Let It Soak In

The mind can take a lot of things in, but only at a cer­tain rate. This is why I advise my stu­dents not to pro­cras­ti­nate. The mind can­not be force-fed. When you are deal­ing with ideas, you need to pon­der them. Start early. Let your soul work on the con­cepts a lit­tle before you write.

Many years ago, I came across a com­mon sense lit­tle phrase that has helped me with this: “Ideas sink in slowly.” They begin as periph­eral knowl­edge but may take years to become a heart-felt belief. Under­stand­ing takes time. Work­ing an idea through all of the other ideas in your head takes some deliberation.

Per­son­ally, I like the expe­ri­ence of let­ting an idea soak in for a long time. Ideas of value, pro­found con­cepts, deep truths — these are what I want to echo in my mind. They change all other thoughts by giv­ing them an enhanced perspective.

You can do this with lesser ideas as well. Give your heart and mind time to “get around” a dif­fi­cult real­iza­tion. Bet­ter yet, let the infor­ma­tion work through at a sub­con­scious level. When the time comes to per­form the dif­fi­cult task, you will be ready.

Jesus appar­ently knew this. He would with­draw before and after major events (a wise way of work­ing some­thing through your mind). Once he embod­ied the con­cept or the task, he could become it.

Good advice to stu­dents can work well in the rest of life. Start early. Make the first day of the semes­ter (or any task) as pro­duc­tive as the last. Do all you can right now. Feed your mind in small bites, but feed it rather con­stantly. Do not hurry an idea. It has to work its way through all of the other ideas. The results will be worth the wait.