What Is Talent? Is It Just A Myth?

[bazera]

Hey, 

I have been thinking about this lately, and it seems that I don't know what talent is, is it just a man-made illusion, something that lazy people came up with for being in a victim position or what. Does talent actually exist? What does a person mean when he or she says something like - "I am naturally talented in math", "I am talented in drawing". 

Do you think that everything can be learned? For example drawing, do you think that developing excellent drawing skills only depend on practicing more and more? Is it only enough to love what you do and dedicate your time and, if necessary, money to it in order to be great in it?

[nbolt]

Yes, talent is mostly a myth. Most people have trouble starting new endeavors and quit early on. When you stick with something you will see improvement over time. That's the difference every single successful person has accomplished in comparison to people that are struggling- they have failed more times than others have even tried.

I'm also starting to integrate this more into my personal life. By trade I'm a software engineer and have always considered myself very "analytical" and not very "artsy" (absolutely terrible at drawing), but because I've since come to realize that talent is a myth, I plan on going full-force in exploring new fields such as digital illustration, electronic music production, video editing... I'm hoping by the end of this process I will have completely new creative endeavors that are open to me.

The main issue with this "talent" mindset is that it is one that is fundamentally rooted in competition, and you really need to stop looking at the world and your life from that perspective. Leo talks about this competition vs creator mindset at length in his life purpose course.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Neill Bolton

[bazera]

@Neill Bolton Yes, I party agree with you.

But there still is something mystical about this whole talent thing. 

For example, it was somehow easy for me to draw since childhood, then other children around me. There were couple of them, who loved drawing more than I did, but it was clear that I was better than them. What should I call that? Did I have a "talent" and they didn't?

Edited March 20, 2016 by bazera

[nbolt]

6 minutes ago, bazera said:

@Neill Bolton Yes, I party agree with you.

But there still is a something mystical about this whole talent thing. 

For example, is was somehow easy for me to draw since childhood, then other children around me. There were couple of them, who loved drawing more than I did, but it was clear that I was better than them. What should I call that? Did I have a "talent" and they didn't?

People may have different natural propensities for things as children, but any real progress comes from consistent, concerted effort. If a 0 is someone who can't even hold a pencil, and 100 is Van Gogh, I may start off as a 5 and you may start off as a 15, but neither of us will get anywhere in life without putting forth this concerted learning effort over a period of years. And if I put in that effort, while you focus on other things, I can become a 40 while you are still maybe a 20. We may have different starting points but we vastly underestimate our creative potential. We take things that happen to come naturally as the only things of value we can create in life and brush everything else off, when really there's absolutely no need to do that. This is coming back to my previous point that successful people have failed more times than others have even thought of trying. Just work on whatever it is that you enjoy doing, and you will consistently see improvement over time. We just need to have the wisdom to see that.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Neill Bolton

[nbolt]

Just as Leo emphasizes in most of his videos, you need to approach this from a very practical perspective. What are we subtly implying, at least usually, when we mention talent?

We are implying that other people have some sort of higher intrinsic value than we do in some aspect of life.

This is an incredibly toxic way of thinking. Get rid of it. Get rid of this competition-based mindset. It has no place in your psyche.

[Nicolai]

Maybe talents are coincidences. Perhaps in your childhood you drew a pretty good drawing, and got recognition for it. Thereby you lived with the mindset that you were good at it, which allowed you to love it, and expand your skills. Where another person in your class drew an ugly drawing, and got bad criticism, and thereby didn't love it. If you get told that you're bad at something, then you'll often unconsciously escape facing your weakness, and thereby no expansion. Subsequently, he lived with the mindset that he was bad at drawing, and 20 years later he thinks it's because he wasn't naturally good at it. 

Edited March 20, 2016 by Nicolai

[Guest]

Some people are more naturally predisposed to certain skills than others. This doesn't matter-- we all have our own view of the world and are capable of contributing in someway (I will suspend judgement on the severely mentally disabled).