Talents and Limitations

I like to think I know my limitations. And I tend to dislike and envy — at the same time — those who don’t know theirs. 

For example, I am a copyeditor, so I look at other people’s writing. Writing seems to be one of those things that most everyone thinks they can do. (I know I just used the singular they. Sometimes it just works better.) But not so much with things like opera singing and ballroom dancing. 

So I run across people who think they can write fiction, for example. Sometimes their grammar is not up to snuff, they switch from one point of view (I) to another (he) within a paragraph, the dialog is unnatural, or the plot impossible to follow. Or the book is just too plain boring for anyone to enjoy. And no, I don’t claim to be a great fiction writer. Much of it is because I have no training in it. I have little practice in it. I don’t consider myself a primo storyteller. If I were more interested in trying it, would I be better? Yes. Would I be great? Maybe, but maybe not.

So are these things natural talents or learned . . . or both? Do those limitations we put on ourselves actually prevent us from becoming great, or do you need some talent to begin with? Do people tend to be interested in doing the things they are good at, thus becoming better? And not so interested in things they have little skill in, so they never develop that skill?  I am just asking and pondering. I don’t necessarily have answers.

As for me, I think I am a good writer of the type of thing I write: nonfiction, instructional things. I explain things well, which is why I also think I have some talent as a teacher. Classroom noise control? No talent at all. I have always had a talent for grammar, and I was great at Latin. But I couldn’t learn French worth a damn. I was a middling at best ballet dancer, but that is something that also takes a certain type of body, certain types of muscles . . . but maybe all skills are basically like that.

I took piano lessons as a kid. I was decent at it. I practiced as little as I could get away with. If I had practiced six hours a day, would I ever have been able to be a concert pianist? Who knows? Were my hands too small, my fingers too short?  Maybe.

I was, and to some extent still am, a pretty great tap dancer. I had the natural sense of rhythm and the fast feet to be really good. If I had stuck with it instead of getting married and raising a family, my priority, I could maybe have become as well-known as some of the tap dancers I know. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have become a ballerina or Olympic ice skater no matter what I did.

When I was in my 20s, I decided I wanted to be on Broadway. No, I had no acting talent to speak of, but I did a lot of jazz dance. So, I figured I would need to learn how to sing. So I started taking voice lessons. My teacher said I was a “natural.” I knew I wasn’t, and she was likely depending on the money I paid her for private lessons. But if I had stuck with it, I might have been trainable to have a good enough voice to sing on Broadway — in a chorus. 

Some people exaggerate their skills. They think they are great writers, but their editors think they are not. They think they are great editors, but their writers are not pleased.

Sometimes it is the parents who think their kids are great, whereas the kids know better. Kids can usually tell that they aren’t the best ballerina in the class or the best ice skater in the competition. I have been on both sides of those situations!

We have all seen kids with special talent. There is that special talent that is not common. Lots of kids can be trained to ice skate perhaps, but I have seen kids with amazing talent that is natural and not a result of training. It comes from within. (Since my daughter is a skater, I am familiar with that particular world.) I have a friend who has a niece who is 11 or 12. She is an amazing pianist. She can play, after a year or two of lessons, what it took me 6 years to play . . . and much better. She is a special talent. I am addicted to those television talent shows. There are some kids of 13 who sing like adults — and as good as big stars — without any lessons. There are people with really special talent. 

But there are people who succeed at this type of endeavor with hard work too. I can recall two such instances. When I was tap dancing (as an adult), there was a woman in my class who was okay, but nothing special. I was much better. Her rhythm was questionable and she just didn’t sound very good. Well, she made it to a performing career through a lot of hard work. I couldn’t believe how far she got. And she didn’t have an extreme amount of natural talent. 

When my daughter was competitive ice skating, there was a girl who was a bit younger and hadn’t been skating as long. She was  —  I hate to say it — terrible —  but she was. Her family had enough money to train her to be good, but would money be enough? Would hard work be enough? Her mother saw at this girl’s first competition that she was terrible. Within two days, she switched her daughter to a rink that was more challenging and trained more competitive skaters. I guess her mother blamed the coaching and not a lack of ability. Well, I can tell you that this girl eventually went to sectionals, if not nationals, and became an amazing skater. So what is it? Good training? Hard work? Natural ability? In this case, all of it.

I have no conclusions here. The topic came to mind because I am involved in things that require talent, and I tend to be rather modest. Other people seem to brag about their accomplishments, and I think they are more successful. It is not infrequently that I feel like a real underachiever. Perhaps many of our limitations are the limitations we put on ourselves.

I would love to hear your comments on any of the ideas brought up in this post. I would also like to hear your past or present New ‘s Resolutions for my New Year’s blog post in a couple of weeks. Please e-mail those to me at info@bigwords101.com or bigwords101@yahoo.com. For comments on this post, just use the comment form.

In 2019 I think I will write more about grammar, punctuation, and word usage. However, if you have an idea for a blog post on anything related, please e-mail me — even a book review might be a blog post idea.

Remember that books make great holiday gifts — both mine and every other author’s!