I invite you, gentle reader, to consider that accomplished creative folks (name any discipline) hold this same worry: ‘How much talent do I really possess?’ Pablo Casals, when he was ninety was still considered to be the world’s greatest cellist and he ‘worried’ about his talent (and thus he practiced four hours a day).
Here is an idea that is quite old: ‘Talent, if it is anything, is a gift, and nothing of the person’s own making.’ A few thousand years ago a guy named Plato (a pretty good thinker by the by) noted that all talent is a gift of the gods. He was referring to the gift that resided deep within the person and that when manifested would powerfully impact society (thus, only a few folks possessed this gift of the gods). Plato’s view is difficult to reconcile with the way it seems to be – each of us human beings has ‘talent.’
Moreover, if Plato’s view of talent were a prerequisite, then the ‘better the work’ the easier it would be to make the work. But, as we well know, the fates (to keep the Greek metaphor alive) are rarely so generous. Talented people of all types laboriously nurture their talent through both fertile and waste-land and desert periods. How many gifted prodigies have become Mozart? Consider that whatever his initial gift, Mozart was also an artist who learned to work his work – and thus he improved on his ‘natural talent.’
We get better by developing our talents, by sharpening our skills, by increasing our capacity for using our talent. We improve by learning to work our work as we continue to learn from our work. We get better by committing ourselves to engaging the work of our hearts – and by acting on that commitment. This does not come ‘easy’ for the simple reason that ‘it is NOT easy.’
‘Talent’ is a snare and a delusion. In the end (isn’t there always an ‘in the end’), here are some practical questions to consider about ‘Talent’: Who Cares? Who Would Know? What Difference Would It Make? The practical answers are: Nobody, Nobody, & None!
We discern, name, and develop over a lifetime our ‘Talent’ so that we might live out our purpose in life – to use our ‘Talent’ to meet a need (or needs) that exist in my/the world. I call this, ‘answering my life’s call.’ ‘Talent – Do You Have It?’ – YES! Now, let us ask these three questions again.
Who Cares? Those you serve using your talent(s). Who Would Know? Those you serve using your talent(s). What Difference Would it Make? To those served, it would be immeasurable.