When we were little, we spent a lot of time figuring out what our talents were. We knew we had to be talented at something, and we could tell that the adults were searching for it too. After all, we think, our talents determine our futures. That's just how the world works.

When we learned that we were good at math, or drawing, or playing the piano, people told us we were talented, and that we'd go far in life. We then equated success with talent, and began the business of focusing our lives around whatever we could accomplish reasonably well with minimal effort.

The myth of talent offers explanation for our lives and maps with which to guide them, but, in the long run, it does more harm than good. Allow me to explain:

The idea that something must come easily to us in order for us to be successful at it is particularly damaging, and yet I've found myself thinking that way often enough. I don't advise it. We think that because we are "talented" at something, we should not have to put any work or effort into it, with the result that, oftentimes, our peers catch up to and surpass us through hard work, and we are left wondering whether we really knew what our talent was after all. It can be distressing to be forced to reevaluate your identity, which is often wrapped up in what you think your talents are.

As an art student, I hear a lot about talent. Art is generally accepted as something you just don't do unless you have a knack for it. This leads to an idea that art is easy (for artists, at least, and unobtainable for everyone else), and in that way discredits all the years and years spent by artists mastering their crafts, the mathematical and scientific knowledge required in order to work with artistic mediums, and the education that produces ideas worth expressing via art in the first place. Even with knowledge of what it's like to make art and to be an art student, it's easy to fall into the talent-myth. It's easy to think that if something doesn't come easily to you, if you can't draw something perfectly on the first try, you misinterpreted the signs and should never have attempted to become an artist.

For this reason, talent is dangerous. A person who believes they're "talented" at something is far more likely to quit in the face of difficulty than someone who believes excellence comes through practice and hard work.

So, no matter what field you find yourself in or what you understand your talents to be, it's important to keep the reality of "talent" in mind. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be proud of what you've accomplished - quite the opposite. Just that you should not accredit your success to talent, because your hard work deserves more recognition than that. Likewise, when you feel as though you can't keep up with the people around you and fear that you misunderstood your life's calling, remember that you are not constrained by your talents; if you are resourceful and hardworking, you can accomplish far more than what you did by coasting along with minimal effort on talent alone.