Never fear the talented

Have you ever seen that person who seems to be able to do anything really well? Like the universe has given them something special. I know I have. These people seem to breeze through life and things just fall into place. They can do anything easy and eat anything with no repercussions. Many will say “they are lucky”, or “they are talented” or “they have great genes”. I have had heard people at various competitions say “oh that person is so talented”, and they’re right. What I have noticed is often people that are talented seem to lack a key characteristic to true success. I am talking about persistence. Now I am not saying talent doesn`t count, just look at the Williams sisters, they are talented and hardworking. Granted they seem to be able to work less to accomplish more but they have also been persisting their whole lives at tennis so the line could blur between talent and persistence.

For the most part though persistence and effort will triumph over talent. Often I see talented people fall by the wayside because it comes to easy so they don`t appreciate what they are doing. You may point out various people and situations that are different. To the everyday human persistence is what counts. I have two degrees and various other qualifications. I have been lucky to be born into a situation where I could access that opportunity. It took persistence and effort to achieve those things and come out the other side once I took advantage of the opportunity. This applies to almost everything in life. We cannot choose where we are born but we can choose to a large degree what we do about our situation thereafter. Often when people fail something be it a diet or a training plan we look to blame some outside force. Whilst there may be some truth to their excuse for the most part the onus lies with that person. Like getting financially independent it takes persistence and effort. Having a long lasting relationship takes persistence and effort. Having a healthy body and active lifestyle takes persistence and effort.

What is persistence and effort? It means trying and keep moving forward. Some days things won`t come easy or most days they won`t. That doesn`t mean quit and make excuses. That’s the time to persist and put in the effort. They are times that count and you grow. I can tell you I thought about giving up and I have been lucky to have a partner support me and tell me to remember who I am. Who I want to be. Do you want to be that person that quit and didn`t get what they wanted and blamed someone else or pointed to the talented person because they did it easy. Don`t be that person, never fear the talented and persist, persist, persist.

A resolute challenge

The new year is fast approaching and that means new year resolutions are made and broken. It is well known that resolutions usually fail. I typically believe that goal setting and creating new habits trump a fragile resolution any day of the year. I have written about goals and goal setting before in this article.To add value to the idea of goal setting is the idea of a challenge. Adding one challenge that you want to accomplish for the year. Now you would say a challenge and a goal are basically the same thing. I could understand why you would say that. The difference I find is that a challenge gets you out of your comfort zone. A challenge would be trying some stand up comedy, public speaking or rock climbing if you are afraid of heights. A goal doesn't require you to necessarily get out of your comfort zone but a challenge does, a challenge requires that you face a fear in some form. How many challenges you set is up to you, my advice is the further you think you will be out of your comfort zone the less challenges you should set. I personally only set one challenge for myself, to swim a kilometer which may seem more of a goal but I am a baaad swimmer and I will be well out of my comfort zone. I have already rock climbed and skydived so the challenge of heights is out of the way. What challenge will you set yourself this year?