Talent is a tricky thing. It's something you're born with, but unless you work at whatever it is you're talented at, it's not worth anything.
Can you imagine a dancer with innate talent being able to perform Swan Lake without a lick of training? No. A runner being able to run a marathon without training? No.
So talent is only a small part of being a success.
And talent can be a burden. Once it has been identified, other people suddenly expect something from you. There is a reason why so many great talents throughout history have crashed and burned, died young or gone mad. Living up to your talent is not always easy.
And what if you actually hate doing the thing you're talented at? The pressure to keep doing it, to make yourself a success must be huge. But if doing it makes you unhappy, it must be so hard to get up each day, knowing everyone around you has this high expectation of what you're going to achieve doing this one thing.
Makes me glad I'm not really talented at anything… How about you?
Couldn't agree more. Mediocrity is my best friend.
ReplyDeleteI think being talented at something you hate must be terrible and what's so sad is usually you find it's not the talent the person hates, but what they have been made to do with it.
ReplyDeleteTasha
Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)
Talent is a tricky thing; if you're smart enough to recognize you have it and you want to work at it, you still might encounter people who undervalue it. And I've known people with talent has grown to hate their abilities because others have set expectations way too high and taken the fun right out of it. Talent's nothing without the will to support it.
ReplyDelete@Get Lost in Lit
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ReplyDeleteInteresting. I'd never thought about talent in that way. I agree that talent by itself is not enough if one wants to succeed. But I think the missing ingredient is passion. Passion can take you pretty far, even if you're not naturally talented
ReplyDeleteI dabble, so maybe I'm a dabbler - am I talented at doing that? Maybe not.
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