TALENTS OR TALENTS?

 What is talent? Talent is a marked natural ability an individual has or as I will like to call it: gift. Talent also  was a unit of weight that was introduced in Mesopotamia at the end of the 4th millennium BC, and was normalized at the end of the 3rd millennium during the Akkadian-Sumer phase and it is mostly used to as a unit for weighing gold or shekels. This begs the question: Is your talent an avenue for revenue or are you still looking for reassurance from someone before you set out to weigh your gifts in gold? That’s a drab and boring process and you may never find your validation that way. I was once like that; let me take you back to my memory lane. 

Few years ago, a gentleman asked what sorts of things I had passion for and I started stating things that I really thought that I fancied; he needn’t know if I was lying or not (after all), all he had to do was listen (and he did). Deep down, I knew I wasn’t coherent in the ‘stupendous’ speech I gave that day and I felt it could come back to haunt me; and it did. 

I had always been a shy person and everyone who grew up around me knows how I was. It was always the case of a shy, wimpy kid (no diary) who grew up with separated parents and who had to grow up with his aunt. Wasn’t too involved in many activities besides chores. In fact, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life when I grew up. For me, it was a case of rocking the boat to the lute of the bard till the strings snap. One thing that I knew for sure whilst transcending into puberty was that I started having a flair for movies, music, and dancing. Took part in a few stage plays then and it was frightening but hey! Rome wasn’t built in a day. I had a lot of Icons back then; Icons people idolized like the likes of Michael Jackson, James Brown, Bruce Lee, Usher, and so on. The funny thing was no one knew I was into those things because I never felt confident enough to ‘show-off’ around the house. 

Time went on and I tried to catch up too and was ticking the right tocks to develop my ‘patent’ talents and guess what, I now have a clear idea of who I wanted to become, where I want to be and how I want to pioneer my path in life. Got a few gigs in acting, peaked my interest in criticism on film and music, I could sing myself and got some awards ‘here and there’, but some external factors tried to bring me down and I felt I wasn’t doing enough to bring out the best version of myself so I tried something new. What if I was too engrossed in sulking to myself to realize how much talented I am? What if I monetize my talents to bring myself the comfortable life I desire? All these streamed through the banks of my mind and I realize I could bring myself to create, entertain and love what I do without selling off my self to the so called external factors I so despise like ‘people saying I’m not good enough ‘, ‘He can’t’. 

So, dear reader, which version of yourself do you want to be? The one that hoards his/her talents for reservation whilst waiting for validation from people or the version that sees a way in weighing his/her talents in monetary unit? The most paramount thing is to take a step today towards your gold and quintessentially remember that planning and strategies goes a long way too in realizing yourself.