“Mind the Gap”

This phrase is always evocative of trips to London with my grandparents as a small child.

I wonder sometimes if the change of this to “Please mind the gap between the train and the platform” is not an indicator of the general ‘dumbing down of the nation, but it was perfectly clear to me as a five-year-old what it meant.

This phrase has two meanings

Most people take it as ‘avoid’ the gap but what it really means is to be aware of or ‘mindful’ of the gap

Because there is always a ‘gap’

The trouble with ‘gaps’ is that many people see them simply as some kind of ‘void’ in time or space usually seen as an interruption of some kind in the expected progress of things

Like the ‘gap year’ many young people take between school and university, which may or may not be used constructively.

‘Gaps’ of course require filling – or bridging. They don’t take well to being ignored, getting wider or deeper if left alone thus becoming more difficult to fill or bridge.

Why am I going on about gaps?

This time last week my coach Phil asked me a question. “What’s your gap?” he said, “What’s the gap between where you are now and where you wish to be?”

A just question indeed.

What and where are the gaps and cracks, the potholes and obstacles on my Way ahead?

What needs filling and what needs bridging, and what do I need to find a way around?

After all, it’s all very well you and I putting a lot of effort into understanding who and where we are and in visualising who and where we wish to be if we don’t, at the same time, identify and understand the gaps between the two.

Unless you and I, ‘mind the gap’

The thing is – some of the gaps are glaringly obvious, but many are hidden.

There are two ways we can approach this, or perhaps two extremes of approach.

We can charge ahead, stumble over the obstacles and fall into the holes, working it out as we go and dealing with the cuts and bruises we get on the journey

Or

We can study our situation, work out where the ‘gaps’ might be, and follow a plan of action based on what we’ve found. – it may take a bit longer but certainly saves on the sticking plaster.

In ‘Life Mastery’ we recognise four domains of life and there are ‘gaps’ in each one of them. If there weren’t, we would be ‘perfect’ and have no purpose on this planet in the first place.

The task I’ve been given is to set about identifying all the gaps and create a composite view of my ‘Gap’.

Then I shall need to find a means of dealing with the ‘whole’ gap by filling, bridging or circumventing each element one by one.

The four domains are each divided into sixteen sectors so I can take each of those one by one to examine what, if any, deterrents there are to my desired progress.

So can you

But you’d probably like to know what those four domains are.

The first is all about your Self – where and what are the ‘gaps’ in your knowledge and understanding, in your health and wellness, in your fitness, nutrition and general stuff that concerns only you and what do you need to do to deal with them?

The second is about everything that is ‘outside’ you – the environment, the planet, plants, animals, people, society, cultures and so on. Where and what are the gaps in your ‘relationships’ with all of these – and what are you going to do about it?

The third is about what you ‘do’, what you ‘give out’ to this ‘outside. Your job, business or career, your engagement in sports, societies and other groups in terms of what you contribute. How you teach, mentor and ‘bring up’ your family and so on. What are you going to change to ‘mind’ the gaps you find here.

And finally the fourth domain in about what you ‘receive’ – what you ‘get back’, your ‘lifestyle’, how you life, your finances and your freedoms. How are you going to deal with the gaps in this domain?

Believe me, there are many gaps in all these areas. Some ‘big’, some small, some requiring minor adjustment to how you live, some needing ‘major’ life changes.

The Beatles sang in ‘A Day in The Life’

“I read the news today, oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all”

Time to count your ‘holes’, your ‘gaps’ –

And figure out what to do with them.

‘Mind’ your Gap