You know Ive always

You know, I’ve always hated being described as ‘talented’ or ‘gifted’ (Although I will admit that that doesn’t happen very often.)

The reason for this is simple. It implies that whatever it is you’re good at was pre-ordained, and doesn’t take into account any of the actual effort involved. Saying someone is ‘gifted’ implies that they are good at a particular thing, and has nothing to do with practice and training.

For example, I went to school with a guy named David Greenall. Now, this guy was a stone-cold, platinum plated genius. He excelled at everything he did. He could do a pencil drawing that looked like a black and white photograph. He played piano so well that he went through every grading possible and beyond. (and this was by the time he was 15.)

At the end of highschool he graduated with A*’s in every subject. (In England you don’t get a ‘Highschool Diploma’, you get a grade on every subject you took, and that works the same as your transcript over here).

Oh, and an A* is one higher than an A+, there’s simply no higher grade.

Anyway, It was coming up to exam time, and someone said to him:

“At least you don’t have to worry; you KNOW you’re going to pass everything!”

David was not happy. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that the idea that he was under no pressure, and was guaranteed to pass, pissed him off royally. Especially considering he revised for those exams for at least 6 hours every day.

So what got me started on this topic today?

Well, I was practicing drawing, and I seem to have reached a plateau. I just don’t appear to be getting any better, and from my last post, you can see I’m not what you’d call a ‘talented artist’.

This got me thinking.

You see, I’ve been ‘blessed’ with a natural aptitude for a lot of things. If I like it, and I’m interested in it, I can become proficient in it quickly. I have an accelerated learning curve.

However, once I get to a certain point, my progress grinds to a halt, and I progress as fast as an asthmatic turtle climbing a steep hill.

For example, some friends and I decided to learn guitar. At the start I outpaced them easily, and was playing songs while they where still trying to learn the chords. However, once the ‘Paulius Gene’ kicked in, learning anything new became a battle, while my friends continued on, progressing at the same pace they had before, which was about 100 times faster than me.

This started me thinking about talent.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people, who excel in one area, tend to suffer in others.

I think it’s just the way their brains are wired. You get the people who are scientific geniuses, but can’t do anything ‘creative’ (art, music, etc.), to save their lives. Then you have the people who are absolute geniuses in one area, but have difficulty tying their own shoelaces.

This lead me to a question, one that I can’t answer.

When it comes to talent, is it an in-born thing, or can anything be learned? Does it just come down to practice and sticking at it, or are some people just better than others?

Basically, if I bought a piano, sat down and practiced for 8 hours a day, every day, would I eventually be as good as Mozart? Or would I reach a particular skill level and just get stuck there?

It’s a difficult question.

So what do you think? Do we all have unlimited potential, and can be good at anything if we practice enough? Or are some people’s brains just wired to be good at a particular thing, that the rest of us can never hope to become good at?