You talentless hack - Hacking talent.

Talent is such an interesting notion, the place where nurture and nature meet, our innate aptitude and ability, our proclivity for one feeling over another. The drive of long past positive reinforcement now subconsciously called up by our bodies formations in the battle for progress.

It can give us a flywheel for growth, we find an activity easier, so we find it more enjoyable, we do it more, we get better, we find an activity easier, we find our progress enjoyable, we do it more, we get better…

It’s not always so simple of course, growth is never really linear. Whether it be through variable difficulty scales, the weight of reality, or ego. Some may be fooled by their initial aptitude, they find an activity easier so see no need to practice, they fall off as the higher level challenges emerge which outstrip their initial abilities.

This strikes to the heart of the lesson about talent. Talent is just a start, it will only ever be a start until you do something with it. As much as that reminds you of the work to be done let it also be a reminder to start. To start new in a hundred ways throughout your days, so you may find those paths your feet fit in to, so you might find that ease of growth.

With that said the dedication of a thousand steps will outstrip the ten another was given. This thread isn’t going to be a bullet point list of ten top habits, there are no real secrets to it. It’s just consistency, mad, passionate, belligerent, adoring, stupid, consistency.

In my life I’ve found professions my “talent” made me excel at, but they did nothing to feed my soul or mind, I had no passion for them. I do not consider it a “waste” to not pursue those careers, nor does my innate talent mean I could “outperform” others who dedicated themselves to it.

Inversely I have little aptitude for art, I struggle replicating and envisioning form, my fine motor control is wanting, and working with colour is something that’s always required excess work for me. But I have deep passion for it, I have a decent enough compositional eye and an aptitude for lateral/conceptual thinking.

These are talents better suited to other fields, but it’s passions drive, the consistency of a decade plus of work, that lets me excel in this field.

My “talents” gave me a myriad of starts, but what matters far more are those paths I chose to “finish”.