Talent is a Pursued Interest

#motivation

I often find myself talking to others (and reminding myself!) about how to get better at doing things. Inevitably, I bring up the following quote from Bob Ross:

Talent is a pursued interest.

I love this quote because it's succinct and gets to the crux of the issue: You must pursue something in order to get better, and you should be interested in that pursuit.

What we think of as "talent" is a manifested interest in a thing. Interest results in pursuit, and pursuit results in improvement.

The "interest" can come from a couple angles: You might be inherently interested in the activity, or you might be interested in the end result and disciplined enough to apply pursuit.

Here's the quote in context:

One of the most interesting things that we see as we run across the country teaching this fantastic method is people continually say "I can't draw a straight line. I don't have the talent, Bob, to do what you're doing".

That's baloney.

Talent is a pursued interest.

In other words, anything that you're willing to practice, you can do. And this is no exception.

But it's like driving a car. At first it's a little difficult. You have to learn how to make your hands and your foots [sic] work together.

Same thing, and that's what we're trying to teach you here, is the technique.

Once you have the technique down, all you need is a dream in your heart and the desire to put it on canvas.

— Bob Ross