What exactly is talent?

this a fair question. "Talent" is a term you hear bandied about in a variety of contexts. It's used constantly in reference to celebrities: in show business, performers are often referred to as "the talent"; sports analysts will talk about an outstanding athlete's "raw talent." Grade-school kids impress audiences full of parents at talent shows, while the existence of talent agencies and talent brokers implies that talent is a rarefied commodity, something to be bought and sold.

But though the word is common, the concept remains elusive -- it lacks substance, specificity. Perhaps that's part of the reason so many people have trouble applying it to themselves personally.

Carefully examining and refining the concept of talent may make it easier for you to recognize it in yourself and others, in order to make the most of it in your daily life. What is it, for example, that distinguishes talent from related -- but very different -- concepts, such as competency or style?

Let's start with Webster's definition of talent as "any natural ability or power." Such a broad description may not seem like much to go on, but it includes a word that is central to Gallup's perspective on talent: natural.

Talent reflects how you're hard-wired. That's what sets the concept apart from that of knowledge or skills. Talent dictates your moment-by-moment reactions to your environment -- there's an instinctiveness, an immediacy implied. Talent results in consistently recurring patterns of thought or behavior. To deviate from those patterns requires conscious effort, and such deviations are difficult to sustain.

Knowledge and skills, on the other hand, imply learned behavior, actions that require more active cognitive processing. What you know reveals more about your experiences and education than about who you are at the core. Behavior derived from knowledge and skills can be changed far more easily than talent-based behavior, as new information subordinates old in an individual's consciousness.
Talent can't be subordinated. It's constant and enduring. That's what makes it talent. Understanding the difference between the two sources of behavior changes everything.

All this may seem like common sense, but you'd be amazed at how often the promise of talent is cast aside in the name of "well roundedness." Many people think that the more they can diversify their base of knowledge and skills, the more secure their future will become. Gallup's research has confirmed that the opposite is more likely to be the case: The more time and effort spent in areas of non-talent, the less opportunity one has to utilize and refine one's talents -- and therefore the more likely one is to become mired in mediocrity.

It's human nature to covet what we don't have. In the case of material things, that yearning can be entirely healthy, because it's often possible to go out and get those things. But when it comes to talent, trying to attain what isn't there to begin with is a lost cause.