One of the things I love about this training is, we always get exactly what we need to complete each degree, at exactly the time we are ready to receive it.
There are some teachers who say, "Listen to only what I teach you. Ignore everyone else." But this program does the opposite: It offers a framework of initiations, rituals, and practices that set a clear intention, through which we each will attract everything else we need for our individual experiences. With each initiation I go through, I trust more and more that I'll recognize what other resources (programs, coaches, etc.) I need for my growth.
The topic of "teachability" is an example of what I'm talking about. It's a topic I needed to delve into as part of my third degree experience, but it wasn't taught to me by the school.
The teachings I found on teachability came from an old set of CDs that I was suddenly inspired to listen to again, after at least 10 years of them sitting on my shelf. This is a CD set about how to manifest. I won't tell you who the teacher on the CDs is because honestly, I think he's a shady guy, and I had to keep reminding myself "it's about the message, not the messenger" while I was listening. So instead I'll simply summarize the message for you.
One of the key points this guy taught was something he called "The Teachability Index." It's a way of measuring how ready a person is to accept new teachings.
The Teachability Index is based on willingness and ability to learn - but much more on willingness than ability. It seems to suggest that anyone can learn if they are willing to learn.
To determine someone's Teachability Index, he said you need to ask two questions:
How willing are you to learn?
How willing are you to change?
Think for a moment about the difference between those two questions. We might say that the first one is about listening: Is your mind open to new information, or do you cut people off or click away from websites saying, "Yeah yeah, I already know that"?
Lots of people who read blogs like this have a strong willingness to learn. That's why you're here, right? But that's only Step 1. A willingness to change is Step 2. As someone wise has said, "To know without acting is not to know."
Change only happens when we take some kind of action, and as I listened to this guy on the CD, I realized that my own Teachability Index had been much lower than I believed it was. With a lot of things in my life, I had been talking the talk but not walking the walk.
I observed that my unwillingness to change could be seen in my calendar: I scheduled time each week for the activities I said were important to me - my rituals and practices, activities for my business, prepping and eating healthy meals - but when that time came, I often had an excuse not to do it. My actions were still stuck in my old ways of doing things. I had gotten really good at changing the the content of my Google calendar, but not so good at changing myself.
That was a really powerful aha for me that spurred me into action - especially into taking the actions that I had already chosen when I set up my schedule. I didn't instantly become 100% compliant, but I got better and better each day and each week.
What I've since learned is, the online age makes it too easy for us to feel like we're being teachable when we're actually not. Information is available literally everywhere; going to a website to request information feels like you're doing something, doesn't it? Booking an appointment feels like you're doing something doesn't it?
But that's not real change. You can click and tap your device all day and still stay well within your comfort zone.
If you've been falling into that trap, let me give you a new "teachability mantra" to live by:
Clicks are mind tricks.
I like how that rhymes, don't' you?
If you want to be fully teachable - a 10/10 on the index - then you need to take the next step after the click / tap. And maybe the next step after that. From what I've experienced, I would say you have to keep going until the next step feels uncomfortable. Then take that step too.
Read the information you requested - don't just leave it sitting in your inbox.
Schedule the interview you're invited to.
Show up for the interview you scheduled.
Etc.
See how those are all actions? That's what teachability looks like. That's how real change happens.