Self-Actualization

Natural Ability And Passion

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There are people who are passionate about an endeavor but don’t have much natural ability in it and there are people who have a lot of natural ability in an endeavor but aren’t very passionate about it. The key for your happiness and success is to find, through trial and error, an area of interest where you’re passionate and have natural ability.

We always talk about isolating potentialities, not isolating potential, and this is because all of us have many natural abilities waiting to be mined and polished. The problem is that most of us don’t take the time to explore these various hidden potentialities, either because we don’t know they exist or because of super ego tabus that make us think they’re not right for us.

The nature of self-actualization means eventually consciously deciding to let various possible paths fall to the wayside in order to focus the balance of our time and energy on the one path we do choose. A path where passion and natural ability combine gives us the best opportunity to unfold who and what we are. Many potentialities will remain undeveloped, like seeds that fertilize but aren’t given the full opportunity to grow, and that’s okay as long as we remain the gardeners rather than allowing anonymous authority or other more visible forms of authority determine what we do.

If we’re good at something but we’re not passionate about it we’ll end up being unhappy and almost definitely end up failing too and if we’re passionate about something but aren’t very good at it we’ll end up being unhappy and almost definitely end up failing too. But if we find something in which we do have natural ability and then take the time to water those seeds, those potentialities, and find that the passion is there then we have a chance. We feel drawn forward to keep unfolding that natural talent, to give everything we have to the endeavor, and over the weeks, months, and years that road becomes the road of self-actualization, a road that ends up positively impacting every sphere of life.