when getting our point across, do we rely too heavily on words?

“We teachers – perhaps all human beings – are in the grip of an astonishing delusion. We think that we can take a picture, a structure, a working model of something, constructed in our minds out of long experience and familiarity, and by turning that model into a string of words, transplant it whole into the mind of someone else. Perhaps once in a thousand times, when the explanation is extraordinary good, and the listener extraordinary experienced and skillful at turning word strings into non-verbal reality, and when the explainer and listener share in common many of the experiences being talked about, the process may work, and some real meaning may be communicated. Most of the time, explaining does not increase understanding, and may even lessen it.”

-John Holt

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.”

Every human being on this earth will find themselves in a position to teach another person at some point. All of you, are teachers. We are both natural teachers and natural “over-explainers”.

We like to pile on words, high and deep, to explain something that is often better served by using less words, and more experience.

In Zen, we refer to words as “paper cakes”. They are necessary to some extent, but they can never be truly nourishing –only the experience they can lead to, can trigger change.

Here’s something to think about next time you are trying to get your point across: can you increase your clarity and impact by finding a way to present your ideas using less words and more experience?

Could this entire blog post been conveyed in mere seconds through a simple exercise that demonstrated how easy is is to learn from experience versus chatter?

Probably!