Paul Poulton considers what it takes to discover our talents and reach our potential

Paul Poulton

There are a couple of magazines hanging around my house, one aimed at men the other for women. The man's magazine tells me boldly on its front cover that I can get, 'Fit & Toned Fast! Gains Guaranteed!' The women's publication has similar 'fast-gain' statements on its cover, 'Feel Better Than Ever. More Energy. A Great Memory. No Bad Habits.' It sounds good; no bad habits eh! I think I will read this article and rid myself of all my annoying tendencies; people will surely like me more; plus I get more energy and what was the other thing? Oh yes, a great memory.

The front covers' appeal to our desire to self-improve and magazines are sold often on the strength of their covers. When I actually read the article in the women's magazine, (I made sure no-one was around to see me), I found out that spending too much time on the couch isn't good for me and that 90% of us don't take the recommended 30 minutes of exercise five days a week. Huh, this isn't turning out to be such a quick-fire solution as I first thought it would be. Happily, I'm in the 10% on this one. I do want to be fit and it's never been a problem for me to go out for a run or cycle ride or visit the gym.

I do have some friends who are in the 90% though. They want to be fit, but don't have the drive that is needed. However there are other areas in which they excel and I'm well below par; arithmetic for instance. When I'm in a group of people and someone says, 'If we charge £4.25 for the entrance fee and say we get 75 people attend the gig, how much is that in total?' I quickly glance around; no-one is going for their calculator, so I join in the thoughtful looks, I roll my eyes upward to the right and then to the left, knowing that any second someone will shout out the correct answer and sure enough someone always does. It never seems to matter how hard the mathematical question is, there is always someone there who seems to know the answer. Whether the answer is correct or not is another matter, but no-one seems to query it; either everyone is in the same boat as me or the answer is the right one.

We can't all be good at everything, but it's possible that there are latent forces within us that we don't even know about. A problem arises when laziness grips us and we don't even bother to find out what we could shine at.

There are many warnings, (some of them quite funny), in the book of Proverbs about laziness, 'The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth!' Laziness is an insidious vice that creeps up on us. We can see it being learned in our earliest years. The piano lessons are too hard; the student wants to play on his x-box rather than repeat the piano exercises his teacher has given him, so he puts little or no effort into his piano practice. Eventually his parents stop encouraging him to practice and stop his piano lessons. The boy is learning the trait of acquiescence, when he should really be learning the value of persistence. The characteristic of surrendering to the path of least resistance is something that can follow him into adult life, when it becomes part of his character.

When we are young it's good and important to learn how to overcome obstacles, because we will face many on our journey through life. Lessons in diligence and determination learned at a young age prepare us for work that will help change the world.

We are all gifted in someway. We all have talents, some of which are hidden and sometimes they are hidden even to those who possess them, because apathy may have stopped them finding out exactly what it is that they are good at. I know I will never be an accountant with my poor grasp of maths, but a few years ago I did buy a Brain Training game for mathematics and I have improved quite a lot. However, I can play guitar and write songs and I know that if I want to reach my potential as a guitar player I have to commit to practising daily.

When I was learning to play guitar I remember someone telling me that Led Zeppelin's guitar player Jimmy Page practiced for eight hours a day. I also remember reading that when the famous guitarist Eric Clapton was younger he didn't go out with his teenage mates because he was stuck at home in his bedroom practising. Staying sharp on an instrument requires practice; there are no short-cuts. The legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz was known for his demanding practice schedule. He is reputed to have said that, 'If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don't practice for three days, the world knows it.'

The fact is there are no quick fixes for us to reach our potential, because our potential is a lot bigger than we realise; but we all have one and it's there to be reached in each one of us.