Alfred Adler
You know, I watch a lot of reality tv these days, but probably my favourite reality tv shows are competitions like Project Runway or Hell's Kitchen.
It's hard to say what's so alluring about pitting several different kinds of people together for some kind of reward and watch as many struggle and fail, while others struggle and shine. Seeing people under a certain kind of boiling point pressure tells you a lot about that person and how they achieve their own kind of success, whatever that means.
I think what these shows tell us about human nature is that the best performance, in our minds, are the ones that happen under pressure. When beautiful and amazing things can come out of difficult circumstances with dire consequences, we often feel the result is better than if it took an average amount of time, or longer. Mastery and expertise seem to be about being talented, but what is talent? Talent is the ability to consistently perform, regardless of circumstances.
Our circumstances are always changing, we can't do anything about that. We're bound by time constraints, deadlines and surprise events that make our lives easier or harder. But life is not about the circumstantial issues that come and go, rarely staying for but a moment. We show our ability to be truly talented by demonstrating how we perform under the pressure. That, seems to be to me, the measure of a person.
No comments:
Post a Comment