Sarvam Sree Krishnaarpanam Astu
Om Srimathe
Ramanujaya Namaha
Talent: Nothing to be proud
of!
You would have come across many people in your every-day
life, — who believe they are past the phase of their life where they could
have been at the peak of what they wanted to do and what they believe they are
good at. They always say that “For the amount of talent I had, if only fortune had
favored me, things would have been different…” You will see most people saying
this to claim not just that they ‘were’ good at something, but also, it was
just ‘darn bad luck’ that had kept them away from what they perceive as
‘success.’
What is success? The definition of it changes from
person to person. For some its about wealth, for some its about fame, or at
least recognition, for some its peace, for fewer, its about having the freedom
to do what one likes, and for all, it’s the sense of accomplishment. Achievers
in any field are far and few. Most people can be good, but ‘greatness’ is not
for all. And people equate it to fortune. And in the age of social media and
its insidious penetration into every mind in the world, irrespective of social
class, wealth or age, people’s exposure to ‘successful’ people, the outlier, is
now greater than ever. The mediocre is never celebrated, and why would they?
Outliers sell. And much of the world is mediocre. Not that there is anything
wrong with mediocrity. But the perception that ‘everything is right with
success’ is what makes people unsatisfied about their own life, and feel insufficient
about their own competence (which they seldom admit). It is also exactly what
makes people go into the ‘could have, would have, should have’ downstream, in
their desperation to stay afloat and relevant in the flood of billions.
Talent is so overrated. Every single person has
talent. What they are talented at varies, and most people don’t explore the
options (roles) available in the ‘game’ of life to even find out what they are
good at. Instead, they get attracted to the few roles that frequently get the
world’s attention and compare their own prowess at those roles, and yearn to be
recognized as a great in them. Sports (only popular ones, mind you), movies,
literature, art, photography (a common trend in social media), music (who
hasn’t dreamt of riffing a shining electric guitar on stage, while girls
shrieked and threw their panties at you), technology (among the savvy lot), are
some fields where the achievement of success is obvious (in their visibility)
and the celebration is perceived to be long-lasting. Every field, and every skill
takes time for learning, practicing, and mastering and there is no short cut to
it. This is obvious for any field, so I am not writing about that in length in
this discussion.
‘Success’ in the most common sense is easy, when
people find out what they are naturally good at (i.e. talented) and develop
their skills in those particular fields (yes, one can be talented in more than
one field). The secret of success, I believe, is indeed a combination of hard
work, discipline, persistence, desperation, intospection, detachment from
emotions, sacrifices, marketing, indeed luck...just a bit though, and talent,
which can help in a big way, among others. The perennial whiners can cease to
be so, if they followed a few steps in life. I am not going to say anything new
or ground-breaking, but sometimes it’s the obvious that need restating.
Evaluate:
“Ask, and it
shall be given you; seek, and ye
shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For every one
that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh
findeth; and to
him that knocketh it shall be opened.
-Matthew 7:7–8
This is indeed true, if only one knew what to ask, where to seek, and to whom to knock at. If the right things are done, anything can be achieved. So find out what exactly you want, and what needs to be done to get it.
Hard Work:
Grafting long hours in the creation of something or
the mastering of some talent is no easy task. Smart work is a core subsect of hard work, in the
sense that you have the smarts to know what requires more effort, what can be
avoided, and what can be automated or delegated.
Discipline:
Discipline is after all repeating hard work day in and day out,
irrespective of the wavering moods and the distractions of life. One workaround
to overcome this particular problem is to use your 'pursuit of a goal' as an
escape from the distractions of life. "Escape into your work!"
Persistence:
It is the ability to keep fighting despite rejections, defeats and every attempt by the universe to push you farther from your goal. Push so hard, that even the universe cheers for you.
Introspection:
Analyzing objectively what you are and what you are
not good at, what could be done to correct the mistakes, and compensate for whatever is lacking.
Desperation:
Desperation is when nothing but the achievement of your goal is
acceptable. Everyone can dream of doing anything, but only few are unsatiated
by mere dreams.
Detachment of emotions:
Claiming to be passionate about something sounds
good, but when you are passionate about something, and when anything that
challenges your object of passion or threatens to derail it, can turn you
emotional, then it’s a big obstacle. A trauma from pain has a deeper engraving
in your psyche, than a good memory from pleasure. This is good and is the way
of nature to keep you alive. Pain, which in turn causes fear, is needed for a deer
to escape from a lion hiding amidst the grass. Temptation, caused by past
pleasure, is what gets a fly trapped by a pitcher plant, luring it with its
colors, scents and a promise of pleasure. Similarly, humans remember the pain of
past rejections and failures more than the pleasant memories of successes. When
a failure or rejection rears its head, we tend to list down all our past
failures, equate this failure with them, and claim that ‘luck’ has never been
with us.
When a rejection occurs, you need to go into an
objective mode and treat this rejection or failure as a separate event/incident
from the past. This is needed to circumspect and do the ‘right’ things to get
the required result.
Sacrifices:
Time for any being is limited. As many experiences
as one wants to enjoy, choosing what is important is highly necessary. In an
attempt to experience all, one might miss out on everything. And when a
long-term goal has to be achieved, sorting out everything that is below this
goal in the order of importance, and sacrificing a few of them for the sake of
this superior goal, is essential. Prioritizing and eliminating the unnecessary
is crucial, as along with time, energy one can spend, is also limited.
Sacrifices help you divert your energy onto something that you want more than
the one you are sacrificing.
Stop with the facade:
People tend to drop names, show off, exaggerate
just to grab and retain the attention and approval of others. Why would you
want to claim that you knew a celebrity from their childhood and had played
together? It only highlights that despite coming from similar backgrounds, that
person has achieved much more than you have thus far in life. Exaggerating
one's ability will also make them start to falsely believe in them. Belief
should indeed be in oneself, not in their exaggerated versions of themselves.
This will also prevent the individual from correctly identifying what they lack
and how they could fix it. Showing off can work only for a limited time. Your
true nature will eventually be found out. The greater the temporary good
impression made through pretensions and affectations, the greater will be the
disgust and disrespect faced, when the true nature is inevitably revealed.
Just do it! (a la Shia
LaBeof):
“There is no better time than now” goes the saying.
Procrastination is generally perceived to be due to laziness. But it is not
always the case. Sometimes when you really want to do something good, you get
overwhelmed and anxious about it and keep postponing it, eventually not doing it
at all. Do not worry about the quality of a work initially. Just start with it.
There is no quality to nothingness. Create something first to worry about its
quality next. Procrastination can also be due to confidence. When you know you
are really good at something and can do it anytime, you always choose every
time than the ‘now.’ In such scenarios, imagine there is no tomorrow. Today is
all you have. Do what you care about the most now.
Compete with the self:
We all need a rival to keep us on the run, and help us push our own boundaries. And in any game, each contestant must have similar skills and abilities to compete with each other, to make it an interesting game. Who could be more similar to you than you, but from yesterday? Sure you've heard this one a lot before. Don't compare yourself with others, but your own self from yesterday. Do better than what you did yesterday. This will surely propel you forward and inspire you more than an external rival, who might have other hidden advantages that you might not be aware of. In your race with your past self, you are the one at advantage compared to your rival, i.e., yourself from yesterday. You have gained a teensy bit more wisdom than your yesterday's self and it will always remain so. Hopefully...
Marketing:
People want attention when they don’t have it, and
don’t want attention when they have it. At least a large section of the world
populace is of this nature. It’s always better to market a work, than the
creator, for the former helps it reach the intended audiences, and the latter
does everything to put people off. Do not be shy about displaying your work,
whatever it might be. You will never be satisfied with it and will always feel
it could be better. There will always be critics but there will also be
admirers. But that’s the way it is.
Handling Criticism:
1 admirer is worth a 100 critic (if the criticisms are not valid). 1
genuine critic is worth a million admirers. Analyze the criticisms received for
your work objectively. It is definitely easy to identify what is a genuine
criticism, and which is not. A genuine criticism will help you correct your
follies and make yourself and your work better. Ignore the not so genuine
critics as naysayers. Do not take any criticism to heart. Learn from it, and
not burn from it.
Luck:
One can’t claim
that luck has no part to play. But if you’ve done everything within your
control in the right way, you wouldn’t bother with luck. You will feel a sense
of peace and satisfaction, even if luck doesn’t bring you the fame and fortune
you crave. People who have genuinely been good at something, have given it
their all in trying to achieve it and yet not gotten the recognition and
appreciation, will never speak of ‘what they could have been’ and their
‘talent,’ as there is a sense of satisfaction in them. Those who speak of the
‘ifs’ and ‘could haves’ are the ones who have done nothing other than be proud
of their talent.
Accept
Responsibility:
It is easy to
shift blame onto others or onto fate or destiny itself, if things don’t go your
way. Accepting responsibility for every event, and analyzing what you could
have done to avoid it, will help you go a longer way. Every event involving
you, will have at least a tiny part of your action. Sometimes it would be
something you could have done differently; sometimes it could be something that
you shouldn’t have done at all; and sometimes it could be something that you
didn't involve yourself in sufficiently. Responsibility has to be taken for
inaction as well. When you focus entirely on your hand in any event or
incident, you will grow faster as an individual.
Talent:
Goals can be achieved relatively easier, if you are
aided by talent. How? Your natural talent can help you reach certain milestones
quicker, which can, in turn, inspire you to do more. The initial successes and
the relative ease with which you achieved it, can give you the push required to
persist through obstacles and failures, which are inevitable. It can keep you
disciplined and it can make you confident enough to overcome bad fortunes (oh,
the irony of it all).
So, if somebody claims to be talented at something
and yet they have not had success with it, then it means they have not used
their advantage. How could you be proud of having an advantage in something and
failing at it? Ask this question to anyone who claims they are not successful
yet claim to be talented.
You can still be successful in the field you choose
to be successful, without talent, if you have all the aforementioned and
perform the required actions. Now that is a reason to be truly proud. You have
achieved without any natural advantage! Kudos!
It’s never too late:
People who mostly claim they ‘could have’ done
something, assume they have reached a phase of life where they could not do
anything anymore. I don’t have to list down the names of people who have
achieved great things in the latter stages of their life. There are whole lot
of blogs, videos, and posts on various social media, about them. Unless, you
are taking in your penultimate breath, you have no excuses! Get on with it!
SriVishnudaasan.
