What No One Tells You About Talent

In our world, talent is paraded around on a pedestal.

It’s true, we love a shiny success story. But all the hype about innate ability and instant success can really do a number on our confidence.

It all culminates in a lovely subconscious lie we begin to believe. It goes a little something like this: “If I wasn’t born with X amount of talent at _____, then I can’t be successful at it.” We treat natural-born ability as some sort of permission slip to success. Truthfully, we’ve got it all wrong.

I’m here to tell you the thing that no one else has: You can achieve talent. Yes, even if you weren’t born with it.

Your natural ability is not the sole determinant of your success. Your willingness to commit to hard work? That’s a better indicator.

If you know your way around this kind of inner dialogue, put a stop to it with my three keys to achieving talent:

Specialize Your Work.

Know exactly what you’re doing. Do your preparation. Become the “go to” person for that super specific thing that only YOU can do, and share it with your audience.

Read Your Audience.

Make sure you know your audience. Have a conversation with those who are looking to you. Be confident that you know exactly what they need and why what you do helps fill that need.

Practice. Then Practice Some More.

Put in the work. Get your reps in time and time again. Don’t wait to be “perfect” at something before you put it out in the world. Put it out there anyway and start learning what you could do better. Every effort you make gets you closer, as long as you’ve done your homework with specializing your work and reading your audience first.

Natural ability may be innate, but talent is still achievable. Here’s my invitation to you today: stop listening to the lie and instead get to work. I bet you’ll find it much more satisfying.