Talent v. Skill

Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is the difference between talent and skill.  Maybe when you hear the words talent and skill, you think they relate to the same thing.  It is true that they both usually refer to someone's abilities, but let me explain how I'm defining these words, and why I think it's an important distinction.

Talent is the natural, inherent ability to do something.  When you think of what you're good at, this is probably one of the first things that pops into your head, because it's just something that comes naturally to you.

Skill, on the other hand, is a learned ability.  People typically become skilled in an area through lots of great practice and hard work.  The more you practice, the more skilled you become.

A talented chef and a skilled chef can both make extraordinary culinary creations, but the skilled chef will have to try a lot harder to make something great.  Maybe the talented chef can just wing it when they're creating a five course meal, whereas the skilled chef will have to follow the directions exactly.  Both will probably create an amazing meal, but the way they get there will be different.

It's great to have both a lot of talent and a lot of skills, but I think there is something so rewarding about using your natural born talents.  When you combine a lot of hard work and practice with your natural talents, I think you can reach a higher height than if you just rely on your skills.  It just feels amazing.

Let me give you an example.  When I was starting high school, I decided to try out for the soccer team.  Honestly, I don't know why I chose soccer, except that it seemed like that's just what everyone did.  My high school soccer team was one of the best in the state and highly competitive.  As part of try outs, we had to run 2 miles in 15 minutes.  I practiced all summer, but I was awful and I couldn't run that fast.  It was miserable.  At the end of the week, I didn't make the team, so I went to the volleyball try outs.  I did so much better there and it was just easy and fun, even though I hadn't been practicing volleyball all summer.  Except volleyball had also been having try outs for several days, and I'd missed the first few days.  At the end of the try outs, the coaches came up to me and said that I was really good and if I'd been there the whole time, I would have made the team, but it wasn't fair to all the other kids who were there the whole time.

How does this apply to my situation now?  That desire to follow my own path, using my own talents and not the skills that everyone else has or thinks I should have, is one of the reasons why I'm transitioning away from a legal practice into writing instead.  Was I a skilled attorney?  Yes, absolutely.  I worked hard to be as good as I was.  And some parts of it I really enjoyed- working with my clients, deciphering and understanding complex areas of the law, having a sense of accomplishment.  But did it come naturally to me?  No, it was definitely a foreign experience.  Trying to protect my clients' interests by anticipating all the ways other people were trying to hurt me or my client, working in the adversarial system where only one side can win.  I remember describing it as though I'd been trying to fit myself into this dress that just wasn't quite a good fit.  It was a beautiful dress, and stylish, but it wasn't exactly me.  Part of it was, but not entirely.  Maybe some people don't mind squeezing themselves into something a little unnatural, but I long for something different.  I want to be able to inherently trust people, to work in a world where people are trying to build each other up, where I use my talents to do something amazing.  I believe that if I follow my natural talents, something incredible will happen.