This text is about finding your potential to get an edge in a competitive world. To have an edge you need many things. You need most or all the components of an edge: understanding, skills, talent, motivation, and the right environment to have one. These components are interwoven. Anyone can have understanding, skills, and the right environment. When it comes to talent and motivation, you can argue whether talent and motivation are separate entities or not. I would argue that you haven´t enough motivation unless you are blessed with talent. Talent is an essential part of getting an edge in a competitive environment. It is not always needed when the competition isn´t hard. This text focuses on talent which cuts down the hours you need to get an edge. It can also help you stay motivated to get one.
Everybody´s got talent
You have talent, even though you don´t know it. Everybody can do some things better than most other people. You don´t have to be the best in the world to have an edge. You only have to be better than the people you compete with. The best clue for edge is to perform better than most people for a long time. One-hit wonders don´t have an edge. They can just be lucky. Your talents are recurring ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Your recurring patterns can be divided into three groups: striving, thinking, and relating patterns. They tell you what motivates you, how you do or think something, and how you relate with other people. My weakness in life is dealing with people so I will leave this topic into your hands to learn. I will focus only on striving and thinking talents.
There are many clues to find your talents. As I mentioned, long-term success is the easiest clue to find. There are many other clues. Childhood is one of the best clues you can find. When you were young, you didn´t have to so many inhibitions. You did what came easily to your mind. You felt great after doing it. And wanted to do it again and again. Most adults can´t do it. If you don´t know now what feels great, you can try a bookstore test. Go to the nearest bookstore and let yourself flow through it. When you find yourself from some section without having a conscious thought about it, you have probably found your striving talent. Without a striving talent, you won´t probably practice enough, because you have no inner motivation to be good in what you do.
You also learn faster if you are talented. This is one of the most important reasons why being talented helps you to gain an edge over others. You can get an edge by practicing much more than your competitors, but it may not be worth it. I suggest you try something else, especially when you are trying to get an edge in a highly competitive field of expertise, such as professional sports or other popular endeavors like music. When you think these things, you should always compare yourself for people who have done the same practice with an equal or larger amount of hours in the same kind of environment. Otherwise, you just have to guess whether you are talented or not. Faster learning is really about having the potential to perform something at a higher level than your competitors. It doesn´t mean you have an edge or whether you can keep it.
Living with edge
Talent doesn´t mean you can stop learning. Vice versa, many of your competitors are willing to work hard to even up the gap between you and them. If you aren´t willing to improve yourself or widening the edge, you will lose it. Most of this is about motivation. So many people and companies lose an edge because they have no motivation to cultivate or live it. Sometimes they don´t understand what is their edge. And sometimes people just change. Your recurring patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving can change after an illness, some other dramatic life event, the new government, or through another person. These things aren´t always tragedies. They can be positive life events, in which other things become more important.
Some last thoughts: I have changed my view about whether motivation is a talent or not. When I introduced an edge, I didn´t mention anything about the right environment. It is important for gaining an edge.
-TT
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