A post on being open to wisdom and ideas when you’re already an expert.
Recently, a friend shared that a small business owner they knew who does readings was having a birthday special. I checked them out and decided to support them, and received a lovely email reading from them. Anyone who’s followed me here for awhile knows that I’m a big supporter of fellow small business owners and creators. We all get there together.
Why look outside yourself?
Sometimes, people seem surprised that someone who is an experienced Tarot reader (me) and who has created a Tarot deck (also me) would go to other readers for readings (yep, also me).
Firstly, what I’ve noticed is that many experienced readers have another trusted reader they go to for when there’s a matter they’re really close to and want an objective perspective, or whom they go at regular intervals (once a year, semi-annually, etc.). I have such a trusted reader.
Secondly, we are all experts at something. And I firmly believe that we can all pick up so much wisdom from everywhere on a regular basis. In fact, I think it’s dangerous for any expert to think that they’re beyond learning from others, or to think that they’re so advanced that they just couldn’t garner benefit from people they encounter or from everyday things that happen around them.
But doesn’t expertise matter?
In my fulltime job, I’m in a leadership role. People regularly look to leaders for the answers. But that doesn’t mean I think I have all the answers to everything. I know how much richness there is in listening to a broad range of ideas, from a broad range of folks.
Expertise matters, but I think that true experts know how to take in diverse ideas and how to create the space to do so – even if an idea might not yet have an obvious “fit.”
And I believe that is because such folks are skilled at noticing when there is an important idea that may be wrapped in unexpected giftwrap.
I hope this encourages you to think about where you get your wisdom from, and how you assess it. We don’t always need to know exactly what to think about a concept right away. Sometimes, it’s okay to let it sit on a shelf until the right moment comes to take it off the shelf and play with it.
If you like this post, you might like these other blog posts over here. And if you like Tarot, this is the deck I created.