Somehow, I've managed to put a lot of what I know to some professional use, whether it's my ability to write, edit, speak, teach, take good photos, or, most unexpected of all, my love for gemstones.
I suppose honing skills that can be used in multiple domains is never a waste, even if you don't consciously think that you are developing those skills.
And perhaps that's the secret - to unconsciously improve them, not necessarily as part of your professional life.
Spend More Time Generating, Less Time Consuming
If I could turn back time, I'd probably have spent a bit more time generating and that bit less time consuming.
Not that I regret the time I've spent perusing, pondering, and planning, I just feel that I could have put my creative processes to more use.
Coming to this realisation, I can do more moving forward.
Write more.
Take more pictures.
Cook more new dishes.
I don't need to pick up new art forms, because I've already chosen mine, and would rather spend the time honing them.
So there it is, perhaps it'll be my Word of the Year in 2022.
Writing for the Eye is not the Same as Writing for the Ear
You have almost certainly listened to someone reciting a speech and found it flat, uninspiring, even disingenuous.
This often happens in the public sphere, especially when politics are involved.
What's to be said is often vetted, edited, and rehashed multiple times by multiple people. This is understandable. A slip of the tongue can cause severe backlash.
There are, of course, brilliant speechwriters who work with the same speaker for long periods of time and produce remarkable speeches for them. These people, sadly, are few and far between.
Many written speeches don't translate well when spoken, because they were written for the eye, and not for the ear.
I'm not saying that speakers should stop hiring speechwriters, just that, if they do, they should be the ones in charge of the final "version", so that they sound like themselves.
And make our listening lives a little bit livelier.
Why I Won't Write a Book About Other People's Expertise, Experiences, and/or Stories
Writing a book that is a collection of other people's expertise / experiences / stories doesn't make you an expert.
Oh, it will certainly allow you to be perceived as an expert.
And it makes you a good collator of information, and, if you've been paying attention, a good student of your interviewees.
But you're not really an expert.
Not yet, anyway.
This isn't to say that you shouldn't write a book.
I'm just saying that it may make more sense to write a book about something you are personally good at, even if it's not necessarily a "marketable" or "popular" book.
If I want to learn from a known expert about their expertise, why would I learn it second hand from someone else?
Unless that person has something valuable to add.