Development space depends on talent and training

Virtually every person can run, but some are much better at it than others. And this is actually true for all things in our lives. One person becomes a professor and the other works on an assembly line. One speaks seven languages and the other is illiterate. One gets along with people easily and the other is autistic. Everyone can do everything, but not all can do it equally well.

Whether you can do something depends mainly on talent and training. If you are born with the talent to be able to run hard, then running comes easier to you than those who were not born with that talent. If you train hard to be able to speak many languages, then you can express yourself better in different languages than those who do not train. Talent is innate and you can train yourself.

However, what we must realize is that training is in fact also a talent. After all, why doesn’t everyone go to college, assuming that virtually everyone has the same volume of brain. I’m not saying we should all go to college, but everyone could be capable of doing so. But some people feel like training and others don’t.

Feeling like something can be called a talent. Being able to learn can be called a talent. Being curious and eager to learn can be called a talent. Of course you can train yourself to (better) use these talents. But the fact remains that we are born with our own specific set of qualities, talents, which largely determine how we go about our lives.

To wake up

When we look around us, we regularly find that others are not awake. Those others do not see what we do see. We are aware and those others are not. The funny thing is that those others experience the same thing when they look at us. Who says we are right? Maybe we are wrong and we are not awake (enough). It depends on which angle you are looking from.

But if being able to see from multiple perspectives is an art, then that is also a talent. Maybe you don’t feel like making an effort to explore multiple angles at all. You can argue that you can make sense, but that is highly questionable. If it were that simple, we as humanity would be well advanced in civilization by now.

We look for explanations why others are not awake, why others do not see what we see. To us, after all, it is so obvious. If those others knew what we know, they would be on our side in no time. It is not difficult for these others to absorb our knowledge, but they do not do it. We do, or at least we say we do.

Psychologists write books on cognitive dissonance. We know the power of peer pressure. Religions and cults can determine our thinking. Governments have elevated propaganda to an art. There are all sorts of explanations about why people don’t wake up. But can people who are asleep wake themselves up? And what if they were not born with that talent?

Wanting to wake up

Does everyone want to wake up? Can everyone want to wake up? Someone may want to wake up, but can that person. If everyone can do everything, then waking up must be among the possibilities. If someone has little talent for waking up, then with training that person should still be able to come a long way. Will someone then train? Can that person then train?

How much effort do you make to help another person when that person does not want to? Why do you put so much effort into waking up another person when they themselves don’t want to? How much effort do you put into waking yourself up? Are you yourself open to becoming more awake and can you be extremely critical of yourself in doing so? Do you understand that you yourself are probably not fully awake?

If one of you can already run well and the other is just starting out, you can choose to train separately but you can also train together. It takes effort for both, but is the only way to move forward together. It is the challenge for all wakes. And because everyone wakes (and sleeps) in their own way, it is a challenge for everyone.

The most important thing is to realize that waking up is its own process that you enter into for yourself and not to wake others up. It is true that you can wake up together, but each in their own way and at their own pace. This is not about politicians, directors or journalists. It is about ordinary people, because those are the ones who are allowed to wake up.

Nico Cost