Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The illusion of knowledge

Imagine if you came upon someone with a lifetime of experience supported by an incredible success in helping people fulfill their potential. After a period of communication they offered guidance based on this experience. What would you do?

I can tell you what most do. About 90% plus of the population will seek to analyze the ‘information’ based on their existing paradigms.

Let me say this as gently as I can – if you knew the answers now you would be have all the success you seek. And in reality, you don’t know the answers and you would benefit from letting go of the ‘information’ you have to filter the guidance from those who you benefit from following and modeling.

Even when I place a disclaimer along the lines of ‘I will only give you my time and experience if you demonstrate your willingness to be a student and take action’, the point is often missed.

Recently, following a complimentary profession of low level professional guidance via private messaging, I made the following offer:

“…yes, life changes and you need to adapt. You also need to get more serious about things like xxxx and xxxx for the xxxx and xxxx. the latter of which I have pretty clear guidelines for but only for those who will act on my advice, not for those who want opinions…”

To which ultimately the response was:

“Thank you Ian...I would like, of course, before committing ….to know what these xxxx are, by whom are they produced, and to find out more about their production and, consequently, their respective effects/mode of action…I am sure you can appreciate my reticence and my need to find out more about xxxx, for the very same reasons.

xxxx (and ever more so, given their isolative nature) and xxxx potential accentuation effects should be carefully considered, especially their effects on overall balance when used concomitantly, so I would certainly like more info before going down that route...’


This is a lost opportunity. The guidance will not be forthcoming because the student was not ready. I would not work professionally with this perspective and therefore would not do this in a complimentary sense either.

Here’s a quote that offers guidance on this point worth reflecting on:
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.”--Daniel J. Boorstin

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Questions are the answer

I share the following exchange as a great example of and learning moment in the concept that questions are the answers.

Hello, I was curious about your products available and had some questions

1. Does your Legacy book contain the same content as your Legacy course (minus the audio and video)?

2. If I pay for and begin the legacy course, does this course include/cover content from your other books/audio/DVDs products or is it all separate 'exclusive info' and these all need to be purchased separate or does the course cover it all. For example, in the legacy course do you cover the concepts talked about in the endurance, flexibility, strength training, speed specialization DVDs, periodization and integration series, recovery methods series, bar bells and bull shit, foundations of physical prep etc.? If not at what point, if at all, is any of this covered throughout different level of courses, level 2? I ask because everything is pretty vague in description and makes it confusing on your site. as well I'm trying to figure out if doing the legacy course is the wrong way to go in that it just covers the concepts in general, and the better route is to purchase some DVDs/books etc.

3. I can’t find much if any info on what level 2 and up covers.

4. As well I see you have audio/DVD/books with the same titles. Does this cover the same content just in different formats? For example there is barbell and bullshit DVD, audio, and book. Do they cover the same info but are just in different formats??

Sorry for all the questions but i enjoy your work and would like to learn more but trying to figure out what exactly i am purchasing is a little confusing to me.
--Brendan

Brendan – great to hear from you. And great questions! Here are sone answers:

Q1. Does your Legacy book contain the same content as your Legacy course?

A1 The Legacy books is a condensed version of the course. For example the course has 1,500 pages of text – the book as 200 or so. So the theme is the same, but he content depth is very different. This is the audio an video, also as as you are aware.

Q2. Does this course include/cover content from your other books/audio/DVDs products or is it all separate 'exclusive info' and these all need to be purchased separate or does the course cover it all.

A2. The Legacy course is a synthesis of my original concepts so you should see some overlap with most of my publications, as my works rely on my original works, not imitations or trends.

Can one course cover it all? I hope not. If I could condense my 35 years of experiences totally into one course I would be concerned about the brevity of the content I can share. So whether you see it as a positive or a negative, I have chosen to spread the KSI coaching course over 7 levels that typically takes 5-10 years to complete. And part of this curriculum or educational journey is studying from existing artifacts.

So I guess in summary, no, this is not a ‘one course covers it all’ As I seek to record my life works, I hope that my life has amounted to more than the content for one course.

I appreciate that few have the experiences I have had in coaching, or the gift to synthesize and innovate, so I understand it may be challenging to understand how my works are so different. I can only say that perhaps the few that truly appreciate the possibilities of this are those who have been through the journey.

To give further guidance, I believe that all professional should do the KSI courses first, and study the various artifacts as the stages of the course when prompted. When a person picks and choses which artifact and when this lacks structure and guidance, and in addition, we have taken a number of the artifacts (e.g. Specialization series) off the market in that they cannot be purchased until a certain stage of the KSI coaching journey.

Q3. I can’t find much if any info on what level 2 and up covers.

A3. Yes, we keep our content low key for a number of reasons. Firstly, I am over being copied by fitness industry marketers who fraudulently represent themselves as the author of my works and imitate my educational offerings from the name to the method of structuring delivery.

Secondly, I take the philosophy that when the student Is ready the teacher will appear, and until L1 in completed, L2 is a mute point. I appreciate that my approach costs signups and income, but that is not my focus. My focus is doing the best, doing the right thing by people, not having the most people in my courses. So giving up money and numbers is not an issue for me. I just myself on how my coaching changes lives, not on the number of friends on my Facebook page or the turnover of my business or any other popularity marker.

Q. 4. As well I see you have audio/DVD/books with the same titles. Does this cover the same content just in different formats?

Q4. Yes, typically it does

Conclusion

I trust my answers have gone towards answering your questions. Never apologize for asking questions. Questions are the answer, and when there is no questions there are no answers. For example many go to seminars and sit there like stunned mullets because they are so used to the speaker feeling obliged to impress them with an over-dose of ‘information’. I would prefer to say little, and if there are no questions the student is not ready, and I will go home and ride my John Deere tractor or train myself, something more stimulating than role playing as an expert to information collectors whose ability to really impact peoples life’s and change the world is missing because they have modeled perception creators, not true value adders.

I keep things low key and slightly vague to weed out those who do things because they are marketed sharply to from those who are on a genuine path of learning and self-fulfillment. You have shown early positive signs of being a student and now taking action in the first step.

Your questions are also a gift to use as we reflect on the impact of our communication through our web content on you and learn from this. It helps shape our direction, so thank you.

Ian King