How to achieve world-class results without having the talent

Talent is a gift one is naturally born with. You’re amazing at something right from the beginning. But it’s not the way you think it is.

“A talented surgeon wasn’t born with the talent for surgery. He was born with steady hands.” Some people say every one of us has been born with a specific, hidden talent that we should waste our life searching for right? No, the truth is you were born with a set of skills that you are better at them than others, and with these skills, you can do many things. That talented surgeon with steady hands could’ve used his hands in sewing or painting right?

Here’s the thing, you weren’t born with only one skill but with a set of skills, and they differ from one person to another. The collection of skills you have makes you special, unique, and the most worthy candidate for a particular mission or job. let’s say your talent is that you are so courageous. You can use it to be a mountain climber, a surgeon, or a pilot in the army. But you have a strong body and big strong hands by gens as well. That makes you better at mountain climbing among all other things. Do you get what I mean?

Now you have courage, a strong body, and big hands, but assume you were born somewhere with no mountains to climb. What you’re gonna do? Are you worthless now? this takes us to our next point.

Forget about talent and get to work

“Hard work beats talent when the talent doesn’t work hard.” Tim Notke

When we remove talent from the equation, just anyone can become just anything they want to become.

When we see someone who is doing something easily and flawlessly with no sweat, he seems talented to us but this is only what you see. He/she has put so much time and effort to get to this level of excellence at his/her work to the point you think he/she is born for this.

Notice what I just said, “so much time and effort.” So, Practice is key.

But how long do you need to practice in order to achieve EXCELLENCE?!

extensive research has come up with a very specific answer to that question. Whatever it is you want to master from art to science, sports, or even mind games like chess, you need a minimum time of the minimum is 10 years and 10,000 hours in order to reach world-class status at any complex task.

In a study of the 120 most important scientists and 120 most famous poets and authors, it was found that 10 years elapsed between their first work and their best work.

But, is it all about the amount of time?

When we learn a new skill we concentrate hard to master it but as we get more familiar with it it’s no longer new, we no longer think about it and we stop with conscious attention. We are now on autopilot and we are not improving. This is why time is weakly related to our improvement

Not all practice is equal.

How to practice like an expert?

When most people practice they just focus on the things they can do effortlessly.

Experts practice differently. They focus on what they lack, the things they can’t do well. Research showed that only by working on what you can’t do you turn into the expert you want to become.

For example, in chess, if you spend time playing without analyzing your game, learning from your mistakes, and focusing on your strength points you’re gonna be the same every time you play, you’re not improving.

You improve only when you focus on what you can’t do.

Lean on your (natural talent)

To be a great basketball player you have to be tall. So if you are 5'3″ (160 cm) you won’t be the next Michael Jordan, if you don’t have a good voice you won’t be the next Beyoncé. It’s not talent vs hard work. It’s talent & hard work.

The rule of thumb: find your natural talent and combine it with hard work, and this is how you will get the best results.

THANK YOU FOR READING :)