Word of the Week #420:
What is one quality or trait that sets you apart?
Have you thought about it?
It is a question we tend to ask ourselves, right? Perhaps more so when we are younger and trying to chart the course of our career.
By my very nature, these are the kinds of questions that I keep asking myself, even at times when I don’t need to use the answer as actionable intelligence for my immediate future. And by my very nature, my answers to these questions keep changing each time I ask them.
What one thing sets me apart?
Well, there is a lot that makes me amazing and unusual. I have no qualms in proclaiming that.
Still, I’ll also be the first one to admit that my sheer, raw mental ability is not as incredible as I wish it was. I have been aware of that for a few years now.
But there is more to a good car than just the power of its engine, right?
I think the one trait of mine that allows me to be who I really am is my ability to organise my thoughts inside my own head.
It sounds strange when put in words, but I’ve always found it stranger when other claim they cannot do the same.
The ability to hold each thought in your mind, assess it, categorise it, understand where it is coming from and where it can go—without this ability, how do you even begin to build your life? Your identity, even?
This form of structured thought—unconstrained at the beginning but organised in the end—is what allows me to keep thinking about a question without actually constantly thinking about it. I can keep having and storing small thoughts, then re-examining them to add to or subtract from them, on and on and on until I have built an thorough understanding of the topic.
How else does one learn? Through one burst of inspired thought? That cannot be sustainable.
The ability to consolidate thousands of little thoughts borne over thousands of days without being overwhelmed by their weight or breadth is what makes me who I am.
Did I learn to write because I thought this way? Or did I learn to think this way because I write? I am asked often, and I cannot be sure if there is a real answer.
But what I do know is that I am, and perhaps will remain, the Writer Guy.
And I’m up to something new… Let’s see where this goes…
