The bottom line: Everyone sits on a treasure trove of wisdom and experience that has value to others, too. One way to find what is yours to share, is to find what comes easy to you. The stuff that’s obvious to you, and amazing to the world. Share it, generously.
I just skimmed a 16-page document with the beginnings of a book, written by a friend of mine. I am the perfect reader for this book –in a sense, he’s writing it with me in mind– and as I read the first draft, I smile and rejoice. But for many more reasons beyond the fact that he’s giving me what I need to better understand a concept that seems to come very natural for him.
I read, and rejoice, at…
… the simple fact t h a t he’s taken the time to sit down, to put fingers to keyboard, and start to write.
… him sending an early draft to me, as a way to test the water, as a way to see if it’s understandable, as a way to check if the tonality of his writings work.
… how happy I am to be of use, as a test-reader, able to give him feedback when he asks for it.
… the enormous amount of wisdom and experience that exist, in my friend, in me, in you. How that wisdom and experience can be used as building blocks for creation. Any type of creation. Books, podcasts, painting, sculptures, photographs, plays and sketches, stand-up comedy and conversation, meals to delight in, new inventions and… any and all creation!
And I am certain… someone will read this and go But not me. I don’t have anything to share, nothing of value. If so, I want to look you in the eyes, gently, and tell you, what I know –Know– to be true: Yes. You do.
Because everyone does. So much unites us in our human experience, but the way you (!) will describe, shape and form it, as well as how you deliver it to the world, through the filter of your onlyness, makes your wisdom and experiences unique. There will be people who resonate with it. For sure.
And yes. There will be those who will not resonate with it too. But those are not the people you create for. You create for those who like you, who find value in your offerings, who are nourished by your creations.
My friends book-draft makes a great example of this way of thinking if you have yet to figured out what you could offer that would be of value. Derek Sivers has put it into words in a very nifty way. He says What’s obvious to you, is amazing to others. What my friend has written about is obvious to him. He just gets it, whereas I, I sit there, struggling, trying to rack my brain around it, not being able to see, what is crystal clear for him. So if you question your ability to have something of value to offer, I ask you to look at what you do, really well, that doesn’t seem hard to you, at all. It might be tending a garden, cutting hair, creating dinner parties. Or make friends, find little gems to experience in every town you visit while out travelling or get the best deals whenever you need to buy new clothes.
And yes (again). It’s not necessarily easy to see what is obvious to you, those things you do, that you do so well, that you don’t even notice them. If so, ask a friend or two. Or note what it is you do, when you enter a state of flow when time simply seem to disappear. Because what’s obvious to you, is amazing to others. And there’s generosity in sharing that with me, and the other others out there. Some of us are your audience. I promise.