Was Phil Connors onto something?
“Maybe God isn’t omnipotent. Maybe he’s just been around so long, he knows everything.”
– Phil Connors in Groundhog Day
Sometimes, just having taught for over twenty years feels like a superpower. Years of working in my field have given me access to insights gleaned over years that can seem like brilliance but is in fact, just familiarity. My conducting, my writing, my leadership: they’re all better simply for having done it for two decades. Just as Phil knows everything about everyone in Punxsutawney, thanks to repeating February 2 thousands of times, I know a little more because I’ve been doing this awhile.
Time is no replacement for doing the work of developing skills; but it’s a nice engine working silently in the background alongside your intentional work.