Do you have talent or not?

Have you ever wanted to be good at a certain skill, but you gave up too early because you thought you didn't have the talent for this certain skill? Do you think that all the top athletes reached their level of skill because of their talent? As many people think that talent is a real thing and mandatory for achieving mastery on any skill, I totally disagree. I believe that talent is irrelevant and it all depends on hard work, focus, and consistency.

What makes a master?

There a few important factors to achieve mastery to a skill. According to George Leonard, mastery is available to anyone, but there is a high price that only a few people are willing to pay.

Ask yourself, how many skills have you tried to learn? Did you put enough effort to go through all the basics in details? Or you got very frustrated by not seeing any quick result?

In every process of mastering a new skill, your going to face plateaus, which is a period of time where you stop seeing any improvement in your skills. In order to be a master, you have to beat these plateaus and not give up whenever you go through a plateau. Also, in order to become a master of a skill, you have to follow your passion. Choose something you really like so you don’t get bored very quickly and then quit.

Find joy in your practice routine. It is very important that you enjoy the process. Make your practice routine more fun by adding different exercises and activities. Find people who have the same passion and practice and learn with them.

Another important factor is choosing your influence. It is very important to have role models that you get influence from them and keep you motivated.

Finally, you have to accept that failure is a part of the process. Every time you fail you will learn something new. If you fail a few times and learn every time, you are only going to improve and be more skillful. Don’t stop if fail few times keep going!