Each day you don’t hone your expertise momentum, what you have to offer the world recedes.

#Expertise #Theartandscienceofexpertise #Communicate #Following

(BTW Great to be engaged in writing again! The physical act of being here at my laptop, wow. Just you, me. No A.I. Ever.)

I have had a tough few weeks away from posting mainly because of a repetitive strain injury in my hands and wrists. I could not write at any computer. Without the ability to send out my work and get feedback, I felt I lost myself. 

As a professional journalist and writer I rarely have had physical limitations. Sick days yes, but very little in the way of mechanical impediments. Day in day out for thirty years my body cheerfully let me satisfy CTV newsroom deadlines (although on occasion, sometimes less happily than I would like to admit). 

That jolted to an end a decade ago. I was run over by a car while on vacation in Rome.  I lost my livelihood and spent years in recovery. It was a really dark time. But it prepared me for future adversity. You probably know. We all have our stories.

As I wrote recently, over these recent weeks, while pining for the keyboard I have been sustaining myself (once again) through the lessons of that car accident.

Full flare-up mode: ice, rest, medications, stretching, physiotherapy and ultrasound.

I am back, gingerly so. Sitting here, I try to press the keys with only a very gentle pressure. It is challenging.

Trials become gifts.

Since Rome and even further back, I’m aware how my body processes my thoughts between my head and the keyboard. I see how, with that accident, life dealt me years of rich learning about adaptation.

I want to extract the best of every pain-free minute here. The flare-up awoke my urgency to connect. There’s a deep satisfaction in any expertise that is empowering. I don’t intend to let that go.

This is what American memoirist Jennifer Lauck calls word momentum.

When you're writing, you're raising the world you're creating via the momentum of your words on the page. Each day you don't write, the world recedes. At least mine does.

Tweak that to make it relevant to all of you my friends, with so many kinds of expertise.

When you're honing your expertise, you're raising the world you're creating via the momentum of your knowledge. Each day you don't, the world recedes. At least mine does.

Expertise momentum

You might be team-leader on a project with an impossible remit and timeline. Or a sourdough baker trying to balance ingredient cost with your sale price. Or an rough-voiced singer pumping out a new song. Or an injured concrete-pourer who needs TLC including coaching and physiotherapy. We want to

• Stay current with many of the qualities we already possess, 
• find support in community,
• become more focused and work deeper. 

I remember the sting when a supervisor hinted that I might be in danger of sliding into complacency. There’s nothing wrong with the comfort that comes with subject mastery. Nevertheless, to keep your eye on the ball you might have to develop different reflexes to augment the ones you are using now. Or more competitive ones. Or "lazier" ones that grow from earned confidence. 

Here's the nugget - to paraphrase Jennifer Lauck, I see it this way -

Each day you don’t hone your expertise momentum, what you have to offer the world recedes. The tide is pushing you backwards.

I feel that backwards tide though, the one that crashes over me when I yearn to soar.

I need thermals, those upward air currents that let birds rise with no effort.

PS – The Art and Science of Expertise, my LinkedIn newsletter has almost 600 subscribers. 

I couldn’t be more tickled pink. Thank you all. Feel free to subscribe. Comments are public.  

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