How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

For the last couple of months or so I have been attempting to write a book. The book is no less than a compilation of my thoughts, reflections, analysis and frameworks for living a fulfilling life. It’s designed to be a resource for those who want their lives to “burn bright” and who are interested and willing to devote the time and effort to uncover and nurture their gift–the unique and irreplaceable spark of genius inside. My hope is that the book helps anyone of any age, but especially younger people, to live a richer life AND prepare themselves for a career over the next 30 or 40 years. This will be a period of great change in how we work. Success in this new era will rely much less on education and what you already know (all that can be digitized and/or outsourced less expensively), and much more on creative mastery of a craft and the process of collaboration with other creative masters to accomplish unique and irreplaceable achievements.

I get up early and spend an hour putting my thoughts down on paper. In the beginning of all this, I thought I had a great outline and tons of content. All I’d need to do was hang the content on the outline and “done so.”

Hah!

Once again, I discover (or rediscover) this simple truth: what I think is clarity in my head is actually closer to static. Like random radio signals bouncing off the ionosphere, my thoughts ricochet around my cranium refusing to be tamed or tied down into any logical and interesting story…until I do the Real. Hard. Work. Of writing and rewriting, editing and re-editing. Then getting other bright minds reading my stuff, critiquing it, and sending it back to me for more re-writing, re-editing, etc.

Only then can the signal emerge from the noise.

And that’s the point of the quote above from Karl Weick that forms the title of this post. Until we actually get into the process of doing the work, and “wallowing” in it, we will remain locked in a conceptual cellblock–thinking we’re clear in our thinking, but stuck behind the bars of our own self-deception. We won’t know what we really think until we’ve written it down, again and again, rinsing and repeating, and then finally, through all that, the page speaks back to us with crystal clarity. Clarity only emerges through the pain of acknowledging that we really are quite unclear. And admitting we have more work to do than simply hanging content on an outline. Once that happens, we can get on with it.

Is there a topic or issue in which you wish to be clear to yourself or others?

Have you written down your position?

What’s your signal-to-noise ratio? (is it clear to you?)

On what topic or issue do you think your team might rediscover the truth that it is in the wallowing that the truth will emerge?

When was the last time you let them wallow?

How will they know what they think until they see what they say?