047: How to Share Your Accumulated Wisdom in a Soundbite Generation
"Walk with the wise and become wise;..." - Proverbs 13:20
I want my wisdom to be walk-worthy (like that biblical quote implies).
How about you?
Heck, we who are fully engaged in our second-half era of life have earned the right to share our walk-along wisdom.
No one who values personal growth in themselves or in others walks alone in a wisdom-vacuum.
Accumulated wisdom is best shared.
Portions of your earned wisdom has likely come at a cost.
You've pushed through a number of life experiences with resilience and here you are all the wiser for it.
But your wealth of wisdom risks being lost on those who could otherwise benefit from it.
That often has to do with how your wisdom is shared - especially if you suffer from "back-in-my-day" syndrome.
Like when you've reached the age when dropping some wisdom on someone you feel the need to preface it with a nostalgic reminder.
Hey, when you've walked to school...uphill...in waste deep snow or driving rain you wear those good-ole-days like a badge of honor - I get it (and I joke)!
But the problem with "my-day" wisdom is that it could lack relevance in the moment.
Your wisdom is a vital part of your legacy - are you sharing or oversharing?
Oversharing happens when you're dropping needed wisdom into a conversation and you don't read the moment or the broader context.
Instead...
- Learn to discern
- Listen for clues
- Level-up your intuition
Your wisdom is too valuable to become just more noise in a world of cheap soundbites.
Discern when to share your wisdom (and when not to share it)
I'll admit it - I like being heard.
Not as in hearing the sound of my own voice.
I'm much more interested in sharing a nugget or two of wisdom that truly helps someone.
But that's challenging because...
- We live in a culture accustomed to a diet of soundbite fluff.
- Social media has trained us to scroll and click and mindlessly tune out.
- Attention spans are measured in milliseconds instead of miles "walked" (as noted in the above mentioned Proverb).
So where does that leave wisdom - as in what you've acquired through your life experiences (hard-fought or otherwise)?
Rise above the noise, fluff, and click-bait with discernment.
- Discern the moment - if it's "noisy" (not literally but informationally) save it for later.
- Discern your message - share sparingly (it's not useful to "firehose" someone with your insights).
- Discern your audience - is it relevant to them or will it be in-one-ear-and-out-the-other?
Listen for opportunities to share your wisdom
People leave clues about how hungry they are for experience-based wisdom and insights.
The brand of listening I'm encouraging here is dialed into what's being said between the lines.
Surface interactions are noisy and full of distractions.
But when phones are down, the distracted scrolling has stopped, and someone is settled into the moment...that's when your worthwhile wisdom finds opportunity.
- Listen for questions seeking answers
- Listen for discouragement that's seeking encouragement
- Listen for challenges seeking ideas
Share your wisdom accordingly!
Be intuitive when sharing your wisdom
This is the essence of a skill you must develop:
The ability to read-the-room.
Social and emotional intuition gives your wisdom wings.
When you're not intuitive it's not surprising that your wisdom falls flat.
- Be intuitive about who you're talking to - are they interested or disengaged?
- Be intuitive about what you share - is it relevant to the person or the moment?
- Be intuitive about how you share your wisdom - would it be better spoken or written?
Useful wisdom is always in high-demand and how you dispense yours relies on good old-fashioned common sense
- Learn to discern
- Listen for clues
- Level-up your intuition
Press on...
Eddie