“You teach the life you live.”

—Togo D. West, Jr. (b.1942); attorney, former US Secretary of Veterans Affairs

So much of Abundance Intelligence® is about the teeter-totter – finding the harmony, embracing the duality between seemingly opposite concepts. I’ve often said that “we teach what we need to learn”. This year in particular, I find myself really living and applying the concepts of Abundance Intelligence® to my daily life.

In Abundance Intelligence® , we talk about the difference between intellectualizing something and internalizing it.

When we intellectualize something, our mind knows it, but it may go no further. (We all know what it takes to lose weight, but how many of us have adopted the lifestyle that gives us our ideal weight?)

When we internalize something, we are taking it to heart. We are owning it. We are saying this is true for me and it is so true that I believe it and choose to live it consistently.

Internalizing makes the knowing of something actionable. There is no longer any separation from what we know and who we are being.

All of this brings me to a question I’ve been pondering – what comes first, being the student or being the teacher? Think about your own life.

What are the turning points you’ve experienced?

When were you at a crossroads and made a decision that impacted you?

Was it based on all that you had learned and internalized? Or was it based on a desire to learn and grown, yearning for a new experience?

Perhaps it doesn’t matter what comes first – student or teacher. Perhaps these roles are actually interchangeable in our lives.

We are never just the student or just the teacher.

And that is the beautiful opportunity.

As someone who has brought Abundance Intelligence® to the world, the more I personally live it and experience it, the more real and alive it becomes for me. Perhaps I started out as a sort of teacher in this case.

Now, more than ever, I feel like the student.

Exploring.

Experimenting.

Asking questions; letting go of the need to find the right answers.

Lately, any time a challenge shows up (and there have been several!) I find myself asking, “How might I apply Abundance Intelligence® to this situation?”

And then more powerful questions present themselves:

• Am I doing all that I can do in this situation?
• Am I letting go of all that I can in this situation?
• Am I responding to what is true for me today?
• Am I allowing life to unfold through me, not because of me?
• Do I trust that what is meant for me can’t be lost?
• Am I choosing my greatness or my fear in this situation?
• Am I looking for the opportunity in the difficulty?

Each of these questions, if answered authentically, provides a cornucopia of abundance if we have the courage to ask.

The choice is ours. What do you choose?