When Talent Doesn't Work Hard...

Here's a cool little saying: "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." To some of you, that's probably something new to hear, but most of you have probably heard it some... if not a lot. Well, I've heard that a lot from my older brother when he's speaking about playing football. It made sense in the context that he said it in, but I never thought it would apply to me. Oh how wrong I was.

Story time!!!!! And yes. . . We are FINALLY back to a musically related topic.

So if you were to talk about Currans to any person that knows anybody in my family well, you probably know that we are a very musically talented family. Not bragging, but that's what people say. Between singing, piano, guitar, and violin playing, we're like a mini band!

Well, every Wednesday we travel a half hour to our piano teacher's house, where we learn how much our practice from the previous week payed off. If we diligently drilled our pieces and fell in love with what we were doing more and more, our teacher would praise us, correct any minor details, and continue to teach the piece. If, however, we did not do what she had requested as far as practice was concerned, she would be calm and gracious with us, but deep inside, we knew we had disappointed her and that left us feeling ashamed for squandering the week.

Well, this past summer, our teacher assigned my sister and me a lovely duet: Pachebel's Canon. Great song, right? Graceful, sweet, sometimes reflective, and generally well known among all audiences. Even in all that, though, it's a very intricate piece. One mistake and you blow the entire thing. That's why practice on it is so important.

Anyway! My sister received the easier, bottom-of-the-piano part while I had the part with all the thirty second notes that mainly compose the piece.

I think some of you might know where I'm going with this. . . ;)

Well, I didn't practice much. I thought, "I've got all this talent. The piece will just come together perfectly anyway, so why bother spending that extra hour of practice at the piano when I could be working on school or taking a break?"

Does anyone get the sense that something bad is about to happen?

Mid-November, I went into my teacher's studio and heard her say, "I want to see if you can perform Pachebel's Canon for the Christmas Eve service."

. . . o.O

Wait, what?! Ummm..... so yeah. That was great news. The one song I hadn't practiced for would be played on Christmas Eve. Fabulous. Just fabulous.

Instantly, I began to work super hard on my part. I really like the song, so it wasn't like I didn't have that motivation. But there was a lot of work to be done... and then consider the want for a break... yeah... I buckled down and worked hard, but I still had moments when I would take a break over the work on the piano.

Fast forward to two weeks before Christmas Eve. In my teacher's studio. Performing Pachebel with my sister. . . Three more measures... aaaannnnndddd DONE. Phew!!!

"It needs a lot of work. Especially the ending. I'm not sure if this will be okay for the Christmas Eve service."

Excuse me?! Ummm.... ok.... calm down, Abigail, and listen to what she has to say.

Needless to say, I walked back to the van feeling pretty low. I hadn't worked as well as I should have, but I had worked hard. And now the goal I tried so hard for seemed unreachable.

BUT! If you talk to someone who knows my family well, you will probably ALSO hear that we are hardworking and dedicated when it comes to something we want.

So what did I do? That next week, I buckled down and practiced. 2 hours per day at the piano sometimes, and that still didn't seem like enough. But I made progress. It was small, but it still mattered. By the end of that week, my part of the piece was far from perfect-- but it was beautiful. It worked with my sister's part, and it wonderfully displayed hard work. Hard work that had beaten talent because talent hadn't worked hard. Not only that, but it passed "inspection" and was a success on Christmas Eve!

See, talent can only get you so far. You can be great at playing an instrument without a single lesson, but unless you work hard at it, what's the use?! Everything will just fall apart. The same goes for any field in life. School, sports, choirs, etc. Each area welcomes talent, but if that talent doesn't work hard, hard work will win over it.

So whatever you're doing in life. Whoever you are. Work hard-- whether you think you have great talent or not!! Because once you accomplish your goal, you'll look back at all the work you put in and smile. You'll feel so satisfied. Laziness didn't get you there. Talent didn't really get you there. Hard work. Hard work. Hard work. That's what it took.