because I couldn’t speak the language.
This is partially the reason that I have set the goal and I made a public announcement that I’m going to learn to speak Spanish. I’ve taken five years in school, but I don’t really speak the language. I haven’t put for the study in these later years of my life. Now, what does this mean? Doug, what does this have to do with the story or the Daily Growth Hacks?
Well, this also applies with your Five to Thrive. Where else do you not speak the language, so in your body, do you not understand the physiological terms necessary to get your end results? Can you not pick up a label and read it to see what’s healthy and what’s not? Where are you not speaking the language?
What about your business, your finances? You know, when I talk to a lot of business owners about their finances, as soon as I bring up financial terms, you can see their eyes just go ahead and shut back into their heads. They roll back and they glaze over. They don’t want to deal with it and they wonder why their business is failing. I was there too.
So I actually went out and made flash cards of financial terms, because it was something I hadn’t studied before. I really looked. I started reading the Wall Street Journal. I started asking people I know who are fluent in the language of finance, different terms, different keys, just so I could understand how to manage my money.
In relationships, with my wife, I had to learn to speak her language, her love language, but also the language that communicated to her. Early on in our relationship, we would get in an argument as all couples do, and she would say, “You’re just not hearing me,” or, “I just don’t feel heard, Doug.” And I would be like, “Geez. I’m telling you exactly what I’m seeing,” or, “… exactly what I want and why aren’t you understanding me?”
It’s because I didn’t speak her language. I didn’t, at that time, or take the time to learn her language. Now, this is six years later, and I can speak her language fluently and I do it often. Now every time we get into an argument or an upset this allows us to clear it up in a flash. That’s the advantage of speaking someone else’s language.
This also occurs with spirituality. If you’re a Muslim, if you’re a Jew, if you’re a Christian or if you’re just a spiritual person who loves to meditate, do you speak that faith or that religion or that spiritual practice? Do you speak the language? And if not, why not? My guess is that you’re stalling because you’re not speaking it fluently.
Now this is just like my experience at Colombia or just like my experience with Spanish. There are times where I just really don’t want to study, but I’ll put on a song in Spanish, or I’ll put on something else because you’ve got to do the work. You have to do the work to get it fluent and to get that fluency you also need to practice any language.
So I’m going to ask you today to pull out your journal. Where in your mind, your body, your soul, your relationships, and your business are you falling short because you don’t speak the language? You don’t speak the language that is necessary to take you to the next level. Then, once you’ve identified those next areas, I want you to take action now, action in this moment, action to move forward.
And if you’re saying, “Doug, I don’t know what action to take,” go ahead and post something in the Author of Your Own Story group and we’ll help you. Use your resources and your resourcefulness and that’s what we’re here for. This is a community. We’re bringing people together so we all can grow and so you can be the author of your own story.
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