HUGH CULVER

You ARE an expert (now act like one)

Updated to Business on December 14, 2022.

I was in a car the other day with a radiologist and a neurosurgeon talking about hypertension. 

This conversation is actually not as unusual as it might sound. I volunteer for a local society that does trail clearing in a popular hiking and mountain bike park and many of the volunteers happen to be recently retired doctors. 

Back in the car, one of the doctors happened to mention that recently his medical partner, who is in his early 60’s, had a mild stroke. As we wound our way further up the dirt road to our work site my education continued. 

I learned that strokes are the second biggest cause of mortality worldwide and the third most common cause of disability. The scary statistics get worse. As you age your chance of a stroke doubles every 10 years after 55

There’s a checklist of health conditions that make you more susceptible to a stroke, like obesity, high cholesterol, and diabetes. But the biggest culprit – six times out of ten – is hypertension or high blood pressure. In my books, that’s worth paying attention to.

What’s interesting is that stress, in itself, is not the direct cause of high blood pressure. It’s what we do when under stress that leads to nasty results. We eat too much, drink too much, and move too little. Basically, we deal with stress by making unhealthy choices.

For me, stress starts with worry.

Ngoc Son Temple, Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi, Vietnam

I’ve had a lot of worries

There is a world of problems you can worry about – take your pick. You can worry that Ukraine will be pummeled into a tiny province of rubble, or that we’ve passed the tipping point with global warming, or the tiny spot on your chin is cancer. 

Or not.

“I’ve had a lot of worries,” quipped Mark Twain “most of which never happened.” Our mind loves a good worry. Like a dog chewing a bone, we want to turn our worry around, looking from all angles, poking and prodding until it swells up into something bigger than it really is.

I used to worry incessantly before every keynote speech. I’d worry I’d miss my flight or wasn’t prepared enough, or I would be greeted by the “audience from hell.” Trust me, when you have 60 minutes to educate, entertain, inspire, motivate, and get laughs from an audience you’ve never met before, any sane person would invent a long list of worries.

It was at one of those events when a fellow speaker opened an exit door for my worries. He suggested that audiences don’t want you to fail – in fact, they want you to succeed. “They want to see you having fun—enjoying yourself. That way,” he explained, “they can enjoy the ride with you.”

When I accepted the long list of what I could never control – my flights, the audience, the speaker before me going overtime – I was free to focus on what I could control.

Enjoying the moment. 

What your life will have been

In her book, Comfortable with Uncertainty, Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön tells the story of delighting in the preciousness of every single moment.

A woman is running from lions. She runs and she runs, and the lions are getting closer. She comes to the edge of a cliff. She sees a vine there, so she climbs down and holds onto it. Then she looks down and sees that there are lions below her as well. At the same time, she notices a little mouse gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging. She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries emerging from a nearby clump of grass. She looks up, she looks down, and she looks a the mouse. Then she picks a strawberry, pops it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly.

Learning what to focus on, and what to ignore, seems to be the ultimate secret to living a healthy, stress-free life. “Whatever compelled your attention from moment to moment,” writes Oliver Burkeman in Four Thousand Weeks (a must-read for anyone over 50), “is simply what your life will have been.”

So, what are you focussing on?

What to focus on

You can learn a lot when you’re the dumbest one in a car full of doctors. I learned that strokes are a silent pandemic. And that hypertension is the leading cause of that pandemic. And I learned the leading cause of hypertension is stress. 

I was also reminded that stress is a choice.

We all have lions and tigers in our life. Maybe even a mouse or two gnawing away at something we value. Meanwhile, we have the moment.

Choosing what to focus on (and what not to) might just be the healthiest choice you can make.

Got this far? You might also like these posts:

Photo of eggs by Nik on Unsplash
Photo of Ngoc Son Temple by author
Photo of tigers by author

When I am coaching experts (speakers, seminar leaders, authors, coaches, on-line marketers) I sometimes have to stop and remind them they ARE an expert. It seems obvious to me, but not always to them.

What about you? Do you doubt you are worthy to teach others?

According the dictionary, being an “expert” means “having or showing special skill or knowledge because of what you have been taught or what you have experienced”

That’s you, right? You have certain skills, insights, experience and knowledge we can all learn from.

This is important. You need to know you have what you need RIGHT NOW to serve and help others.

That is how you establish your value.

HOW IT WORKS

“Understand you don’t need a Ph.D or to drag your butt up Everest to be an expert.” Tweet this out!

YOU HAVE WHAT YOU NEED

1. Understand you don’t need a Ph.D or to drag your butt up Everest to be an expert. What you DO need is a way to help people get from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow. That’s it. It’s pretty simple: if they hear you on stage, get coached by you, or read your book they are closer to their goal. You can do that, right?

BUILD A MODEL

2. Your expertise is always more valuable when delivered in a proprietary (you created it, you own it) model or framework. Think of “Seven habits of highly effective people” as a framework, and Covey’s “urgent and important” quadrant as a model. A framework glues a process you teach into one big lesson (like Dan Buettner’sNine healthy habits to live longer“). A model helps to explain a concept by using a construct (like a diagram, illustration, list, etc.).

EXPERTISE IS A MUSCLE

3. Expertise is like a muscle; the more you use it and train it, the stronger and more valuable it becomes. Conversely, leave it alone and it atrophies. Everyday you need to invest in your expertise by reading articles and blogs, listening to podcasts, and learning from other experts.

If you are reading this, my guess is you are an expert. Of course, more is always possible, but that’s not the problem. You will learn more, get more skills, build your client list, and earn more over time. You will. 

In the meantime, you need know you are an expert, build your frameworks and models, and exercise your expertise muscles by everyday helping someone get closer to their goals. That’s what experts do.

It could be marriage counselling, sales, leadership, or personal finance, but everyone needs help from experts.

It might as well be you.