Your Best Content is Clear…Too Clear

The way I see it, at the end of the day, we’re all just fish. I don’t mean literally fish– that’s insane. I mean, we’re all shrink-wrapped to our own consciousness. It’s as if there’s this layer of film clinging to our consciousness, and when we look out, it looks like what a fish sees when it’s in water: it’s clear. 

We think, “Of course! This is my world! Everyone else lives in this world with me!” But the reality is, they don’t. 

You live in your world. Everyone else is living in their respective worlds around you. 

When you’re able to recognize this, you will see that there is a Venn diagram where all of our worlds can intersect, but they can only intersect if you’re able to communicate your world effectively.

Somewhere in the gap between your world and theirs is where your million-dollar idea lies. 

The difficulty in finding it is that you’re too close to it. You’re living, breathing, and dreaming your best content all the time. And because it comes naturally to you, and it’s so rooted in your expertise, you think that your most transformational, game changing, life changing, and world changing ideas are obvious.

 But the rest of the world is not looking through your shrink-wrap. 

This is why it usually takes a witness to help you see the gap between your insights, expertise, and the experience you have with what the outside world thinks it knows and what it needs. 

A book coach can help you see the difference and bridge that gap. When I’m with my clients, no matter how many years I’ve been away from journalism, I can’t help my brain from working like a journalist’s. I’m always looking for my next headline. I’m listening to them, and I’m asking myself: 

“What are they saying that’s not in the public discourse and would add insight to what is in the public discourse?” 

Because it is in that difference, in that gap, between what you think is obvious and what the world needs to know where you find your golden ticket in the Wonka bar.  

So yes, at the end of the day, we’re all just fish. We’re shrink-wrapped to our consciousness and only see the water we swim in, but that doesn’t mean we can’t swim to other reefs and discover something even better than that which we knew in our native sea.