Theory: Talent can be achieved with practice.
I’m beginning to think that the commonly-held belief that talent is innate is actually a myth. Until very recently, I believed that there were certain things that I was inherently not good at. I believed that some people were naturally gifted at certain things and others weren’t. I believed that if I was not gifted at something then I would never be gifted at it and should not waste my time trying to do it. Then I tried to learn how to draw.
Drawing is an area that perpetuates this myth perhaps more than any other. There is a definite perception that some people can draw and others can’t and that is the way it will always be. After two weeks of trying to draw faces, I am convinced now that I can learn how to do it. Moreso, I believe that I could get really good at it if I wanted to.
Compare the following drawings.
This one is a terrible picture of a baby that I drew around Christmas. I feel sorry for this poor baby I drew (the scanning quality doesn’t help). This is about what my drawing level has been (of people at least) my whole life. Actually, it’s probably a little better. Which is to say that I have been a terrible artist my whole life.
This next one is a frightening picture of me that I drew about two weeks ago. You can see I started to learn about shading as a way of showing what is there without drawing flat ugly lines, but the intricacies of the face still eluded me. In particular, the eyes and lips really worry me.
And finally this one is a picture of Cindy that I drew last Friday. Now I realize that this picture doesn’t look like Cindy, but at least it looks like a real person, and it is far better than the other two.
The point is not that I’m good (I don’t have the evidence to make that point), but the point is that I’m improving. And I’m improving, not because I have some latent talent, but because I’m trying to improve.
And I’m starting to believe that nearly every skill is learnable in this way. That’s the theory. I now know for a fact that one can learn how to draw simply by practicing (though a teacher would make the learning quicker). My theory is that one can learn to do virtually anything with practice and some modest form of education - but practice is the important thing.
I think the reason we believe the aforementioned myth is because when we try to do things, we are bad at them, and then we see others who are far better at the thing and we don’t want to try anymore because “we’ll never be that good”. That’s what always used to happen to me. But I’ve found that if one keeps trying, eventually one gets better - not great, but better. And greatness, I think, is actually achievable, but only by doing something very badly for a very long time.
My theory is not based solely on the evidence of my modest drawing skills, but also on things I have learned to do that, at one point in my life, I was convinced I would never do. These include, but are not limited to: playing guitar, programming web servers, playing bass, writing poetry, playing drums, painting models, playing soccer, surfing… All of these things I thought I simply didn’t have a talent for, and in the last few years (and especially in the last year) I have found that if I actually spend time practicing them and getting tips from wherever I can (friends, the web, books, teachers, etc.) that I can actually get better at them.
The lie that we cannot do something because we were not made to do it is a devious one. I think we have far more potential than we give ourselves credit for, and I think that God made us to be creative beings. And I think that this myth - that talent is innate and cannot be learned - keeps us from doing the things that we might really love if we would only try. What’s more, it makes us doubt how well our Creator built us.
Maybe this is why Jesus talked about persistence so much. I don’t think this applies simply to creative talents, but that it applies to nearly everything. I’ve got another post incoming that will extend this to even more important aspects of our lives than drawing or playing soccer. Wait for it.
Well, son, this is where I might differ with you. Yes, with practice we may potentially begin approaching something that someone else could claim as a talent. I have drawn pictures for more than twice as many years as you have been alive and they remain sticks. A talented person can move from stick figures to actual drawings over a very short period of time. Some people have a natural acuity or “talent” for things whereas others do not. I agree that if you work hard enough you can improve but some people, because of natural abilities get there much more quickly. This follows the supposition that in everything we do we follow the familiar “S-curve”, in this case achievement versus practice, it’s just that the slope of the linear portion is different for different people. In my case that portion, with regard to the ability to draw, is very close to the x-axis. In other areas the slope is steeper and I reach the top of the S-curve more quickly.
Followup on last comment. Since achievements are accomplished through an S-curve approach, prudent stewardship of our time would cause us to choose those S-curves that first of all give God all the glory and of that subset to choose those that get us to that point the quickest, given that we have a small, finite amount of time to invest.
Re: the S-Curve. I agree that there is a learning curve with anything, and some people may climb that curve faster than others. My point is that I used to think it was a cliff rather than a curve, and I found that it is always a curve. My point is that I used to say “I can’t do that because I’m bad at it.” But when you think about it, that’s a really silly thing to say. If I’ve never done something before, what makes me think I’ll be any good at it? It doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do it.
Re: stewardship of time. That is true sometimes. Other times I’ve noticed that God tends to call us to do things that we are bad at. So my point above is even more pertinent when God calls us to do something. We shouldn’t say to God, “You can’t ask me to do that - I’m terrible at it. Find someone else.”
True, true - the old Moses syndrome - “not me Lord pick someone else”. Until God calls us to something like that we need to do the best we can. I find many Christians bogging down in little things that distracts from the main thing - “To know Christ and make Him known”. In keeping with your thought on when God calls you to do something you think you can’t do, my strength has always come from John 15:5 where Christ says, “Apart from Me you can nothing”. But then Paul, in Phil 4:13 says, “I can do all thing through Christ Who strengthens me.” It is an all or nothing situation, the only difference being Christ. And since Jesus Himself said “with God nothing is impossible” yes all things in life that give God glory are S-curves, and He controls the slope, and not cliffs - nice lesson you learned son. Things that should be cliffs that we can’t climb are those things that take us away from God and don’t give Him the glory.
I also think that God can use us to minister even when we are using an ability that is thus far only “somewhere on the curve”. There is always someone who is better at it than we are, and we shouldn’t avoid offering our gift because of that. For example, I have never thought of myself as a piano player (15 years of lessons to the contrary), but I got up the nerve to use the keyboard as I led worship, and God used it! I have been motivated to practice (the missing element of the 15 years I suspect) and am improving gradually, but the point is I didn’t wait to offer it to God until I was good. I’ll never be great (not sucking is the current goal) but God _is_ great!
I think skill, not talent, comes with practice.
Anonymous said it right, skill comes from practice, not talent. God has made it very clear that God gives different people different gifts. If He has not given us a particular gift, read “talent”, practice will never get us there. In Moses’ case, God gave Moses the gift or talent of leadership, Moses just didn’t recognize it when first called.
And yes, mommy is practicing piano all the time, well, only when there is a repeat of Trading Spaces on. But she is so blasted cute when she practices who can deny her that? Btw, mom and I are supporting, playing bass and keyboard, to a worship group called “God Song”. We actually think they should call themselves “The Heine Wannabees”
“And I’ve learned that the weblog is not a very good forum for debate (at least not between me and others) - the reason being that it is an uneven platform. Rather it is actually a soapbox, from which one can make comments on what the poster says, but ultimately the speaker on the soapbox has the last and loudest word. I don’t like debating in that kind of artifical strength so I’ll try to avoid it (if I can).”
Is this directed at me? If so, sorry…
:-) Keep postin!
No, it wasn’t directed at you :) It’s just something I realized when my dad disagreed (only slightly, but still disagreed) with my Theory post. I wanted to debate with him about it and then realized that it wouldn’t really work… I mean, it would work, but it wouldn’t really be fair.
But I may change my mind on that. The weblog *is* more of a soapbox than a debate forum, but depending on the topic and my mood I think I might still end up debating in the future, even though I said I wouldn’t. I just have that kind of personality ;)
So it’s really directed at myself. But in thinking about it in the last couple of days, I think I said it to separate myself from my argument so I wouldn’t get so worked up about the debate itself. I need to learn a better way to deal with that.
Anyway, it’s nothing on you, bro. I actually really appreciate your reply to my other comment on your log. It was thoughtful and not argumentative. Besides, I was the one that started it ;)
Dad needs to practice what we learned last week at this communication seminar-”What I hear you saying is….” without adding any comments, until the two of you are understanding the same meaning. He zeros in on particular words and what they mean to him (ie “talent”) rather than trying first to ascertain your meaning. (not that he’s the only one who does that) But since you used the debate to clarify your own thinking, than it served a valuable purpose didn’t it? I’m going to go practice (something….anything) now…..
According to the last two comments I guess it was me. oh well, as usual I guess everyone will be best served if I just keep my thoughts to myself.
It’s totally cool that you disagreed, Dad. I think I was just having a bad day ;-) I need disagreement, otherwise I’ll just spout off with no accountability and either nobody will listen to me or people will be widely mislead.
And if what Mom says is true, then I got that from you too. So many of my stupid fights with Cindy are caused by me picking up on one or two things she said without listening to what she meant.
Oh, and if it isn’t clear already I wanted to make it explicit: what I meant was that the weblog is not really a good place for *me* to debate because I feel like I have an unfair advantage. Anyone else can debate all they want, in fact I encourage it.
And, honestly, I expect myself to go back on that in the future. I don’t think I understand how *not* to debate ;-)