You can be a master of all.

It’s okay to be multitalented, it’s okay to be a master of all!

Over and over again, I’ve listened to some of my mentees say that they feel like they don’t excel at anything simply because they are talented in so many areas. In fact, they feel like a failure because people refer to them as a “Jack of all trades, master of none”. I would like to address this issue and share my thoughts.

I can talk about this because for many years I was concerned that, although I was talented in many areas, it became a challenge to pick one career or one of my talents to focus on. But as I grew older and gained more understanding, I discovered that it is quite possible, and indeed normal, for an individual to be blessed with more than one talent and also to be a master of all! A few points to note:

*Many talents are genetically inherited, and so it is quite possible for an individual to have inherited more than one talent. Examples of which would be musical ability, artistic ability, athletic ability, mathematical ability, etc.

*Talents or natural abilities can be harnessed and nurtured into becoming a skill. For example, a person with innate musical ability that has decided to pursue a career in music, still needs to refine and perfect their skill by receiving further training at music school.

You can be a Jack of all trades, and it’s okay to be a master of all. It just means that you have a certain responsibility to work as hard as you can at each of your talents; you can’t afford to waste time and sit around. Why? Because you have so much to get done. It doesn’t mean that you’re been particularly chosen or that you’re destined to be successful at all of your talents (trust me I don’t mean that in a harsh way). It’s the reality. You just have to work at it.

In this regard, the Parable of the Talents in the scripture (Matthew 25:14-30) comes to mind where a master entrusted his ‘talents’ to his servants while he was away on a journey. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, “to each according to his ability”. All but one of the servants multiplied their talents, adding value to it for their master. Guess who did nothing with their talent: The servant who was given just one talent! He hid the one talent and gave it back to his master on his return in just the same amount as it was given. The master was not happy with him at all because he had wasted the opportunity he had been given.

The truth is that you have a responsibility to use, and not waste, the talent(s) you have been given. Sometimes you will fail but the onus is on you to get back up and use that talent to glorify the one God that gave it to you in the first place.

So, I hope that after you read this post, you’ll be encouraged to do more with your talent: not only will you use it, you’ll use it to make the giver proud and happy.

I look forward to reading your comments.

Sincerely 🙂

Yemi