Imagine an adventurer who proposed to travel to a distant country, without any technological resources, alone and without knowing any language other than his own. To be more precise, imagine that this country is Germany, and that our traveler came across the following sentence: “Die Erkenntniss bereichert das Leben”.
No matter how much he tried to understand such a phrase, it would be nothing more than a set of letters, without any meaning. However, he would also realize that, for those native to that country or fluent in that language, the phrase held no secret.
Analyzing the situation, the adventurer could conclude that there are things in the world that he has no knowledge of, but that, nevertheless, do not cease to exist for those who have the knowledge of such reality. He could also conclude that acquiring knowledge is what expands the possibilities of action, such as reading and communicating, and in his case, there in Germany.
I remember that some time ago, faced with a commitment that repeated with some regularity, I experienced a great difficulty: I was always in a hurry and late. I felt like this traveler, faced with a situation he does not understand and that he lacks a certain knowledge in order to act differently.
Managing time
I tried to identify what led me to live that way. I realized that I did not know how to manage my time well and worse, that I often lost it in worthless things. The rush was a consequence of my misuse of time, an attempt to recover what I had lost. I started to understand that the cause was in my mind. As I started to pay more attention to what was going on inside me, I discovered a series of thoughts that acted independently of my will, because I myself didn’t know they existed.
I started to identify thoughts of disorder, lack of memory, indiscipline, noncompliance and many others. I gradually started to understand how each one moved and the consequences they brought to my life. In this exercise, I realized an important step in order to change my behavior. Before, I would always run after time and now, several times, a little more consciously, I was able to get ahead of it.
I try not to leave tasks and obligations for later and, whenever possible, I try to prepare in advance. If I go through moments of inevitable waiting – like lines or traffic – I try to use this time to think about what I will do the next day or when I arrive at my destination.
Exploring your own self
Knowledge of the thoughts, and of everything that makes up our internal reality, is essential for life to be lived in another way, with more consciousness, balance and accuracy. I know that, just like an explorer, there is still a lot that I don’t know, but that it is possible to conquer and discover it, adding real value to life.
Each one of us can make this effort if we set our mind to it, and will observe that in our internal life there are many previously unexplored realities. If our traveler, from the beginning of this text, had set out to learn German, he would realize that the meaning of the phrase he contemplated is “Knowledge enriches life”, a fact that he would have proven in his own reality.
