The ikta syndrome

Speakers like me struggle with listening to other speakers all the time.

• “Oops…He did not pronounce it right…”

• “Oh no…There is a misspelled word in his PowerPoint.”

• “That’s an old joke…”

• “I’ve heard that one already…”

When I listen to speakers speak, sometimes my mind would go, “He got this from Charles Swindoll’s book Grace Awakening - third chapter, left hand page, bottom corner…”

The mind processes thoughts five to 10 times faster than the human ear can hear. And my mind in particular could get very noisy with too many thoughts. Thoughts like those I mentioned above are brought about by what I call the IKTA syndrome.

IKTA stands for “I Know That Already.” It’s not a good thing. When IKTA starts to kick in, my mind closes itself up from learning new things. IKTA stops me from learning anything new.

IKTA should be countered by the BAIDI attitude. BAIDI stands for “But Am I Doing It?” Sure, I may have heard the advice or the lesson before, but have I been applying it in my life? Have I become good at it?

In learning, one must begin with having “SHOSIN”. This time, it’s not an acronym. Shosin is a Japanese word that means “beginners mind”. Learning starts with a beginner’s mind.

Author Shunryu Suzuki explains, “This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything. It is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.” Think like a beginner, not an expert. Suspend what you know, and empty your mind so that it can receive ideas.

I agree, but I need to qualify.

I never want my mind to be running on empty. All these things about meditation and emptying the mind are not my cup of tea. I have always believed in the seriousness of critical thinking. Having the ability to think is not the same as having a perpetually open mind. If your mind is too open, your brains may fall out.

What I mean by keeping an open mind is to keep pride from seeping into the mind and convincing me that I am already so good or in fact better than the speaker that what he or she is saying is far too inferior to what I already know.

Whenever the IKTA syndrome kicks in, I need to remind myself that I graduated from high school in that part of the class that made the top half possible.

I need to be a life-long learner. Even if the speaker is saying something I’ve heard before, I should ask myself “BAIDI?” and remind me to put it into practice.

My audiences are kind. Many of them have heard me speak several times, and they may have heard the same funny stories and jokes. Some of them would tell me, “Francis, I’ve heard you at least four times. And even though I’ve heard the same funny lines, I still laugh every time you say them!”

Now that’s their polite way of saying, “Francis why don’t you update and upgrade your stuff?”

This is why I attend seminars, I go back to school, I read books, and I listen to audio CDs – to learn and to equip myself with new stuff. I need to be humble enough to understand that the day I stop learning from a six-year-old is the day I am finished.

This is also the reason why I keep on reading the Bible from cover to cover, again and again – to learn and equip myself. But though I’ve done this many times, I still feel like there’s still so much to learn from the Word. And we need a lot of humility and courage to admit this. I know I do.

(Develop your leadership skills with Francis Kong this Oct. 26-27 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. Call Pam or Kriselle of Inspire Leadership Consultancy Inc. at 632-6872614 or 09178511115 for further details.)