Developing Talents?

Though it may be wise to spend the bulk of our time growing our strengths, I still believe that we can and should develop our talents to the best of our abilities. We should see our talents as gifts to be used in as many areas of our lives as possible. Though I agree with much of the advice given surrounding focusing on our strengths, I do not believe that we should enhance our strengths at the expense of ignoring our talents. Our talents can lead us to new and fulfilling paths in our lives.

The problem with talent is that it takes time to develop. Even though we may have a knack at a something it still takes work to change it into a true source of pride. Take the painter Cezanne for instance. Cezanne struggled to keep afloat as a painter for years and only began to be recognized for his work later in life. Malcolm Gladwell (2009) writes in his essay on “Late Bloomers” that “The paintings [Cezanne] created in his mid-sixties were valued fifteen times as highly as the painting he created as a young man”(p.299). Cezanne, it appears, required time and practice to hone his art.

Gladwell (2008) described the process of becoming expert at something as a long and arduous journey. Gladwell describes this process as the 10,000-hour rule. Through citing various studies, Gladwell demonstrates that in order to become an expert in something it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice. 10,000 hours is a long time and comes out to about ten years of work. In short, it takes about ten years before you can expect to become expert an expert in any given field.

Of course this often does not apply to geniuses or savants. People who right out of the gate have an extraordinary talent. These people are the Mozarts of the world. Those individuals that compose symphonies by the time they are out of grade school. Yet the 10,000 hour rule does apply to the rest of us. Because this idea applies to the great majority of us, it may be useful to remember not to give up easily at things that we have talent for, but are not yet great at.

I remember one teacher I had in 8^th grade who handed back my class assignment of poetry. At the bottom of the page in small neat letters it read: “Ted, you have some natural talent in poetry that could be developed.” Interestingly, my 8^th grade teacher seemed to recognize what Gladwell is talking about. I had natural talent, something that I did not work for, but was only a small bit of talent, a small bit that I would have to choose to work at to enhance. After years of practice, I remember the day that I finally published a poem. It was a great feeling, but a feeling that came with the price tag of 10,000 hours.

Natural talent is a gift from our maker. We should strive to multiply our talents by remembering that it will take time and effort. We should try to not push our talents aside, but embrace them. Though talents may not be as malleable as strengths they are never the less enhance-able and should not be ignored in favor of purely focusing on our strengths.

References

Gladwell, Malcolm (2009). What the Dog Saw.

Gladwell, Malcolm (2008). The Tipping Point.

Lindstrom, Martin (2008). Buy-ology

What about Talent?

As a High School Senior I was voted “the most talented.” This of course was not so much of a nod to my many accomplishments, but rather an acknowledgment that I had become very adept at being mediocre in many areas.

Though I was never stellar in many of my High School pursuits some people are. They have great talents in areas like sports, music, or in a particular academic field. I have a cousin, for example, who is very talented in playing the guitar. His fingers move across the strings in a magnificent way. While watching Roger play, he makes it look effortless and graceful, almost easy.

While my cousin Roger, certainly has natural talent in music, he also has spent the time to develop his talents. As mentioned before, talents are those abilities that are inborn, that cannot be changed a lot, nor can they be created if there is no underlying talent in a particular area. In other words if I do not have any talent in drawing I will be hard pressed to become a good artist no matter how long or hard I try. Strengths on the other hand are highly learnable character traits, such as courage, and can be greatly enhanced. I may have a trait for being temperate yet still have a drinking problem. Thankfully I can learn to employ my strength in temperance in order to overcome my weakness in drinking. Strengths in short have the potential to be grown from a 1 all the way to a 100.

Strengths are where most positive psychologists and experts on self-development argue that we should spend our time. The argument is clear: why waste your time trying to be something that just does not align with your talents when you could develop your strengths which can be used in a wide variety of situations. A good case in point for this view is found in the book Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath (2007). The book is a treatise on why we should focus on our strengths and how to find out what are strengths are. Discussing the ramifications of focusing on strengths Buckingham relates the familiar story of Rudy.

Rudy of course is Rudy Ruettiger who in the early 1970’s walked onto the University of Notre Dame football team. Rudy was small and really lacked a lot of athletic talent (5’ 6” 165lbs). Yet for years Rudy practiced hard and was essentially the other player’s practice dummy. As many of us know from the inspirational film by the same name, Rudy was able to play in the last game of the season. Rudy played a total of two plays and recorded a sack on his last play. He was carried off the field by his teammates to the cheers of the crowd.

Rudy is inspirational. Rudy had a large basket of character strengths like persistence, optimism, and tenacity that allowed him to reach his goal of playing collegiate football. This is a great achievement, but we have to ask if all of Rudy’s efforts really were worth the outcome. Certainly, the inspiration of his story is of great value, but what really is the message? The message, when we strip away the emotional impact of the story is: if you work really hard, even if you don’t have a lot of talent for something, you might be able to play two plays and make one tackle for you whole career.

This seems to be a little misguided. It reminds me of a story I heard about a blind boy who dreamed of being a pilot. His parents, operating under the old adage “you can be anything that you want to be” encouraged him to study flying. Unfortunately, today’s technology does not allow for a blind person to become a pilot. The boy became dismayed when this became clear and fell into depression. The truth is we cannot become what ever we want to be. We can only become what God has endowed us to be. This endowment is reflected in our strengths and talents.

Rudy is a great example of how strengths can help us overcome a lack of talent in an area, but it also shows us that it may be more useful to use our strengths in areas where we have talent. Imagine if Rudy had used his strengths to focus on a goal where he had a good amount of natural talent. What if Rudy had natural talent in sculpting and used his strengths of persistence and tenacity to work in that area? We may never know what Rudy could have done if he had decided to work towards something for which he possessed great natural ability, but we do not have to live after the old adages of the past.

What I am driving at of course is that we should figure out where our natural talent lies and then use our strengths to enhance it. This does not always work though. We may have a talent in something that will never make us a living, but none-the-less we love. We may have a great talent in water skiing, but this may not translate to a career. On the other hand we may be able to sell boating equipment that is associated with our talent. Or we may just employ our talent in one area of our lives, outside of work. In short we can find ways to exercise our talents even if they do not coincide with our work lives or our personal life calling, but we should seek ways to use our strengths in areas of personal talent in order to achieve optimal life satisfaction.

References

Rath, Tom (2007). Strengths Finder 2.0. The Gallup Organization; Gallup Press

The Passion, Strength, Market Demand System

            Recently a friend of mine who has been trying to carve out his calling in life asked me “I know what I love to do, I have taken the strengths test, but I don’t understand how to put it together. How do you put this stuff into practice?” In reality, this is the hardest part of the whole process.

            So far we have asked ourselves questions about what we love to do, what kind of work we loose ourselves in, began uncovering our malleable strengths, and started crafting a personal mission statement. Yet, the hard question remains “How do we put the overarching and general ideas embodied in our mission statements into practical application?”

            Tan Ben-Shahar (2007) suggests that we take a look at what gives us meaning, what gives us pleasure, and what are strengths are in unison in order to arrive at useful conclusions about our life’s work (p. 103-104). Ben-Shahar uses a venn diagram consisting of three circles to organize this way of thinking. The first circle represents those things through which you find meaning. Hence, in the first circle you might write: teaching, being with loved ones, singing, etc. The second circle represents those things that give you pleasure. In this circle you could write: singing to music, helping others, or exercising. Last, the third circle represents your strengths. In this circle you would write things like: creativity in music, wisdom, relating to others, etc.

            After filing in the circles, the next step is to put them together and see if there is an overlap. See below for an example.

In this example you can see that the overlapping areas are in singing, music, and creativity. While this exercise is helpful, it has a serious flaw. What if my overlapping areas are singing, music, and creativity? How many jobs are there, that are in need of these skills? Certainly, you can find ways to make this model work and by working through it you may discover your life’s work.

Unfortunately, I believe that we need to consider the reality of market demand. In other words, as mentioned above, there is not a big market demand for singers, or basketball players for that matter. Thus, I propose that we would do better to examine our passions, strengths, and market demand in unison. Like Ben-Shahar’s model my model is conceptualized in a venn diagram, but this time the circles are as follows.

The first circle represents your passions. Not sexual passions or your passion for food, but those things that we have previously described as activities you do for their own sake. Your passions are those few things that produce “flow.” They are the junction of meaning and pleasure, because meaning and pleasure proceed forth from passion.

Strengths are represented in the next circle. Again, strengths are character traits. They can be increased and developed and can be applied in a wide variety of situations. These might include such things as Seligman’s love of learning, curiosity, spirituality, etc. or your own variations.

Last, and most boringly, market demand. This is a hard question to answer and will require a little research. To begin you may want to look at what industries are predicted to grow over the next few years. Here is a link to one website that may be of help in this area: http://www.acinet.org/indview1.asp?nodeid=45

After pursuing industries drill down deeper and see what jobs within these industries fit with your passions and strengths.

Finally, go ahead and check online classifieds to get an idea of what each job pays. Of course, I am not saying that what a job pays is super important, on the contrary I think you should reduce your lifestyle and work a job you love, rather than settle for money, but you do need to go into this process with your eyes open.

            When you reach this point you are ready to put it together. Make a venn diagram like to one below that shows the overlap of your passions, strengths, and the market demand for jobs that fit with the former.

This may take several attempts and will not be an easy process, but don’t give up. As you move through this process, keep your life mission or calling statement handy. Use this as a guide. If the area of work you end up with does not align with your mission, start over, and if necessary ask for help from a trusted friend or spouse.

References

Ben-shahar, Tal (2007). Happier: learn the secrets to daily joy and lasting fulfillment. NY, McGraw-Hill.