It bugs me when people talk about talent, particularly when they speak of "the gifted" or "the talented." Something inborn in American culture wants us to seek special status for ourselves while alternately worshipping it and hating it in others. I think that the desire to be exceptional is the single greatest contributor to self-imposed mental illness and general unhappiness in America today.
Talent doesn't exist. You aren't born with the ability to do anything well except breathe, suck, and attract attention through crying. Some people never move beyond this basic skill set. Those of us who do, only do so through interest and hard work. Notice how that's a two-part equation? Interest and hard work. It is impossible to sustain a level of hard work that leads to excellence if you do not also have a high level of interest. (Well, I suppose if you were forced through oppression, that might substitute for interest, but the rules are different in oppressive societies).
I've known several people who've insisted that they could do anything if they simply put their mind to it. I may have even been one of them at some point. "Yeah, I could be a doctor if I really wanted to, but I don't." This implies a choice, which puts you in control of the decision. Suddenly becoming a doctor is on the same level as folding laundry -- only reason it's not done at this moment is, I don't feel like it. All I have to do is flip that switch and magically the hard work will manifest based on my momentary compulsion to accomplish something. While this may be effective for laundry, it doesn't work when stretched out to years of medical school. If you don't have a very high level of interest for that accomplishment, there's no way you're going to stick with the long period of hard work required to achieve it.
Manufactured interest has a short life, and produces a minimal level of hard work. After it's exhausted, you start to question why you are working so hard for something that doesn't interest you, and you begin to think about the other more interesting things you could be doing with your time. The only sustainable interest comes from someplace inside. When the thing that interests you is all you can think about, when you can't get to sleep at night because you're still thinking about it, then you've got real passion.
Nowhere in this process is "talent." Everyone has a particular physical or emotional aptitude. Some people are very good with physical movement, some people are very good with emotional regulation, some are good with sight or sound or even taste. Someone with a sense of hearing that can distinguish small changes in tonality could be a great musician through hard work, but maybe he isn't all that interested in music as a career. If he chooses to pursue a career as a commercial pilot, this is not a waste of anything. His aptitude does not make him talented or special any more than his height or eye color or skin tone. Having said that, it would be very difficult for someone who is tone deaf to create appealing music. Still, Nickelback is a financially successful band.
Talent is a kind of magic; you can use the word "magic" in place of "talent" without too much trouble. To me, relegating something to the "magical" category is an intellectual defeat. Magic is what we think about when we're all out of logic and facts to fill in the gaps in our knowledge. Can't explain it? Must be magic! Talent is the magic of personal accomplishment. While magic describes the hidden workings and relationships of the Universe at large, talent describes the amazing things we don't know or see with regard to human accomplishment. So when we see someone who is really, amazingly good at something, we say they are "talented;" they are magical.
To make this admission, however, is to diminish the hard work that went into the accomplishment. To say that someone is talented is to say that they have some special gift. If it's a gift, then there's little or no hard work involved; it's no different than being very tall or very pretty. This little belief system that surrounds accomplishment is toxic to mental health. It teaches us that hard work is worthless, interest is not a requirement, and that we're born with every skill we'll ever need. On the other hand, I've met some really stellar -- dare I say talented? -- breathing, sucking, crying people in my time.
