Talented

"Oh, he is soooo talented!”

"Wow! She is super talented!"

Have you ever said this to someone? Have you heard someone say this about another person that is performing at a high level? I have done both, but I am going to stop. I just don't think the word many of us are throwing around so casually is really what we mean.

There are a variety of defintions for the word talented.

Talented: a marked innate ability; natural endowment or ability of a superior quality; having talent or special ability; a special often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude.

Hmmmm.

When people see someone who is "talented," what they are really seeing is hard work. They actually observe the results of years of dedication, repetition, instruction, perseverance, hundreds of failures, and growth. They see skill. Skill and talent are not the same thing. Talent is the natural ability to do something, but it ends there. Talent never becomes anything more than just a natural ability without work. Skill, on the other hand, is an ability developed through practice or training. Skills can be developed even in the absence of any talent.

Why does any of this matter?

For one thing, the people performing in an excellent manner deserve the recognition of the skills they have mastered. Brushing off practicing as talent is dismissive and inaccurate.

Most importantly, the reason this matters is for the rest of us, the “untalented” ones. If we have no obvious talent...are we doomed? Is success saved for just a select few? Thinking this way feels limiting, like we have no control over our own outcomes. Yuck.

I believe we need to change how we think. We can believe that we are capable of anything we would like to do. Having a natural ability may help, but it is absolutely not necessary. How empowering is it to think we can do anything?! What do you want to do? Whom do you want to be?

I don't think we should believe that a few lucky souls are talented, and the rest of us missed out. I mean, you can believe that, but why would you want to??

Nope.

Not me.

In the end, the natural endowment matters the least. The practice, the dedication, the hard work, the persistence...those are the qualities that turn normal people into amazing humans.

Who doesn't want to be one of those?

So let's stop saying how talented people are. Instead, let's appreciate and express our admiration of their hard work. Then, we can be inspired to do our own work and become the amazing souls we were all meant to be.