Unapologetically Zoning in on Natural Talent
‘I have no clue what I am going to talk about.’
Why don’t you talk about your natural talent?
‘My what?’
Your natural talent.
Think about it.
‘I don’t need to do much thinking. I don’t have a natural talent.’
You do.
And we often discover it when we aren’t thinking, too much.
Natural talent is something that we all have.
It’s something that comes effortlessly for us.
Not only is it easy, but it’s fun.
There’s a joy when the moves are being executed.
What is this natural talent?
And how can we go on a journey to perfect it?
Hard Work vs Talent
There is a problem with the mind.
It loves to compare.
It doesn’t like to hold 2 very counterintuitive concepts together at once.
But luckily, this quirk can easily be resolved.
‘How?’
By looking at the edge of the coin.
Both.
Quantity or quality?
Both.
Hard work or talent?
Both.
‘Both’ is the gold standard for the ‘edge of the coin’ mindset.
And it allows us to go past the mind & fix the natural quirk to compare.
Hard work & talent are joined at the hip.
Both are needed.
Hard work allows us to build discipline, rituals & practices to train the body and mind.
Talent allows us to use that hard work to flow to another level.
Talent is something that we are exceptionally gifted in without much conscious effort.
Not the type of effort where we are thinking a lot.
But there is a level of joy.
Joy can only exist when we aren’t overthinking.
Joy comes out to play when we make joy an intention.
And thinking is joy’s servant.
Spotting Our Natural Talent
So not only are hard work and talent joined at the hip.
Talent and joy are also joined at the hip.
To find something we are normally good at requires some introspection.
Time needs to be something we put on the back burner.
Don’t view it in terms of past, present & future.
Just view your life from the context of your life.
What is it that you are capable of doing very easily & it can provide value to atleast one person?
A great example of this in action is Steve Harvey.
Like him or hate him, Steve has been able to zone in on his gift which is comedy.
At first, the possessor of the gift thinks there is nothing special about it.
Making someone laugh?
What value can that possibly provide?
But rest on that thought for a second.
Because most gifts are capable of adding value to at least one person.
- And that one person turns into many.
Steve Harvey was able to zone in on comedy.
He saw that he had a natural talent for turning mundane information from his life into meaningful information for other people’s lives.
‘How exactly did he make it meaningful?’
He turned mundane information into knowledge plus laughs.
That 2 in 1 punch combo allowed him to add value.
Zoning in on the Easy
The hardest part of zoning in on what’s easy is that we feel guilty.
No way can we work on something that feels easy.
It feels like tricks are being pulled.
This mindset of ‘tricks being pulled’ is what leads to self-sabotage.
Back to the Steve Harvey example.
He is a great proof of what it means to hone a craft.
A craft is not just one thing.
It starts as one thing & gets spilled over to other things.
Through his honing in on jokes, Steve was able to learn public speaking.
Public speaking was a great leeway into learning entertainment.
By learning how to entertain others through laughter, he signed TV deals.
Built credibility.
There were 4 kings of comedy.
Bernie Mac, DL Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Steve Harvey.
By zoning in on one thing, he was able to expand onto many things.
It started off as easy & it went to the wide net.
That’s how you learn many topics by zoning in on one.
Creating Content Regarding the Craft
When running out of content, the best question to ask yourself is:
- What is my natural talent?
Not questions like:
- What will the algorithm like?
- I should ask my audience, right?
- Is it over for me? Am I done??
Just ask for the natural talent.
In the information age, we are living in a unique era.
People are being rewarded for zoning in & focusing.
The internet age rewards creativity due to the ease of access to information technology.
Anyone can use their phones to start a social media & share their ideas.
During moments of saturation like this, people don’t like parrots.
They like the Bald Eagles.
The rare ones who share insights from a completely different perspective.
Steve Harvey is not only a comedian but a motivational speaker now as well.
The insights that he can provide in his come-up will be very different from other comedians.
Although a lot of the lessons may seem similar, the path taken to reach the lessons will have a night and day difference.
By focusing on the natural talent, Steve is going to have infinite content material for life.
It’s just a game of zoning in on the easy.
Overcome Self Sabotage with Natural Talent
Everyone is good at something.
And joy serves as a great compass for finding that special something.
Self-sabotage is the trait of the ungrateful.
Just because it came easier to you than for others doesn’t mean that gratitude should be curved.
The more creative a mind becomes, the more high ROI gratitude becomes.
Mainly because gratitude keeps us grounded and keeps the fragmented mind in check.
You can make the argument that gratefulness is the antidote for self-sabotage.
Natural talent rarely gets discovered due to poor work ethic.
That’s the norm.
However, what’s even sadder is when the holder of the natural talent suppresses their own talent.
Hopefully, this post helps you look within & collapse time.
No past, present, or future.
What comes easy to you & can provide value for at least 1 person?
It starts with 1.
1 evolves into 2.
2 evolves into 4.
And once you’re at 4, there’s no reason not to double that.
Keep this formula going for life.
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– ArmaniTalks 
