During a freaking delightful conversation with coach, storyteller and writer Lael Jepson* (with whom I might be a little bit in love), I recognized a tendency I see in myself and my community.
Lael and I had a wide-ranging talk about being an accidental author, women and volcanoes, and the handful of words with which she does not abide. She was full of so many juicy morsels that I could barely stand it.
At one point she said that people tell her that she “distills shit” for them, that she weaves stuff together that they hadn’t connected. Until she showed them.
She laughed and said, “Doesn’t everybody?”
(Spoiler alert: Nope. No, we do not.)
I stopped her and said, “Isn’t that so often the way? The things that come naturally, that are effortless for us, we assume everybody can do and don’t put much value on.” We don’t give ourselves credit for the things we didn’t struggle for.
She nodded and said she always knows somebody is dismissing their gifts when they say, “Well, it’s not rocket science.”
To which Lael responds, “It’s not rocket science...for YOU.”
For me “rocket science” has two sides: the things we do well and therefore undervalue and the things that we undervalue in others because it seems easy for them.
What comes naturally to you? What is something that you do that others admire and count on but you think is obvious or simple?
Can you cook a delicious meal? Build a great program? Lift people up with your words? Are you patient while others are losing their shit? What is your superpower?
Just because you don't struggle to do something doesn’t undermine its value. It may not feel like rocket science to you, but your “not rocket science” could take us places we might not otherwise be able to go.
And on the other side of things, when you see someone doing something that they seem naturally talented at, do you think no effort goes into it?
Whenever I’m watching a gifted musician perform, I remind myself that I’m listening to decades of practice. When I look at an artist’s latest masterpiece, I pause and consider how much effort went into building their skill so they could create it. It may look easy from the outside but even rocket scientists have to study.
We are all have our own particular brand of genius medicine we have to offer the world. Celebrate and honor the genius and the effort it takes to cultivate that genius, in all of us.
* My conversation with Lael was in preparation for an interview I’m doing with her in January. Subscribe to my newsletter so you can listen in when it goes live! You might fall in love with her a little bit, too.