Cole Mize – Words of Encouragement – Effort Trumps Talent

Talent is just a landmark of where you currently are but effort is the driving force of where you are headed.

Do you ever feel like throwing in the towel?

Life is dynamic and some days you feel like you are on top of the world and others you feel like you are beneath the surface. One thing that we as humans always need is food, water & encouragement. At times I will find myself comparing me to others that are successful & more skilled than me in certain areas and I will Immediately be discouraged. Discouraged with the thoughts of inadequacy that seem to temporarily paralyze my ambition to keep striving toward my goals. Recently I began to think about success in general and something became crystal clear to me, effort trumps talent!

How do you figure that? 

You may be wondering, “what the heck are you talking about?”. What I mean is this, yeah you may not be the most skilled person in the world at what you do. You may not consider yourself a “natural”  at your craft or you may feel like it takes you longer to improve & it seems you have to work harder than others. Well i’m here to tell you some good news. No matter how talented you are, if you do not put fourth sincere effort then you will not succeed. Skill is not the “be all end all”, there is much more to it than that. I’m not saying that skill is not important but rather that what’s most important is that you have a strong work ethic. As long as you stay consistent and continue to put forth a sincere effort at your craft you will succeed.

What is success?

Ones definition of success is subjective but I think we all can agree on what failure is. When I picture something succeeding I think of movement, growth & flourishing. When I imagine something failing I think of stagnation, decay & giving up. So with all that being said I would just like to say this. If there is something you really have a passion for doing, don’t settle for being mediocre at it but rather devote the time and invest in the resources that will cause you to grow. Talent is just a landmark of where you currently are but effort is the driving force of where you are headed.