No One Is Not Talented
Reading time: 8 minutes
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. – Albert Einstein
Everyone is good at something, and if we develop and cultivate the talents we are born with, our lives will certainly become challenging, extraordinary, and fulfilling. Image: Surprising_SnapShots
Ask yourself this question: which activities make you lose yourself and give you an energy boost?
Ask yourself another question: which activities frustrate you beyond belief and drain the energy out of you?
Remember your answers while reading on.
Now, suppose that a certain culture holds the skill of climbing trees in high regard, while the skill of swimming is more or less looked down upon. If the fish from Einstein’s quote grows up in such a culture, buys into that idea, and begins to believe it as true, it will surely come to feel frustrated, humiliated, increasingly stupid, and generally unappreciated. Yet, if the situation were reversed, and the skill of climbing trees would be looked down upon, then a monkey would be in the same boat as the fish in the first situation.
It would be senseless for a fish to practice climbing trees, and for a monkey to learn how to swim. They have adapted perfectly for the environment that they live in; swimming skills are superior in the water, and the skill of climbing trees is superior in jungles and forests. So, from the point of view of appreciation, since the fish’s skills are made for living in the water, the skill of swimming is highly appreciated there. The skills of the monkey, however, are made for dwelling in the treetops, hence the skill of climbing is much more appreciated there.
Image found on dokuandhen.blogspot.com
These examples showcase that there is an appreciative environment for every skill or set of skills, whether for vegetation, animals, or people. Yet if you don’t know what your particular talents and innate skills are, how do you know if you are in the right kind of environment for you?
To answer that question, one important clue can be found in your answers to the questions at the beginning of this article: which activities make you lose yourself and gain energy, and which ones frustrate and drain energy out of you? Or, to ask the same questions in different terms: in which environments are you happy, and in which ones aren’t you? Or: which people give you energy, and which ones drain it out of you?
Your answers to these questions provide many clues to find out whether you are living and working in the right kind of environment for you, or not, and has a lot to do with your innate talents and predispositions.
Children naturally show their innate talents and predispositions, because they do things without rationally thinking about it before they act. Image: Pezibear
Here’s Anne. She plays guitar since the age of six, and loves it more than anything else. Every free moment is spent with the instrument, learning how to play it, tune it, make it sound in different ways, trying different strings, different mics, different amps, even building her own guitars with parts from different renowned guitars.
Yet despite her love for the guitar, and her intrinsic wish to become a professional musician, her environment regards artistic skills inferior to, say, business skills. That becomes obvious in sayings from parents, other family members, or teachers, like: ‘That’s a nice hobby you’ve got there Anne, but what are you going to do for a living?’
Imagine that she finally buys into the idea that the most important thing in life, the thing to strive for before anything else, is to get a job in order to make money. She ends up going to law school, because it was her father’s wish to take over the law firm, in spite of her dyslexia which makes reading and writing quite a challenge. This is a quite common example of an individual letting her innate talents and predispositions wither away, in favour of trying to acquire skills which do not come natural to her.
It comes as no surprise that anyone walking such a path, is bound to run into huge frustrations, because it’s the human equivalent of forcing an apple tree into growing bananas, and judging it on its ability to do so. If their innate skills are not valued or appreciated by their environment, Anne, and so many sharing her fate, are prone into believing that they’re good for nothings. After all, that is societies implicit message if we are spending our working (or other) hours doing things we’re not made for. If nothing else, that’s a lot of time swimming against the current, and an obvious waste of energy.
You’ll never become happy when engaged with activities you’re not made for. Image: Andrea Pilotti
So, now, let’s return to your answers to the questions in the beginning of this article. If you are in continuous flow and gain energy from everything you do, everyone around you, and every environment you’re in, you are an enlightened being; please get in touch with me because I want to learn from you. Yet, if you feel exhausted by certain activities, environments, or people around you, or you know of people who do, please read on.
If, for instance, one’s job[1] requires skills that fall outside of one’s unique talents and innate predispositions; not only will the job activity itself become a road towards suffering, but eventually, and inevitably, so will the job environment and certain people attached to it. When you have bought into the idea that, as an apple tree, your skill for growing apples is inferior, and you ought to learn to grow bananas instead, you’re bound to keep ending up in frustrating, energy draining jobs, with frustrating, energy draining people.
That becomes particularly noticeable when low-on-energy-signs and signals start to occur; ‘minor’ health issues that you probably won’t read too much into, besides being a temporary nuisance. Yet if more of them begin to arise simultaneously, the bigger the change that someone or some situation is relentlessly pushing your buttons. And that is usually the case when our innate talents and skills don’t match the activities, environments, or people we’re currently engaged with.
The reason for emphasizing the importance of being able to discover, develop, cultivate, and integrate our innate talents and predispositions, lies in the observation that when we are not engaged with them, we tend to end up in the wrong kinds of environments, and with the wrong kind of people – for us! While if, by contrast, we engage in activities that come to us naturally, by default the chances are very high that we end up in environments, and with people, that make us thrive even more. Therefore, let’s discuss two ways in which people can (re)connect with their own, unique, and particular talents: becoming engaged with new activities, and taking a temporary break from the current life situation.
Becoming engaged with new activities. Image: nucleoset
1. Become engaged with new activities.
One effective, and often fun, way of finding out about your innate talents, is to try out new activities. Most likely you enjoy at last one, if not more, of the arts, whether it is music, dance, movies, books, pictures & paintings, or what have you. If you remember being wonderfully engaged with any art form while you were younger, what made you quit? See how you feel about picking it up again.
On the other hand, if you were never actively involved in any art form before, but you do like movies for instance, what is it that you particularly like about them? The acting? The photography? The storytelling? The movie sets? If you can discern what you like about movies, then you can try to join a local theatre group, and find out if they offer a chance to become engaged with activities you enjoy about movies, whether it’s acting or theatre set construction. Naturally, you can apply this method to any art form.
I specifically mention the arts here, contrary to, say, sports, because the function of the arts has always been to evoke a new perspective, a fresh and hitherto unknown point of view. As much fun and fulfilling as engagement with any sports can be, it always carries an element of competition, which is the last thing you need when you’re on your last legs. Arts, by contrast, can only thrive when an element of play is integrated, cultivated, and appreciated. After all, one plays the drums, and one plays a part, but we’re not in some kind of race.
There is however a difference between playfulness and frivolity, and with their ability to bring about a change in every individual’s consciousness, art is anything but frivolous. By its very nature, environments where arts are performed, are usually characterized by an open, inviting, and playful atmosphere. Since that, more often than not, differs from many work and other environments, it makes sense that they harbour a possible therapeutic value for many – even if only to find out why one’s current own environment feels toxic.
Taking a temporary break from your current life situation, means going to a place where nobody knows you, and where you don’t know anyone. Image: Pfüderi
2. Take a temporary break from your current life situation
In the article Burned Out? Find Your Passion! I made a case for the temporary separation from your current life situation, that is to say, going to a place where nobody knows you, and where you don’t know anybody. That way, you’ll be temporarily ‘divorced’ from who- or whatever is pushing your buttons, which gives your whole organism – body and mind – a chance to catch its breath.
Breathing space is a necessary prerequisite for playing space to emerge, because that’s where you get to try out whatever urge comes up from your subconscious. Since, for many people, their own environment provides little to no playing space, taking a couple of months or a year’s break from it, harbours the potential to relax and recover enough for their natural tendencies to arise.
However, one needs an investigative and curious mind if this step is taken. If you decide to take an extended break, without some kind of plan to find out about your innate talents, it’s likely going to be a waste of time. When I was in a similar situation back in 2016, I went to India while asking myself the question: “Now that I have no obligation to anyone, and no one is counting on me for anything, what will I do?” Within three days I began to write, and have not stopped since. For me, it became a wonderful way to express myself, to develop and grow through journaling, and to share insights and points of view which were obtained from all my readings, studies, and experiences.
I have yet to earn a dime with my writings, so apparently I love this skill enough to develop and integrate it into my daily life, by means of writing and publishing at least one article a week on this website for instance. It brings me immense joy to come up with ideas for articles or stories, then to struggle with them to make a coherent story, and finally to leave them alone for a while to give my subconscious time to come up with an insight or plotline, with which the article can then be finished.
I love writing as a means for personal development, growth, and expression. Image: Richard Beukelaar Photography
To sum up: Each and every human being is good at something, but if we allow others to boss us around and tell us what we should or should not do, we’ll never find out if we were born an apple tree or a banana tree, and likely dwell forever in a state of mild frustration. At some point, therefore, we’re allowed to say: “Now, I’m going to find out what I’m actually all about.” Admittedly, that takes a lot of courage, because not seldom does that mean you’re going to disappoint people around you. Yet the only emotional life you are responsible for, is your own, and if yours is healthy, you naturally become nourishment for others; a situation guaranteed to arise as soon as you start doing what you’re made for.
Jolly greetings,
Erik Stout
[1] The word ‘job’ can be replaced with words like: relationship, family, group of friends, religious group, sports club, political party, etc.
Share your way!
Dear reader, even though the process of finding of our own way in life can be a tough and difficult road to travel, everyone who gathers the courage to walk it shares the same view: they wouldn’t have it any other way. Have you broken free from conventional life to find your own way? Do you have a knack for writing and would you like to share your story via this website? Feel free to leave a comment or contact us via the contact form. We’d love to make our community grow!