DO WE KNOW ABOUT OURSELVES?

Abilities, Talents, Skills, Expertise, and Proficiency

All of us have a few exceptional skills.

But sometimes they do not get manifested, simply because, we do not know we possess them.

Should our skills stay hidden? Or should we manifest them?

This website is for exceptional people. Irrespective of what abilities you have, and what talents you are born with, you can still acquire, practice, and manifest certain exceptional skills necessary for your profession. Consequently, your expertise will increase and you become proficient in what you do.

Skills are the pivot on which you balance your personal, social, and professional life.

So, let us move towards the adventure of exploring our exceptional skills.

Have you tried over and again only to fail in something?

The answer to lack of success lies here.

Whether you are competing in Public Service Commission examinations like IAS, or you are playing a tennis match, you need some exceptional skills to succeed. You have come here because you have the abilities and talents. But until you convert these abilities and talents into skills, you may continue to attempt over and again.

Though the dictionaries do not distinguish too much between these words, technically, they have their separate meanings. Especially when they are viewed as concepts.

Abilities

Abilities are inherent potentials to engage in a specific task. For instance, the ability to talk, walk, sing, dance, run, jump, read, write, etc.

However, despite being inherent, one has to learn these tasks to manifest the abilities.

Though it is falsely assumed that these abilities are automatically present in us, they do not manifest until they are learned.

Psychological literature abounds with cases where children reared by wolves (called feral children) do not know how to talk, walk, dress, eat with hands, etc. These children learn what they observe. They imitate the wolves.

Talents

Another set of inherent abilities is known as talents. A talented person can perform a task with precision, with or without training or practice. Examples of talents are public speaking, walking and running fast, singing, composing, dancing, etc.

We have heard of many musicians who were able to succeed and become great leaders, without formal musical training.

Similarly, some people have a talent for public speaking, they can engage in it, without even formal schooling.

Here too, exposure to the talent and a minimal amount of self-learning is essential.

Skills

In a competitive world, where you need to compete with many people with similar abilities or talents, just having abilities or talents are not enough. You need to excel in your performance.

To achieve that the abilities and talents need to be converted into skills.

For instance, all of us have to ability to walk. However, this doesn’t mean that all of us may be able to climb a mountain. Or let us take another example. All of us know how to use a knife to cut a vegetable. However, this doesn’t necessitate that we all can become surgeons.

So, a skill needs more than ability or talent. It needs systematic training and practice.

All skills have to be acquired through trial and error learning only. No shortcuts.

Expertise

Expertise involves a higher level of practice, training, or experience. An expert has either a specialized skill or knowledge or an advanced level of training or experience.

Proficiency

An even greater amount of expertise, combined with experience is reflected in proficiency.

Success

Let us come back to our original question.

We fail because we do not convert our abilities and talents into skills.

Expertise and proficiency come over some time, but for youngsters, the most important prerequisite is a set of skills that are relevant for the job.

These skills are rarely measured and hence remain largely as an unknown entity.

The training provided is neither systematic nor goal-oriented, and hence no one has an idea of what has been learned.

The solution lies in understanding the trial and error learning as well as how to practice.

SYSTEMATIC LEARNING

Skill Learning appears difficult because of certain preconceived notions.

Remove these myths, and you can learn as many new skills as you wish.

So, instead of talking about myths, let us consider certain facts about Skill Learning.

• It just takes a few seconds to acquire new learning
• You don’t need a separate time for learning skills (We keep learning all the time)
• All Skills should be learned by Trial and Error Method
• There is no alternative to self-learning
• Repetition is not the same thing as Practice
• Once Skills are acquired, we don’t need to bother about them

Let us consider each one of them.

It just takes a few seconds to acquire new learning

Any change in thinking, feeling, perception, or action is called learning. Suppose you come across a new word. The word had no meaning to you just a few seconds ago. The moment you have got the meaning of the word, your learning has occurred.

You don’t need a separate time for learning skills (We keep learning all the time)

We are perenially exposed to some learning or the other all the time. You meet a stranger, and within seconds, you know the name of the person and many more details about the person. This has changed your thinking and perception of that person.

All Skills should be learned by Trial and Error Method

Unlike other learning, Skill Learning takes place through the Trial and Error method. You learn from your mistakes. The more mistakes you correct, the easier and faster you learn the skill.

Why Skill Learning becomes difficult is because those who are training us don’t allow us to make mistakes. They coach us saying that we should do it correctly the first time. This is why we cannot identify the errors we have committed and we are thereby unable to correct them.

There is no alternative to self-learning

Skills have to be learned by someone in a systematic manner, and a trainer or a coach can only guide the learner and provide the basis for the learning to be systematic. They can even help by pointing out the errors but this is looked down upon in the modern context.

Repetition is not the same thing as Practice

The learner has to keep up the practice by eliminating as many errors as possible in every attempt. In repetition, you do not identify the errors whereas during practice your major focus is to identify mistakes.

Once Skills are acquired, we don’t need to bother about them

The practice has to go on until there are zero errors, consecutively twice. Once this happens, the corresponding skill is relegated to an auto-pilot mode and becomes a part of a series of automatic behavior. That is when they say that you have perfected the skill. You don’t have to bother about it because it has become a part of you.

Skill Learning

• 1.      Make New Connections
• 2.      Choose what you Learn
• 3.      Persist with Modified Behavior
• 4.      Depend on Yourself
• 5.      Eliminate Errors
• 6.      Sustain Automatic Modality

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