These days I don’t know why many friends have spoken an encouraging word to me. They told me that I am kind of multi-talented person. But, at the same time I didn’t have any ideas on how I should responded to this compliment. Should I be happy and thankful? Should I disagree with their opinions? Should I keep silent and just smile? I am not sure if being multi-talented does really matter in life.
Tonight, on my way back to dormitory I tried to figure out: is that true I am a multi-talented person? Recalling my pasts, I started to confirm my friends’ compliment. Suddenly, I began to list my abilities in some fields:
- Music: singing, piano, guitar, drum.
- Sports: soccer, badminton, swimming, table-tennis, gymming.
- Arts: drawing, painting, photography.
- Others: writing, poetry-reading, public speaking.
Even though I am not mastering all that above-mentioned skills, at least I am able to do those stuff. In fact, the above list is not based on my subjective opinion, but it came into my mind based on other people’s thinking about me. Moreover, I am a Chemical Engineer who had successfully finished the study on basic sciences: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. I have also learned three international languages: English, Chinese, and Korean in addition to my own native language, Bahasa Indonesia.
Well, I am writing this story not to boast myself. Here is my point: honestly, being a multi-talented person is one of my life’s greatest struggle! Yet I know there are a lot of people who are in the same situation with me now. They are born with multiple gifts. Even there are surely many people who are far more talented than me. I am writing this story for them, to share my experiences that might be useful and hopefully inspiring. This story is also dedicated to people who often think they are nothing or can only do very little things in life, and also to people who often feel jealous or insecure with other people who can do what they can’t do. To them I would say: STOP MAKING COMPARISON in your mind!
First of all, let me say this: being a multi-talented person is not a “WOW” thing. It is an ordinary thing, just like being a normal person. Receiving one, two, or multi-talents is not important. It is how you treat the talents that really matters. Your attitude and responsibility towards your talents reflected who you are more than how many talents you’ve got. Let me explain the struggles of being a multi-talented person (based on my personal experiences):
Trap of selfishness (arrogancy and greediness)
A multi-talented person tends to think he is superior to others and can do a lot of things by himself without someone’s help. Often he feels so proud of himself. Consequently, he often underestimates or neglects others, especially ‘the weaker’. He is almost never satisfied with his accomplishments. He believes that he can achieve more, more, and more.
Trap of distracted life
Due to a lot of interests and abilities in many fields, a multi-talented person tends to be distracted in setting his own goals. He is often confused in determining the best field where he can fully focus on. The lack of focus will surely slow down his works.
Trap of compliance (people pleaser)
Many people may admire a multi-talented person. Being loved and cared by others is wonderful, of course. But for him, it can be dangerous as well because he feels the burden to always show his best in order to meet others’ expectation and make everyone happy.
Conclusion:
Multi-talented can be both good and bad. It can both benefit and endanger us. It is not essential whether we have just one or more than one talents. What really matters is to be thankful for everything we have and be faithful in developing our talents.
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
(Luke 12:48)
Pearls of Mind 
OMG I’m 16 and I have similar situation…
Music: singing, piano, guitar, song writing
Sports: badminton, swimming
Arts:Chinese Dance and ballet. (and I like drawing comics lol)
Others: I speak 3 languages better than people my age.
Recently, I found that my friends are getting jealous! I feel really bad…Do you face that same problem?
gwyneth x
my kind of problem,hi it’s Sandip from India i m too facing similar problem of setting up goal for my future.My fields are
education: since childhood i stood first in almost every batch, currently doing engineering
sports: cricket, football,basketball,volleyball,athletics etc
art: sketching potraits, 3d sketching etc
apart than these i can sing, compose music, dance,mimic, solve puzzles, perform many small tricks like juggling, yoga, etc
can speak or understand nearly 4 indian languages plus english..
still confused
you are totally my mind, we both have same mind
I never wanted to be a Renaissance always I wanted to be one field master but I don’t know how I became and I am very happy very lucky , and also I awarded for Renaissance personality by the President of India.
But all above the same situations with me, I really thanks for such a wonder god gift which I got but still I feel that be polymath is not easy.
Its been a real struggle for me honestly. I had a number of professional Identity, just too many interest and Its so draining. I really need to focus on one thing.
Thank you very much for sharing, Its very useful.
Wow.. This is just, too accurate :0 I couldn’t believe we share the same struggles as multi-talented people..!
I often feel proud of myself, and think I’m superior to others.. And I thought this pride came from nothing.. That’s not the only thing; I oftenly get so greedy so then I always try to achieve more and more knowledge and skills, even if I’ve to avoid some friends who try to stop me from improving (I bet all of you know how it feels, don’t you)
Due to a lot of interests and abilities, I often feel confused with planning for my goals.. I’m fine both in dancing, in playing a bass guitar and in doing Taekwondo.. But besides those, I also am interested in programming (since I learnt stuffs like BASIC & C++ when I was younger), in archery (have to stop because there’s no archery training course in my town), in speaking other languages, besides indonesian and english, like mandarin, japanese, spanish, and ASL (but language is hard to be mastered if you’re not living in a place where it’s regularly spoken), in computer designing, and etc. So, finally, to apply a stronger focus on less things, I decided to focus on dancing, on playing a bass guitar, and on doing Taekwondo X’D
Pleasing other people is the thing I always do..! I hate disappointing people, so sometimes when they ask me things which I lack learning, I’ll learn those things first to keep people having a high expectation on me 😀
But however, this is some kind of bad behavior, so I’ve been training myself to stop being proud of myself… Being multi-talented is surely nice, and more of it, I feel like it’s a must for me… But however, I need to stop being greedy
Its been a real struggle for me honestly. I had a number of professional Identity, just too many interest and Its so draining. I really need to focus on one thing.
Thank you very much for sharing, Its very useful.
Its been a real struggle for me honestly. I had a number of professional Identity, just too many interest and Its so draining. I really need to focus on one thing.
Thank you very much for sharing, Its very useful.
Thats right.. being multi talented sometimes lead us to nowhere. I do painting, singing, play guitar, Piano,dancing, modelling, graphic design, acting, writing novels, write songs, photography. And so many other things I interested.. however, I still have no idea what to do in my life.
This resonated with me, too. I have a tendency to bounce around from one thing to the next (I suppose I’m attracted to the discovery of a new talent and keep building it until I bore of it), but learning that I am so capable at so many things is what has given me confidence, where I had little before. So yes, it’s both a blessing and a curse. Like you mentioned in your post, I don’t like to rely on other people and definitely hold the attitude that I can do it by myself, nor do I trust people to get the job right, so I usually hate working with others.
You know, I’ve often felt that talent has less to do with some engrained gift and more to do with attitude. I’m sure others can relate, but for me, the reason I succeed at the things is because I know the only barrier I have to overcome is lack of knowledge and practice. People so often complain about not being good at something before they’ve even put effort into learning it and developing a skill.
Great post.
Same as me, my biggest struggle has always been choosing one thing to stick with, but this multitalent thing doesn’t let me to choose! There’s a metaphor for people like me ” someone who knows/does everything but knows/does nothing, it’s terrifying! I can’t even choose what major to study, this is terrible, i would have preferred to be extra in one subject than this, doing everything yet belonging to nowhere …
You are a natural creator, and you will create your own life form. This shows that the existing social forms cannot satisfy you. You are far more than most workers who have passed mandatory training. Maybe you will create a new social form. , A complete comprehensive possibility. God’s gift is not single, look at the beautiful universe:)