The deception of talent

How many times do we hear about talent? How many times have we heard that certain results can only be obtained if equipped with a particular talent? Let's try to make a micro analysis of 2 super samples.

Take, for example, the first truly great champion: Cristiano Ronaldo. Blessed by God with incredible talent? Probably… But perhaps we should remember his obsession with everything it takes to be the best. His Sporting Lisbon teammates, for example, recount how, sometimes, they would find him alone in the middle of the night training in the gym. Or we could talk about his 3,000 sit-ups a day, or all the exercise and strict diet that allow him to have the vital signs of a twenty-year-old (he's 34 today).

Another example can be found in the world of ultra-trail, long-distance mountain running: His Majesty Kilian Jornet, arguably the strongest ultrarunner of all time. Can we say he's also one of the Lord's anointed? Probably, but even then, we should take a look at his stats. In 2018, he trained for over 800 hours, with a total of nearly 465,000 meters of elevation gain (over 50 times Mount Everest). If we consider that Kilian was sidelined for three months last year due to three different injuries (in fact, it was a year in which he trained very little...), we can see that the incredibly strong Catalan athlete trained an average of three hours a day.

"Don't tell me how much talent you own, tell me how hard work."

Arthur Rubinstein

Nowadays, we're literally inundated with so-called talent shows. Shows of all kinds, in various forms and ways, do nothing but spread a very specific message: to be successful, you need talent.

This fact, let's face it, is very convenient: it relieves us of the responsibility of putting in the work. We're led to believe that we'll never be able to achieve certain results because we lack talent. How convenient, isn't it? We can wallow in our lukewarm self-convincing self-esteem, believing that to be able to do extraordinary things, we must possess supernatural abilities.

The good news (which actually turns out to be bad news for many people...) is that this isn't true. All we have to do is make decisions and commit. Set our priorities and arm ourselves with the discipline to stick to our choices, to keep the promises we make to ourselves.

“Nothing in the world can replace persistence. Talent cannot do it: there is nothing more common than talented but unsuccessful men. Genius cannot do it: misunderstood genius is almost proverbial. Education cannot do it: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination, on the other hand, are omnipotent.”

Calvin Coolidge

Here are 3 practical tips to protect yourself from talent deception:

1. Decide what is truly important to you, define your priorities; write everything down on a piece of paper, formalize your choices, make a commitment to yourself.
2. Decide on 3 things you can do, 3 practical actions you can take every day to stay consistent with the priorities you have defined.
3. Enjoy the journey knowing that you will stumble, stagger and that you will fall; Raised every time with the awareness that the real success lies in the person you become while I commit yourself to achieve your purpose

“Most people go into the grave without ever having sung the music within them.”

Steve Chandler

I wish you a splendid journey, which allows you to discover the music you have inside and that deserves to be sung!