Say it with me: “I don’t know.”

Fit BEYOND form- what DOES that mean? I have a multitude of definitions, but the nutshell version would be the understanding that while focusing on and working out your body will most certainly bring about changes in the size and shape of your body, prioritizing your entire BEING will have an effect on the size and shape of your body while also affecting every facet of your awareness in being. EVERYTHING affects your body, and everything is affected by your body and your mind, which then either enhances or diminishes your experience in being. I can only speak for myself here, but I’d prefer not to diminish my experience and I’ve blessedly, humbly! been shown that the surest way not to do so is keep these 3 words at the forefront of my brain: I DON’T KNOW. Oh wait, add in these 13 more: AND I KNOW I DON’T KNOW, SO TEACH ME WHILE I SHUT UP. While I’ve always been well aware of how much I needed to learn, my journey has taught me that as much as there is to learn, it has been equally as necessary to UNlearn. Or, to quote Adam Grant:

“Intelligence is traditionally viewed as the ability to think and learn. Yet in a turbulent world, there’s another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to re-think and unlearn.”

Adam Grant

Re-think and unlearn; two skills I’ve been working on that have given my fitness trainer/transformation coach mindset a real run for it’s money. As in: how do you maintain a belief in your ability to teach and motivate others while simultaneously operating with an openminded, I don’t know mentality?

I don’t know.

You saw that coming, right? 🙂

That’s the thing. I don’t know and it’s been revealed to me that what I don’t know, I don’t NEED to know, at least not until I’m meant to. As the spiritual realm likes to remind me, necessary information will come on a need-to-know basis. Meaning: when and if we’re meant to know the “what” WE WILL. We don’t need to spend energy in a futile chase for answers that will be revealed in their own time. Not knowing allows us the clear lens required to see each person, each situation, each moment as the individual event it is without the possible blur of preconceived notion.

As freeing as the I don’t know mentality has the capacity to be, don’t expect to grasp it immediately. After all, most of us have been conditioned to know, and when we didn’t, we learned very quickly not to make it known that we didn’t know. Or we’d play along like we did know, only to convince ourselves that we actually knew what we certainly did not know but had been faking for so long that we were no longer aware that we were faking and now believed we DID know. And subsequently, though most likely unconsciously, closed our minds to learning more. Which is why we’re opening those minds back up for business! The business of re-thinking and unlearning. And just as Ursula Le Guin reminds us about love, that it needs to be “remade each day, baked fresh like bread.” so too does our attitude regarding belief in our human capacity- both our own and that of others, while extending continued forgiveness for our human shortcomings.

It IS a turbulent world. But with the combined capacity of each of us we’re greater than the turbulence. Fresh bake that thought daily and move in faith of it. That’s all we need to know right now.