Having just completed another 'Client-Only' Advanced Workshop, I continue to get the impression that there is a gap between intellectually grasping and understanding the very simple and scientifically proven concepts on which my workshops, books and websites are based, on the one hand and actually putting the simple and practical actions into place, on the other.
And that gap between understanding and doing is down to experience.
And, having just read some research papers that explore one of the key problems in modern education - the fact that teachers appear to have difficulty in putting themselves in their students' shoes - I can understand how so much written and said about 'living life to the full' can miss it's target.
That said, I've been in the shoes of everyone with whom I work. It took me some time, much frustration, many false starts and some dreadful mistakes before I eventually came to a fuller understanding of what focus really means and how it can transform every aspect of one's life. And that understanding was down to experience.
What experience am I talking about? The experience of a totally free mind. Even if that experience only comes and lasts for fleeting moments, it provides a glimpse of a reality that is so different from the world that we perceive that words are incapable of describing it.
The key point is that anyone who has done even a relatively small amount of meditation - or, as many of my clients prefer to call it, 'mental exercising' - will have had a glimpse of that different state of mind.
Once glimpsed, it provides you with an experience that you can begin to get your hands on and your teeth into. It's not that you crave the experience again, it is the understanding that the experience gives you - and the compelling reason why should persevere with your efforts in mental fitness until a few more pennies drop.
Like everything in life, it's a journey. Like all journeys, the road gets bumpy from time to time. But you won't move further in your own personal journey unless you stay on that road, however bumpy it might be. Sooner or later you'll hit a smooth patch and life will be just like cruising down the highway.
Willie Horton is an Irish self-help and personal development author and trainer living in the French Alps. He has been working in the field of personal development since 1996 with clients such as Pfizer, Deloitte, Allergan, KMPG, Nestle and DHL. He is creator of Gurdy.Net – the Personal Development Website and author of Normal Crazy People and To Succeed... Just Let Go.