Talent is Practice and Experience

As a culture, we have wrongly substituted the word talent for its true meaning.

We assume someone that has risen to the top of their field has innate skills as a result of genes, intelligence, and good luck. We see separation between them and ourselves feeling they have achieved something that we never could.

The real truth is that talent is the result of over ten years of purposeful practice creating certain neural pathways that allow the “true experts” to chunk information from a glance that the rest of us could never consolidate.

In his studies of firemen who make the right decision in dangerous situations, it was found they did not think through all the possibilities. Their minds quickly, beyond their own comprehension, parcel out the facts and know that something in the picture does not look right.

Athletes like Roger Fedderer and Wayne Gretsky can anticipate where the ball or puck will be before it is even hit or slapped. As case studies point out in “Bounce” by Mattew Syed, the brains of experts have formed a cognition as the results of their proverbial “10,000 hours of practice”.

It is not enough to just practice. Practice has to continuously push the level of comfort so that each session takes the participant to a new level. Practice has to have a goal of stretching the participant to levels of attainment that cannot quite be reached. The continuous failure of the effort leads to renewed commitment to be better.

There is little risk in practice other than having the courage to be uncomfortable with not being able to succeed. The Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy has trained more top professionals than any other coaching academy. Bollettieri has subscribed to a tactic other researchers have also found affective. Praise effort not intelligence or talent.

When praising effort, the student continuously works harder and never reaches his limit. When praising intelligence or talent, coaches and researchers have discovered that students start to protect that label and are afraid of losing recognition. These students will even lie about how they did on specific tests.

Very few work places build what we call talent. Talent is the result of training, purposeful practice that stretches ability, and very direct feedback. The best talent in the world resulted from this routine. Mozart had practiced 3500 hours by the time he was six under the coaching of a composer father.

The Polgar sisters, each world chess champions started at age five to practice chess several hours a day. The Williams sisters started entering tennis tournaments at the age of four. Andre Agassi’s father had him hit a million balls a year. David Beckham was already in the Manchester United Junior team at 14. Brazilians play futsal designed to give them six more touches of a slower heavier ball per minute than Americans.

Yes they all started at young ages and developed what we reverently call talent. The talent was developed from scratch. Just as we would turn flour into a cake, the ingredients are very similar for everyone that reaches notoriety.

**

Read “Outliers, the Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell

Read “Bounce, the Secret of Success” by Matthew Syed

See Resources for books to explore your potential

See Speaking to give your group a glimpse of creating potential in working together

See Life Management to explore your personal potential and happiness.

See Organizational Peak Performance to accelerate achievement

Kaalm Media Group and KMG Consulting
Dedicated To Delivering Insights and Life Transforming Ideas

1-760-231-8966. or email at Mark@KaalmMediaGroup.com

San Diego, CA  U.S.A.  Pacific Standard Time

Peak performance, flow, the zone, healthy eating, fitness, spirituality, core competencies, passion, love, contribution, community, mission statements