The Process and the Result

I've always defined “talent” as the ability to appreciate the process, not the result. See, anyone can appreciate the results of hard work, but most people don't understand the hard work it takes to get there. Anyone who thinks talent is something you're born with, I think is only right in the sense that the ability to stick with something over another thing is something you're born with. Sure, you have a few true child prodigies, like Mozart, but those are rare exceptions. In fact, they're so rare that they make the history books. Even if a sports star or an actor or musician “bursts on the scene,” they did a ton of work to get there in the first place. The ability to do that ton of work, that's what I consider “talent.”

The ability to appreciate the process, and not focus on the result, goes far beyond sports and music. Consider dieting. I've always maintained it's easier to lose fifty pounds than it is to lose five. If you want to lose five pounds, you'll skip desert, do a little bit of exercise, and once you lose those five pounds, well, then what? If it's to look good for an important party, or a trip to the beach, you just say no to fatty foods for a while, then you pretty much fall back on your old habits. But what if you really want to lose a lot of weight? Then it's not just a temporary behavioral change, you have to change your mindset. You pretty much have to change everything about how you treat your body. If you really get into it, you can really study how weight works, how food, exercise, even your sleep patterns affect your weight. If you can really enjoy the process of exercising, and put a positive spin on eating healthy, you won't be saying “no” to those cookies, you'll be saying “yes!” to healthy fruits and vegetables.

You don't have to be professional to appreciate the process. Some people enjoy eating good food, and some people really get a kick out of the slicing, dicing, and frying. These are the people who, if you let them, will talk about their fifty-year old cast-iron cookware that's been perfectly seasoned. You'll see the same kinds of behavior when computer nerds talk about how they can overclock their CPUs, or car people talk about how they can turbo-charge their engines to be louder and faster, and yes, when it comes to cars, people can go the other way, too, talking about how high their mileage is, and sharing how they do it. Comic book collectors buy comics they never take out of their boarded plastic bags.. They care more about the collecting than the comics! Two people on the same wavelength can talk for hours about it. Two people that aren't? Well, eyes will be rolled.

“The process” is where progress is made. Whatever skill you want to master, be it playing an instrument, wiring a home theater, or talking to hot girls, you just have to keep at it. You've heard that practice makes perfect? Well, almost. Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect. More to the point, going through the process is what makes you understand how your body feels under stress, develop muscle memory, understand what works and what doesn't, and why.

Hopefully, you can develop these skills in a low-pressure environment, build up the pieces, then bring them together. This is known as “practice the parts, and rehearse the whole.” Not all situations work like that, unfortunately, but you can give yourself an edge by mentally preparing, rehearsing the whole in your imagination. For example, you won't learn how to do job interviews until you've been on a few, and then you've got high stakes. But you can go to job coaches, learn about the company, ask yourself the questions you think they'll ask, and even take note of what questions stump you in an interview, and what to say better next time. Keep at it, and there will always be a next time. Maybe you don't have the confidence to go up to an attractive girl, but you can build up to it with online dating, even if not every conversation turns into a date.

In most cases, skills are built on top of other skills. You can practice a song, then learn to play with other musicians, then learn to play in front of a crowd. There's a skill to learning to find jobs, and write a good cover letter and resume, then learning to interview, and only then can you learn what it takes to actually hold down a job, which is a whole other set of skills that you learn over time. This is why many jobs list years of experience in years, sometimes you'll need a decade or more of experience to even be considered. Same with dating, although no one will ask that you have been in a relationship for five years to be considered dating material. That one you're on your own for.

So look at what works, and what doesn't. You should have a goal, but don't focus exclusively on the goal. You'll only look at what you haven't accomplished. Concentrate on the process. Appreciate it. Make working towards the goal the goal itself, and you will achieve greatness.