The Expert Struggle
Falling doesn’t mean failing.
Sometimes, the most celebrated painters struggle to find a brushstroke.
Sometimes, the most prolific writers cannot find the words.
Sometimes, the most significant leaders lose their footing.
Just because you’re exceeding at the career or discipline you find yourself in, doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to falter.
Just because you’re excelling at the work you’re creating, doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to struggle for a bit.
Sometimes inspiration will be constant — like the rising and setting of the sun, like the crash of the waves, like the way you know you’ll always have a cup of coffee in the morning. Usually, your inspiration intertwines with your breath — it’s what you use to measure your minutes and your days.
And then sometimes, your inspiration leaves, and you won’t feel it on your breath as readily as you once did.
But the thing to remember is that just because you cannot feel your inspiration within your breath, doesn’t mean that you have to stop breathing.
When there is an expectation for you to be an expert in your field, whatever that field may be — feeling as though you’re without inspiration is paralyzing.
It’s a scary thing to feel like you’re faltering.
But faltering is natural, too.
Because the thing is, there’s always room to grow.
There’s always more to learn, too.
Even experts can struggle with what they’re an expert in. And they too are capable of learning, more.
They should always be striving to learn more, too.
Did you know that teachers must continue their education, long after they complete their graduate degree? Did you know that doctors continually have to take board exams, long after they finish medical school? Are you aware that attorneys have to continue their legal education long after they finish law school, too?
Think about all of the people who work in corporate America that are expected to take professional development training. No matter how long they’ve been working for their company, there is always the expectation to learn more.
And it doesn’t stop with professional development training and continuing education courses, either. With each change in technology, comes new information to be learned, too. Whether you work in cosmetology, or law enforcement, or the service industry, or construction, or a different field — there’s always room to level up.
And sometimes, leveling up can cause us to trip and lose our balance.
But that falling doesn’t mean that you’re now a failure.
It just means that you’re growing and learning and continuing to strengthen your expertise.
Release yourself from the expectation that your expertise cannot be without failure — and look to what the failure can teach you.
