5 KEYS TO GETTING BETTER IN YOUR TALENT DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY

Talent development is a big deal and talents are natural gifts within every human given to make life easier and foster collaboration.

For example, if you are talented in writing and another person has a talent in music, you can easily write songs for the singer. In essence, talents are not meant to serve as a source of competition but a source of complementing each other and getting better as we collaborate for change.

Talent is like an ore that has to be discovered, mined and refined before it is fit for use. And the more refined metal is, the greater purpose it can serve. This also applies to your talents.

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As much as talent discovery is essential, it is only through talent development that you can make your gift more useful.

So the question is, how do you develop your talents?

1. Identify people who have similar talents as you do and try to know their history: it is easy to get carried away by the prowess of writers like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka and to fall in love with Simi’s voice and Chike’s talent. But there is a history behind beautiful talents. There are moments of practice and conscious learning that everybody does not know about. You should find out about this and not just love your role models, learn their history.


2. Do thorough research on what it takes to be a master in your talent and draw out a plan on how to achieve it: the best way to describe this is knowing where you are going, identifying what you need to do to get there and give it all it takes to reach that goal. No journey is easy but when you know what to do at every junction, the journey is easier.

3. Understand the place of time in talent development: like the old saying goes “Rome was not built in a day.” You might not have to go through the tough times others went through, you may have learned about the pitfalls to avoid and the things you need to do but understand that time is an essential factor in talent development. It might take you 6 years to become a better writer while another person will start publishing books after 6 months of conscious learning and practice. So before you compare yourself with others, identify what they are doing differently, and give yourself time. No need to rush.

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4. Understand that you are unique: there’s a saying that “life is a race and you should focus on your lane”. Avoid unhealthy competition with others. You are built differently, your personality, environment, background and many other factors are different. This is why you shouldn’t beat yourself down because someone who is your age is doing ‘better. That will be unhealthy competition. The best competition on your journey of talent development is who you were yesterday versus who you are today. Do a consistent evaluation of your capabilities periodically and see how you are improving and what you need to do better. At the end of the day, what matters in your talent development journey is you getting better at what you do every day.

5. Relax, make new friends and enjoy life: as much as you want to focus on your talent development, you should understand that the essence of life is living. Avoid the urge to become a workaholic. Take time to play, relax, attend events, read a novel or see a movie. These relaxing activities help your brain rest and can also help improve your thinking skills as you have conversations with people and analyze what you read or see.

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