If you want to amaze a child, whistle their favorite song. If you desire to impress an aspiring musician, play a classical piece. We get the picture, correct? It is easy for an experienced person to astonish a novice. We struggle with keeping this in mind when applying it to our lives. We allow talent of others to affect us negatively in three ways. We see the talent of others and feel as if we could never reach that level of skill in anything. We have issues with the fanfare of others with talent in our area of expertise because we see the skill level doesn’t match the attention received. Lastly, we fail to realize our focus on improving our talent alone is missing a piece of a winning equation.
Talent is relative. When we look at people, who we feel are extremely talented, we should remember that our awe for their talent is in direct comparison with ours. Their ability to do something we believe we couldn’t do if we had a decade to dedicate ourselves to attempt to master. There shouldn’t be any negative connotation to it. Appreciating someone’s talent should be a joyous occasion. Not a trigger to down ourselves. When in this funk, we should do one of two things to get back to enjoying the talent. If we have talent in their area of expertise, we can use that as motivation. It can give us an idea of where we can get if we keep improving. If we don’t share talent in that area, we can tell ourselves that it is almost certain one of your skills is something they’ll appreciate. We all have our “thing.” How boring would life be if we all excelled at the same thing? Let’s enjoy each other.
What about when we feel a way regarding people who are successful, and it’s in what we specialize? We see them receiving fanfare and attention. As if they are an A+ talent, but we know it is a solid C. This situation can be difficult. Imagine if you had a restaurant that provided top-of-the-line steak and seafood, but the burger and fries place a couple of miles away is recognized as the best place to eat in the neighborhood. This situation is what people who struggle with this issue feel daily. Is the problem with the person who possesses the best food in town or the people for going to the burger place? The answer is neither.
The scenario above leads us directly into the last negative way the talent of others affects us. The failure to realize our focus on improving our talent alone isn’t enough. It keeps us in a funk. What we are missing is exposure. Talent is relative. No one compares your talent to anything because no one knows of it. Using the example above, no one can compare your top-of-the-line surf and turf to the burger joint because you’re technically not open. We can take it a step further, adding a little wisdom to this scenario. Not everyone will want a top-of-the-line dish. We all have chosen to stop at McDonald’s, instead of cooking at home. We’ve also picked chain restaurants over going to the best place in our area to eat.
In closing, talent is relative. Relative to who we are being compared to. Relative to the people’s situation. Relative to what they are looking for. Relative to the occasion at hand. Relative to who is in the crowd. The point is, your job is to put yourself out there, hone your skills and talent for whoever will consume it, whenever they choose to do so. There are examples of all levels of talent being appreciated by someone, enjoy it. If you have top-of-the-line talent, be okay if the masses choose to give attention to someone on a lower level than you. That doesn’t change who you are. We are all needed. How else would we know how great you are?
Food for thought. You do the dishes!
