Talent is a funny old word. Everyone thinks they know what it means but at the same time almost all of us use it as a lazy way of describing ones skill level. It’s easy to look at someone who is at the top of their profession and immediately attribute their success to some form of superpower we mere mortals were born without.

We also use it as a way of an excuse when we struggle to do something. “Oh I can’t play guitar, I have no musical talent”.

It’s the ultimate get out clause. It’s lazy. Stop it.

I’m willing to bet everyone reading this right now has something they can do better than anyone they know. It could be something impressive like being able to speak several languages, create incredibly complex balloon animals or complete a Rubik’s cube in 30 seconds. Equally, it could also be something really trivial like being able to recite the alphabet backwards (guilty). Regardless of what it is, this feat will seem impressive to some people, especially if they have a strong desire to one day emulate this ability for themselves.

Not the alphabet thing though. Only an idiot would want to do that…

The point being; to a lot of people, being able to do something that requires a high skill level will seem like magic and wizardry – probably because they don’t get to see behind the scenes and the level of sacrifice these abilities merit.

Which, as you’re about to discover, is quite a lot… [Continue reading]