Hearing is good. Understanding is better. Action is needed! The Shema Part 1

Hearing is good. Understanding is better. Action is needed! Sometimes we think knowledge is good. But what do we do with knowledge for the sake of knowledge? We can gain information by hearing something. It can turn into knowledge if we understand it. But it becomes useful when we act on it.

As an example, take the adjacent image. I asked Bing Chat Image Creator for an image with the same person appearing three times. In the first one she is thinking. In the second one she understands an idea. In the third one, she is acting on the idea. Make it look like a water color.

On the left, she hears something. Hearing is good. It provides an opportunity to think about something. An opportunity we can use or waste.

In the middle, the light bulb goes on, to indicate at least a certain level of understanding. Understanding is better than merely hearing and remembering, but learning nothing from what’s heard.

Then on the right, she’s thinking about what she can do with the understanding she now has. Hearing has led to understanding, which led to thinking about how to use that knowledge. Even here though, unless that action plan from thinking about how to put that understanding to a practical use, the opportunities that could have come from hearing are at best delayed, and at worst wasted.

This is true for so many things. No, we don’t go out and act on everything we hear. We hear too much and we don’t have enough time to act on everything. We can’t “boil the ocean”.

That’s where priorities, interests, passions, and the like come into play. Our actions very much show what our priorities and our interests are. The amount of effort we put into the things we do shows our passions.

Think about that. Look at yourself objectively. As if from someone else’s eyes. What would someone who doesn’t know you, but is observing you, think are your passions?

Passion is everything!