We've been watching a
lot of America's Got Talent in my house, and although much of it makes me
somewhat nauseous (there was a professional regurgitator on the last episode -
I didn’t even know that is officially something you can be since spell check
can't even seem to figure it out…), the level of dedication it takes to achieve
success in your chosen talent is inspiring to watch. As we watched last
weekend, my 2 older children commented on what they were seeing - my
12-year-old saying things like "His parent must be a musician/diver/dancer",
or "That level of talent is so rare". My 9-year-old says things
like "How much do you think they had to practice?" And (for the
younger talent) "Do you think they have time to go to regular school
too?"
This is so who they
are - the older off the charts book smart, has a nearly eidetic memory, and
doesn't have to work very hard to do really well in school. The younger
is emotionally intelligent, wildly creative and artistic, and has spent his
life constantly trying to "live up" to his older brother. I'll
give you one guess which one is the harder worker. And as much as this
dynamic makes me cringe sometimes as a parent, I also recognize that in terms
of qualities that will ensure success, the one who knows how to work really
hard to get what he wants (even if it happens to be approval) will always come
out ahead. He knows how hard he has to work to be a rainmaker.
In researching the
traits most conducive to success in a given field I found numerous studies that
followed people that are leaders and innovators in their chosen field, the
elite “achievers”. Intelligence and talent only shows up in a couple of these
studies, and never at the top of the list. The leading qualities that the most
successful people in the world have are dedication, deliberate practice,
self-discipline, perseverance, conscientiousness, and passion. Blogger Raymond T.
Hightower, president of WisdomGroup, summarizes a study in Malcolm
Gladwell's book Outliers: “In the early 1990s, a team of psychologists in
Berlin, Germany studied violin students. All of the subjects were asked this
question: “Over the course of your entire career, ever since you first picked
up the violin, how many hours have you practiced?” By age twenty, the elite
performers averaged more than 10,000 hours of practice each, while the less
able performers had only 4,000 hours of practice.” To quote Thomas Edison: “Genius
is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
In yoga, we call this
quality tapas. One of the definitions of tapas is “discipline”. It’s the
choice you make every day to get on the mat, to commit again and again and
again to your practice. It's the discipline of saying no to late nights
out because you want to get up early and meditate. It's what gets you on
the mat after a long day when a glass of wine and mindless TV is so much
easier. It's the "no excuses" principle. Tapas is also related to heat or fire. It’s the heat that
builds by doing over and over until you get it right, in spite of frustration,
roadblocks, challenges. It's the fire that stokes your passion to pursue a single-minded
uplifting goal, that gets you back up after falling down again and again.
One fascinating point
of the study referenced in Outliers: No “naturally gifted” performers emerged.
If natural talent had played a role, we would expect some of the “naturals” to
float to the top of the elite level with fewer practice hours than everyone
else. But the data showed otherwise. The psychologists found a direct
statistical relationship between hours of practice and achievement. No shortcuts.
No naturals.
What is natural or
innate is the impetus of the desire, the passion for whatever it is you are
passionate about which arises from a place deep inside yourself. Tantric
scripture tells us that any thought you have, any desire for greatness flows
into you from the One Source of Being. It's not natural talent that
starts us on a particular path, but the will of the Divine to experience life
through you as you. Whatever you want to achieve in your life is the same as what
the Universe wants for you. Tapas is
the burning desire to connect to your highest, it is the heat of
transformation. It's the passion in your heart to live to your fullest. Heat
facilitates your evolution by burning away your self-limiting patterns and
false identities. When these "impurities" are burned away, your
authentic radiance shines through.
Last week we talked
about the power of the Shakti, how we are innately powerful beings and have the
choice to use that power on our own behalf in ways that lift us and those
around us up, or otherwise. In the Hindu myths, the demons don’t get rewarded
by doing “good” or “evil” – they become powerful because they practice tapas – they are single minded in their
focus. Nature rewards success. Danny Arguetty says: “We are free beings living
in a stream of potentiality – how we participate in the world, make connections
and align our intentionality allows us to harness this power to either build or
destroy.”
So that’s the good
news and the bad news. You are immensely
powerful. You can partner with the Shakti to create whatever it is you want for
yourself. But you have to do it. During this challenging week when I have
found it particularly easy to feel helpless, remember that your actions
matter. Your tapas can move you in whatever direction you choose as long as you
are willing to put the time in, to dedicate yourself fully to what you are
passionate about. And when others are using their own power – the same power
you have - to move things in a direction you aren’t happy about it’s all the
more important to do just that. May the light of awareness shine through all of
us, and may our dedicated practice help shift the world around us in the
direction we wish to see it move in.
