Tag / real skills

by Nathan Coumbe

I don’t like the word “talent”

“Talent” is something you’re born with… It’s innate, unchanging, and implies that if you don’t already have it, you never will.

“Skill” is a more accurate term. Skills can be learned, and most everything we consider to be talents are actually skills.

  • Musical abilities
  • Public speaking
  • Leadership
  • Writing
  • Painting
  • Inventing
  • Salesmanship
  • Teaching

People aren’t born to do these things. They try them out and persevere through the poor quality and failed early efforts until they get better.

Calling a musician “talented” might actually be an insult. Why?

Because it dismisses all the hard work they put in to develop the skill of musicianship.

by Nathan Coumbe

Build integrity like a muscle

Integrity simply means keeping promises you make—both to yourself and others. 

It’s almost like a muscle, something that must be stretched and strained so that it can grow bigger and stronger over time. 

The best way to develop integrity is to start making tiny promises to yourself, then follow through with them. 

Every time you schedule or write down a task…

  • Writing a blog post
  • Taking a 20-minute walk
  • Eating a serving of vegetables with dinner

…you’re giving yourself the potential to build your integrity muscle. 

Then, when you follow through on those tiny commitments, your sense of integrity gets stronger. 

Soon you’ll be able to make bigger and bigger promises to yourself and others.

But most importantly, you’ll have trained yourself to follow through. 

That’s how you become a person of integrity: one tiny promise at a time.

What’s one small thing can you promise yourself today?