Unraveling the Myth: Debunking the Misbelief of Having No Talents

Undoubtedly, you hold an inherent talent, a precious gem within you.

Yes, whether you agree with this statement or not, the truth is that you are talented. And you’re most likely talented in more than one thing.

The question is, how do you uncover your talents, whether their are artistic or not? And why is it so important that you do so?

A commonly shared misperception

It happened to me many times to hear friends or family members saying something along these lines: “You’re so lucky to be talented. I wish I had talent too, but I never had any particular interest or passion to pursue.”

Or things like: "You’re so lucky, you never get bored and you're always busy doing lovely things. I wish I had some talent too, so that I could be passionate about something and be more interesting as a person." Even fellow artists often fall into the trap of thinking that they don’t get enough work because they’re not talented enough. As a result of their limiting beliefs, they get stuck in endless training courses year after year, or they simply give up soon after they finish their training, without even trying to give their talents a real chance. This is something that makes me feel lucky and sad at the same time. I often find myself reflecting on how this phenomenon of self-limiting beliefs is partly responsible for the status of our current society. This is one of the many reasons that brought me to work in the talent coaching and mentoring field.

The vast majority of people are very busy working on tasks that they don’t enjoy. Those tasks sometimes take the majority of their time, leading them to frustration and setting the ground for big future regrets. This is often the story of young or aspiring artists and performers, creative people in general, but mostly is the story of those who, for a reason or another, were never encouraged or guided to uncovering their unique talents. And let me tell you, we've all been there, myself included. Some people are also stuck in what I call "the halfway corner": You might be able to dedicate some of your time to what you love doing, you might even be able to make some cash out of your passions, but still, you feel deep inside that what you’re doing, the way you are spending your days, is not aligned with the expression of your full potential.

In some cases, your confidence in your abilities will drop, and some people will even start to experience the so-called impostor syndrome, so that when things start shifting and the possibility to work doing what you love comes along, you’ll start questioning yourself whether you’re good enough for this.

I remember experiencing exactly this when, after having my first audition for a West End show, the production called me back to offer me the part. I was so taken over by the impostor syndrome that all I could say to them over the phone was something along these lines: "Thank you for calling, but there must be a mistake here. Are you sure you’re reaching out to the right person?"

My example is a bit extreme, but you get the gist. We sometimes are so busy with other stuff that our talent gets put in a corner, waiting for its time to shine and sometimes covered in dust to the point that we can’t even recognize how extraordinary it is. 

There are also circumstances in which our talent goes unseen for other reasons. For instance, you might be still looking for your mission, trying out different things to see if any of them resonate with you. Perhaps your talents are yet to be discovered, and when I say talents, I don’t necessarily mean artistic talent. The one truth I know for sure is that every individual is assigned a number of talents, whether they are aware of them or not yet. Most of the time, the gift box of talents we were given at birth or that manifested themselves at different stages of our lives also represents the highway to uncover our mission and are meant to work in sync with it.

Why getting out of the trap of self limiting believes is so important

"I know that there is more for me, this can't be it. There is more that I can do to give meaning to my journey."

Does the sentence above resonate with you?

That’s the call of your mission asking you to look for it, to focus on it, to expand.

Well, your talents are most likely the set of keys to open the door to your ultimate mission.

Ideally, we want to get to the point where our talents and mission combine with our profession, resulting in alignment of soul, spirit, and mind, and ultimately in a happier and more sustainably productive society. This is explained really well by the Japanese concept of Ikigai, the combination of your passion, your mission, your vocation, and your profession, all in one word. And it is also at the core of Buddhists' philosophies, especially Japanese Buddhism of Nichirien Daishonin, which promotes the concept that nurturing individual talent and uniqueness will result in meaningful live experiences as well as a balanced and peaceful society.

Keeping in mind that conflicts start from a place of frustration, beginning within individual frustration which then spreads towards close family members, expands to bigger circles like the workplace, and eventually spreads into society, I like considering the manifestation and care of our own talents not only a beautiful journey but also a duty.

Although sometimes it might take many years to uncover our unique mission and manifest our talent in full to the world, we all have at some point to deal with the fact that in order to evolve and expand, we need to take a pause to analyze a few aspects of our current circumstances and start asking ourselves some questions.

A practical journey

If you still weren't able to unfold your talents through life experiences along the years, rest assured, your talents are still there waiting for you to uncover them, and there are a number of things you can do to start getting rid of some dust that’s preventing you from seeing them. If you don’t know where to start from, take into consideration that talent uncovering is a mostly practical process and it often comes from the introduction of new daily actions and habits. It takes courage, and it needs action. Talents enjoy company, and some of their favorite pals are Courage, Consistency, Determination, Dedication, Repetition, Intuition, and Passion. And the more you polish your unique skills, the more you will gain courage and the more you’ll become consistent, determined, dedicated, intuitive, and passionate about your life and life in general. It is honestly just the case of taking some time to identify your unique gifts and then putting your efforts into polishing them until they shine.

10 Steps towards the uncovering of your unique talents

If you believe you have no particular talents, you might find it beneficial to complete these very simple tasks and answer these questions:

1. Make a list of things that make you feel good.
2. Make a list of things you believe you are good at.
3. What would you do as a job if you had a white canvas? There is no limit or wrong answers.
4. What is that thing you would do if judgment and criticism did not exist?
5. Where do you feel at home the most? Perhaps describe a situation, an environment, a specific action.
6. Ask yourself what is exactly stopping you from doing what you love. Be honest, be bold. Try not to blame others or external circumstances, instead take responsibility for yourself.
7. How and in what are you investing the majority of your time?

Go again through these tasks and questions every day for 6 days, without looking at your previous answers. After a few days of adjustment, you can start integrating new small habits into your daily tasks:

8. Integrate meditation into your routine (it can be as short as 10 minutes for a start) and write down 5 positive affirmations every evening before sleep and every morning after breakfast. 3 of each set must be written to compliment your abilities. Repeat the affirmations out loud multiple times.
9. Build a short physical routine/ritual to perform in the morning. Again, this can be as short as 10 minutes (like a short yoga routine, a morning walk, or whatever makes you feel good; what is important is that it becomes a ritual).
10. Try something new, or dive deeper into something you've tried and enjoyed. Make it consistent and short for a start. 15 minutes per day are more efficient than 1 our per week in one go.

The above steps are designed to help you build awareness of your potential and start taking aligned small actions. They are a good starting point towards developing trust in our talents and manifest your mission as well as for boosting your intuition and tapping into your creativity. 

Building awareness towards your talents is the very first step. Then you will have to learn how to take them to their full potential, but that's a different topic which I will cover in future articles.

And here is an ULTIMATE TIP I want to share with you: 

Do not get confused between talent and perfection. Being talented has nothing to do with being perfect at something or excel on something. Your talents are unique and competition should only be taken as a tool to set new goals for your self in order to grow further. I cover this topic in another blog article which you can read here "Defining success on your own terms"

Cherry blossoms are cherry blossoms and plum blossoms are plum blossoms. Accordingly, you must bloom in the way that only you can.

Daisaku Ikeda