Practice What You Teach
by Matt Booth
Candidate Member
Everyone dishes out advice from time to time. We tell our spouses, friends, and even complete strangers what they must do, or should do, or how to do it. Being a speaker, I certainly dish out my fair share. I’ve learned that if I’m dishing it out, I better practice what I teach. It would be pretty dim-witted of me to give a speech about the importance of having a positive attitude and then flip someone off on the drive home. If you want credibility and you want people to listen to your advice, you better practice what you teach.
To “teach” is to tell others the right way to do something; to “practice” is to do the thing yourself. You “practice what you teach” when you yourself do something the same way you tell others to do it. Example: You can’t warn your kids about the dangers of smoking and then have a cigarette. Your actions (what you do) should always be consistent with your words (what you say). You yourself should strive to do the things you advise others to do.
Practicing what you teach is repeatedly ignored. Have you ever noticed that when someone continually tells you what you should or must do, they often don’t follow their own advice? You may even hear them say something like “Do as I say, not as I do?” People will only listen to your advice after they watch you demonstrate it. If you continue to dish out advice to someone without practicing what you teach, that advice may feel more like an insult than a genuine attempt to help.
Practicing what you teach and being critical of your own strengths and weaknesses, aids in your personal development. Its one thing to be able to tell someone how they should or must do something, it’s completely different to put it into practice yourself. If you’re going to dish out advice to others (from the stage or not), you had better make sure that you are practicing what you teach.
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