Talent: a somewhat unknown concept . Throughout this article we will try to describe what talent is and show various strategies, techniques and habits to develop it.

Cases of wasted talent

  • John , is young and quite intelligent, but when he pretends to be his own boss, he ends up ruined.
  • Manuel , has two careers and multiple plans in life, however he has not managed to realize any of them.
  • Anna , a woman with an extraordinary talent for mathematics, but is not aware of it, if she passes the exams she understands that they were very easy, and not getting the maximum qualification causes her serious frustration.
  • Patricia , is a very diligent and professional woman designing furniture and taking photographs, but she is the target of criticism from her relatives, which gives her the feeling that everything is in vain and that she is wasting her time.
  • Roberto , invests a lot of time in his activities, has a lot of recognition, but does not stand out because he is afraid to let others see the skills he possesses. In his inner self he does not feel worthy of any success and by sabotaging himself he feels he has failed.
  • Jessica , when she constantly makes herself known, reveals her negative aspects: “the bad thing about myself is She is not capable of realizing the good things that fill her life, and always proclaiming endlessly the negative.

They are people who possess some talent, ability or skill, yet are unable to feel fully realized.

Personal talents: how to show them to the world?

There are few personalities who have existed or who have dared to show their innate talent and who have left their mark on history: in music Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , who left us more than 600 works in his career.

The vast majority of us would like to possess a masterful talent . Nevertheless, very few people have had gifts like these in the course of human history. It is very important to keep in mind that a person who is born with such a talent dies with it. The proof is that in December 1791, even on the last day of his existence, Mozart died, pen in hand, composing what would be his last piece of music, a Requiem (for the funeral Mass), which was never finished.

But does everyone have talents?

Language is polysemic, which means that the same word has multiple meanings. The term talent is no exception, since it relates to a person’s intellectual capacity or intelligence, to the ability to do something useful or beautiful. Likewise, talent is defined as the innate ability or capacity to excel in one or several specific thematic areas or activities . It is also described as the capacity to exercise a certain occupation in carrying out an activity.

We must emphasize that we all have some capacity or skill that we can strengthen, the important thing is to discover them, be constant and work hard to obtain benefit.

Some talents are natural; others must be acquired through learning. There are things that we are simply unable to do. But we are all capable of improving in many capacities through training and illusion .

However, talent in this polysemic sense of language has meanings, such as: an intellectual capacity, something innate, an aptitude, even a strength. I will use the word generically to refer to a form of behavior that makes us improve our life or situation.

There are multiple ways to tap into personal talent. This proposal is only one of many options to discover, promote and maintain it, it contains the following steps:

Multiple intelligences as a reference for knowing our talents

Linking it to some of the multiple intelligences, knowing how to manage our emotional intelligence and orient our talents to specific goals.

The theory of multiple intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner teaches us that intelligence is not unitary, but that each person has more or less developed some types of intelligence. Thus, we are all potentially talented in some aspect of life; we all have something to contribute to the world if we manage to channel our talent through an activity in which we stand out especially.

How do we relate to our environment?

We make contact with the world through the five senses, we give “sense” to the information and we act accordingly. Then, there are clearly identified processes, one is the use of the organs in charge of the senses and another is how the senses perceive and determine what reality means.

We use the senses externally to perceive the world, internally to represent the experience to ourselves .

Perception, neurons… talent from the magnifying glass of neuroscience

The neurons that make up the brain’s chemical storm are interconnected and exchange information with each other, the environment influences us to learn and thought influences us in the way the neurons are connected. In this amazing influence that we currently know thanks to neuroscience, we need to use our connectoroma to acquire new skills or to further develop those we already have.

It is now proven that positive or negative thoughts not only change the reality we perceive internally or externally but also part of the interweaving of wires within our brain . Conectoma is how neuroscientist Sebastian Seung describes it, that is, the way the 100 billion neurons that make up the brain communicate and influence it and can achieve the overwhelming number of billions of different connections. So our experiences can change the connectoroma. The countless connections make us materially unique people. That’s why Seung says, “You are your connector.”

If we harbor deep-seated, even negative behaviors that we believe we cannot change, it is true, because we repeat the same connection with our thinking, with positive positive behaviors we do the same but we direct our learning to reach more options, solutions and goals.

Are we all smart?

The history of intelligence goes back to the beginning of the last century, when as psychologists we were oriented to taking measurements of all behaviour. These studies derived the IQ and the intelligence tests that measured it included different areas to find out what our intelligence was by means of a series of specific statistics. They divided people into average, above and below average intelligence . This often gave someone who was assessed in this way the opportunity to acquire a label that could be carried throughout their life, which is false because we can all develop skills or abilities outside the context of this assessment.

We don’t have just one computer in our heads as the human connector shows, that is, there is not just one type of intelligence but several, some well identified in appearance and others yet to be developed.Howard Gardner, explains that intelligence is the capacity to put order in thoughts and coordinate them with actions s . There are different types of intelligences that mark the potentialities with characteristic accents of each individual, in strengths and weaknesses.

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Each person has different intelligences (visual-spatial, verbal or linguistic, logical-mathematical, kinesthetic-body, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalistic) and cognitive skills. These intelligences work together, but as semi-autonomous entities. Each person develops some more than the others . Culture and segments of society place different emphasis on them.

Possibly we have more than one skill or capacity, the challenge is to know ourselves better, since there are people who are excellent artists but require someone to help them sell their talents , that is, they do not have developed interpersonal intelligence. Moreover, when we try to take advantage of our talents we incur in contradictions so that they do not come out, it is called cerebral modularity .

Another part that influences us is how we handle our emotions or Emotional Intelligence (EI).

Is it enough to know our hidden intelligence or do we need emotional intelligence too?

Having talents and skills is not enough to achieve success, and if we do, emotionally the cost is very high . Nowadays, just as we exercise our muscles, we can do the same with our emotions.Being angry and acting without thinking can lead the most prepared person or the most capable intellectual to become a beast, in a dynamic called emotional kidnapping .

Negative emotions block learning and prevent you from developing your talents . If they persist longer than is advisable, they even diminish your health, this principle is proven by the neuroendocrine immunology .

Intelligence may not be of the slightest importance when you are dominated by emotions. We really have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels. The goal of emotional intelligence is balance, not suppression.

If emotions are too dull they create apathy and distance; when they are out of control, extreme and persistent, they become pathological. The mechanisms for balancing emotions; controlling impulsiveness, enthusiasm, empathy, perseverance despite frustration, deferring gratification and the capacity for self-motivation, since someone is not always behind us.

The most important thing is to become aware and practice; the daily training of our skills . It is not easy, but our connectoroma can be redone and that change of neural pathways once it is constituted becomes a habit of life. There are those who will not achieve this and will only suffer, they have been stuck in the conflict (Frame of Reprobation). These people could use the saying: “genius and figure to the grave”, by way of sarcasm, of course.

Giving up what we are leaves us without identity, not developing our skills or talents, leaves us without the possibility of feeling self-fulfilling, we will not discover them if we are not bold. Given this perspective we will not get anywhere if we do not set goals for ourselves in life.

What do we need to achieve our goals?

To help you promote good habits and attitudes to develop your talents, we have put together more than 30 little tips for this purpose throughout the following paragraphs. We hope you find them useful.

  • Commitment : without commitment there is no destination or realization.Trying is not good, it requires planning and flexibility, and giving more than is required of you.
  • Divide goals into small goals : you don’t get to the top all at once, you have to climb up little by little.
  • Make of the disadvantages, advantages : “if you are shy look for a job where you need to talk”.
  • Responding to disappointment : the important thing is not what happens to you, but how you react to it.
  • Get all the support you can , you don’t reach the goal alone.
  • Surround yourself with people who have similar ideas.
  • Ask yourself and imagine how you would like to see yourself developing your talents . To project is to start walking the path.
  • Your thoughts are what determine your life.
  • Have objectives : short, medium and long term.
  • You are the architect of your future , build what you desire.

In conclusion…

  • Self-knowledge is the basis for discovering and developing your talents . The proposed strategy is simple but requires effort.
  • Determine your representative system: visual, olfactory, auditory, sensory or sentimental . Or a combination of one and the other.
  • Your profession may be related to one of the multiple intelligences (visual-spatial, verbal or linguistic, logical-mathematical, kinesthetic-corporal, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal. It is best to take advantage of your representative system to accelerate the learning of new skills. Or take advantage of it to learn more about the subjects you are passionate about by relating them to your multiple intelligences and your representative system.
  • Learn to manage your emotions , no talent will serve you if you suffer an emotional abduction, you are dominated by apathy and laziness.
  • In the face of any difficulty, to develop your talents, set as your goal to think of at least three solutions on how to achieve it , to put your talent to the test.

Developing your talents is not a one-day thing, you need to be constant in order to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. If you want to get where you have been, do what you have never done. It is important to meet with people who share your interests. Socialize and get all the support you can!

Some more tips to enhance our talents

“There’s only one small part of the universe that you know for sure can be improved, and that part is you.

-Aldous Huxley

  • We cannot choose the circumstances that have touched us , but we can choose the way we react to them and adjust the emotions we feel to cushion their negative impact.
  • You cannot change a problem in the same environment in which it was generated . Sometimes you have to give a 180-degree turn to change.
  • Behaviours cannot be changed if they are not conscious .
  • If we are not able to face our emotions we cannot develop our talents.
  • If we control our emotions, this makes our multiple intelligences more efficient and helps us to develop our talent to the fullest.
  • The astronaut José Hernández says: “being persistent is not enough, you need to be effective” . Perseverance is effective when it is accompanied by self-knowledge, focus, and a positive attitude,” says Marianne Blancas, human resources consultant and executive coach.
  • Learn to be an optimist : “the optimist sees the positive and the negative side, but decides to stay with the positive”.