Cultivating Talent

My ten year old daughter Elissa began taking drum lessons five weeks ago. She loves it! She practices faithfully every day, uses the metronome, and pays attention to what she is doing so she can make improvements. A week ago her instructor told her she would be finishing the first book within a week or two, provided sho could perform the "test" to him and then to an audience (me) at the studio. Well, she was determined to graduate from the book yesterday. So, she practiced extra hard, working on one line at a time, then putting them together until she got it right. On a side note here, she does not have her drum set in my house yet - it's ordered, but has not come in yet, so she's practicing on a phone book and various stacks of boxes, making it even more challenging. Well, Elissa is one determined girl! She did it, and she did it well. She had a little glitch when playing for me at the studio, but she just kept on going, recovered, and finished strong. It was a proud moment for both of us.

Watching her go through this process has really made me think about talent lately. Of course, I think she's extremely talented (I may be a little biased here), but she also works hard to grow her skills. Everyone starts out with the potential to be great at something, but if they don't make an effort to be great, it'll never happen. I can just imagine that there is so much untapped potential in our world - musicians, inventors, and all sorts of geniuses that will never reach greatness because they aren't working on their talent. I had a friend tell me a story yesterday that really touched my heart. His brother was always talking about playing the lottery, and finally his dad said to him, "Why waste your money on the lottery. You have a million dollars sitting in your guitar case if you would just open it." So, the brother did, and now has a CD out there for everyone to enjoy. What a bold statement for a parent to make, especially to their grown child!

So, back to cultivating talent. Teachers, parents, and mentors are a little bit like gardeners. We start with a child, just a seed. Have you ever noticed that it's hard to tell what kind of plant you'll have if you have a bag of mixed seeds? We don't know what kind of flower will bud, but it's still our job to nurture the child, providing them with experiences and opportunities to grow their talent into a masterpiece. Kids need to have lots of different opportunities to experience a variety of things. What you originally think may be their talent could be something they are good at, but not necessarily their passion. So, let them try ice skating, even if you groan about it. If that's where their talent lies, it will grow. If not, they'll be excited to try something new, but they'll get to walk away from ice skating knowing they had the opportunity to try. And if you are a teacher, remember you could be teaching the next Einstein. So, grow their talents and, more importantly, ignite the passion within your students to pursue their dreams. That will make an impact on your student that will reach far beyond the year you teach them.