The Pathfinder by Nicholas Lore

Author:Nicholas Lore [Lore, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781451626032
Publisher: Touchstone Book
Published: 2012-07-19T20:48:33+00:00

CHAPTER 17

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NATURAL TALENTS

The important thing in life is to have a great aim and to possess the aptitude and the perseverance to attain it.

—JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

Take a duck. Put it in a pond. Even if it was raised in the desert and has no swimming experience, it will be instantly at home in its new environment. In a matter of minutes, it will happily be doing what ducks do to make a living, exhibiting perfect natural mastery. It would be hard to find a more suitable candidate for pond life than a duck, even one with no previous experience. That’s because ducks are designed for the environment they inhabit. They have an ideal set of talents for their job. They have webbed feet, bills shaped for obtaining the special foods available pond side, and hollow feathers that act as a raft to keep them floating high in the water. They have a waterproofing system that keeps them dry and a layer of down to keep them warm in near-freezing water. All the beasts of the field and the birds of the air are perfectly equipped for the highly specific ways they go about making a living. Over millions of years, Mother Nature has eliminated all the ill-suited candidates for each niche in the natural world.

One major difference between most other creatures and human beings is that all the individuals of most other species are pretty much alike. There are small differences between individuals, but, essentially, each giraffe is pretty much like all the others. On the other hand, every person is a unique individual, different in many ways from all the others. We are different from the other people around us not only in personality, temperament, and interests but also in our innate talents. Each of us is genetically dealt a very specific hand of talent/ability cards that gives us a knack for playing a narrow range of roles in the working world with natural ease and mastery.

When you see someone wind surfing gracefully, like a dancer in a high wind, moving quickly and powerfully across the sea, you are viewing the result of extensive training and a commitment to improve a body that was born with a special gift for balance and agility. People who were born with less coordinated bodies are rarely the ones out there in the stronger winds. It is more difficult for them to master the skills and usually not as much fun as it is for someone with natural talent.

Everyone is born with a unique group of talents that are as individual as a fingerprint or a snowflake. These talents give each person a special ability to do certain kinds of tasks easily and happily, yet also make other tasks seem like pure torture. Talents are completely different from acquired knowledge, skills, and interests. Your interests can change. You can gain new skills and knowledge. Your natural, inherited talents remain with you, unchanging, for your entire life. They are the hand you have been dealt by Mother Nature.

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