Talent can be frustrating

You may have heard so many things about talented people. It is always very easy to talk about talented people. More often than not we also appreciate the talent that they have. You may have read a book named 'talent is not enough(I think it was written by John Maxwell). That is stll understandable but how can a talent be frustrating?

I was watching a cricket match recently(now that is not surprising). In came rohit Sharma and the commentator Ravi Shastri said, here comes a very talented Rohit Sharma who is frustrating the whole india. And I thought wait a minute! What is he talking about? Explaining his comments Mr. Shastri said that he is very talented and gets the starts while batting but more often than not he gets out which does not justify his talent as a batsman.

On thinking about it I felt that talented people can frustrate us more than who we believe are less talented. There is also a theory which says everyone is talented but let's just not get into that debate for now. Look at the people around you and ask yourself who frustrates you more. Look at your collegues, your friends, your students(that has to come me being teacher:)), your children, your neighbours, sportsmen, actors etc. Think about all of them.

Do we get frustrated when sachin tendulkar gets out before making a hundred? Invariably the answer would be yes. On the contrary we would not get frustrated when akash chopra(for those who don't know him he used to open the inning or India) gets out we don't feel the same way.

Now think about your children(of course if you are a parent) or students. You (at least I) tend to get frustrate more when a talented student doesn't perform. The reason? Because he is very talented yet performed badly. Comparatively a dull or not so talented student's performance doesn't frustrate us. The reason is very simple because we expect more from the talented lot than the rest.

I believe that we have a responsibility as a parents or teachers towards them. I think we should be equally patient with them. Specially the young talented youths. By being patient I don't propose to stop motivating them or not advising them. By being patient I mean to change our approach towards them.

I was watching a cricket show (again) and siddhu (who iritates me the most) said something really interesting. He said that a great coach makes the player believes in himself. That statement made an instant impact on me. Although the statement was a bit if a cleshe it got me thinking.

By looking at it from a teaching perspective, I believe that sometimes students are not aware of the fact that they are talented and can achieve or perform much better than what they have in the past. As a teacher or a parent, we don't realize that then we cannot do our job properly, what is my job if all my students perform as they are expected. In that case I might as well change the profession(sorry parents you don't have that option:)).

I think from that perspective my first job is to make those students realize that they are not all that useless as they think. Before applying any other methods on them I have to make them believe that yes they can do this. I have to make them realize that the goals that they believe unattainable are very much attainable and possible. If we can do that I think half of the job is done.

Enough from me on this topic, I know my fellow teachers along with some parents do follow this blog. I sincerely ask them for their opinions and comments on this topic.

Please ignore some spelling mistakes as I have typed this blog from my phone:).