The common understanding of talent limits it to exceptional people who engage in exceptional activities. According to this view, only a very few individuals have talent, and their talent is expressed in only the most rarified of fields and feats. People of talent are professional athletes, entertainers and artists. An opera singer at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City has talent, while the best an educator or administrator can be is good at their job. Talent, Americans are taught and told, isn't something the masses have nor is it really talented to be an exceptional performer in unexceptional occupations.
Even Google, allegedly one of the world's most democratic search engines, mirrors this bias. Type the word "talented" into its search box, and the first ten results range from Susan Boyle and Britain's Got Talent to the National Research Center for the Gifted and Talented. Perform the same search with Microsoft's Bing and the results are different but not different in kind. They include the Talented Mr. Ripley and TalentEd, a site "dedicated to the provision of material about the education of the gifted and talented."
The dictionary, thankfully, takes a more pluralistic view of talent. It defines the word as "the natural endowments of a person" and an endowment as "a natural gift, ability or quality." There is no qualifier limiting talent to extraordinary people or to extraordinary endeavors. The term is not reserved for the infallible and famous or even for the in-your-face and infamous. Quite the contrary, talent is a natural characteristic of the human species and is expressed in the full range of its idiosyncratic interests and occupations.
Talent, however, is not a skill. It is an individual's capacity for excellence. Because it is an endowed gift, I call it your Natural in Work Strong. However, in order to perform in the world of work, talent must be educated and trained in a profession, craft or trade. If a person's talent is athleticism, for example, they must acquire the knowledge and practice the skills of baseball before they can earn a living as a professional ball player. And the same is true in education, administration and every other field.
A person's talent is also versatile-it can be trained to excel in multiple career fields-but it is not a universal donor. People can acquire the knowledge and skills of a field that does not align with their talent. They may, for example, learn how to be an investment banker, when their talent is actually the ability to help others learn. They could excel as an educator or a corporate trainer, but they will never be more than a competent investment banker. They may even make a lot of money on Wall Street, but they will never be satisfied or fulfilled in their work.
That situation occurs most frequently when people fail to figure out their talent. They assume they know their gift because they've done well in a certain subject in school or because someone has told them they would be a success in this or that field. They've never taken the time or made the effort, however, to do the spade work on their own. To dig down deep into themselves and discover what it is that they love to do and do best.
That's why it's so important to take the Career De-Stress Test. It's a way to pinpoint your talent or confirm that you already have. And only that sure knowledge can support the development of a healthy and rewarding career.
Thanks for reading,
Peter
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No, no, a thousand times no.
ReplyDeleteI'm an educator, whose personal talents gleam in the classroom because I know how to use them to bring out the best in others.
Not only that, but it's the sort of talent that signifies me as a chameleon, shape-shifting and altering color as the situations expand.
Every day, Peter, everything we do and the people we touch, require exceptional focus. Here's an example for you.
For years I performed on the professional stage, and one of my favorite actors, Eli Wallach, told me, "Just listen, and you'll respond in character. It's all about listening."
And that is how we become aware of our talents - not by taking tests - but by immersing in the moment, focusing on what we do, without awaiting the applause.
Respectfully yours,
PRL
Versatile talent be fatal for an individual if they are not focused on time, especially in cultures that traditionally put more emphasis on application rather than on potentiality. My own example is representative enough: Since childhood I was praised to write excellent lyrics, painted professionally with 10, learned foreign languages quickly and never had to do homework. Later I have passed stringent tests, nessesary in Russia for medical studies and later to study Journalism at the Moscow State University. After resettlement to Germany with 20, I learned new language in several mounths and studied Journalism and Communications, achieved my Doctorate in Media sciences, issued complex interdisciplinary works, my art was popular, I organized art events, published prose and now teach as academic freelancer in different humanities areas and universities. But normally I am considered as overqualified, too educated, and get no any normal job, because of no linear career and not submissive character. No social filter can manage diversity here if it is pronounced enough...
ReplyDeleteThe art of "talent" is in the nurturing and devlopment, providing an eloquence to the language of the art. Hues, shades, and textures of the media give voice to that which words cannot adequately describe or define. Art is a narrative of the lives we lead, talent is a gift to be explored and expanded. To curb that talent brings stagnation, to enlighten and enliven that talent brings glorious fruition to the media which expresses it. Not every work is a masterpiece, but every work is a movement toward mastering the expression in the piece. Art serves as a mirror for and of the individual that creates it. When we learn to listen with our eyes, to see what we hear, there are a million voices to be heard in the creativity. People don't see the same things in my work as I do and thqat's the beauty of it. The expression of their imaginative wanderings leads me to new and unexpected moments of creativity, places I would not normally go. We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing you contemplations nad have a glorious day!
Marianne