Expert or Student – Which are You?

I watched a TED talk recently by one of the leading experts on stress, Kelly McGonigal. She confessed to her audience that she had it all wrong about stress, that stress is not the enemy she’s made it out to be. According to Dr. McGonigal, stress is not necessarily harmful to your health, it’s really your beliefs around stress that are harmful. In fact stress has some built in responses that make you more resilient.

Anyway, this isn’t about stress. I’ve always believed that stress is normal and a part of everyone’s life, and how we respond to it emotionally is what makes the difference in how our bodies respond physically. Now I’m no doctor, but it just makes sense to me, and it is nice to hear that there is some science behind that.

So here’s this well known and well-respected expert that has shifted gears. She has not only admitted that she had it wrong , she’s changed the way she presents on the topic of stress. In fact, since that 2013 TED talk, she’s written a book called The Upside of Stress. And that’s what this is about – always learning, and always adapting and adjusting when new information comes your way.

Many people fancy themselves experts at something. I’ve heard said that an expert is someone who knows more about a particular subject than most others. That means that if you know more about something than fifty percent of other people you’re an expert. So defined with these very loose parameters, we’re all experts on many topics.

How about instead, we consider ourselves all students, which Merriam Webster defines as an attentive and systematic observer. In fact, I’m all for striking the word expert from our vocabulary. There’s a lot of pressure in being an expert, and t’s a rather vague word anyway, one open to interpretation. Again from Merriam Webster: one with the special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject. Mastery? What does that even mean? That’s rabbit hole material right there.

When you see yourself as an expert, you often filter out the continuous information of your area of expertise. You have developed your standards and anything new is judged by those standards. You pass over a lot, and miss important new developments.

As students however, we are coming from a completely different belief, one in which we endeavor to grow and discover and question, a place where curiosity is rewarded. As a student, we seek new information from other people, and as we learn something new, we revisit the information we currently have.

In this past year, I’ve had to learn so much. There’s a new town to navigate, new names to remember and new places to discover. As a volunteer at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, I learn about the animals and about interacting with the visitors. Will I ever be an expert? Gosh, I hope not. And coming full circle, yes it can be stressful, and I’m loving every minute of it!