Our survival skills become our talents

Simon Sinek, the Start with Why guy:

As an adult nobody looks at my skills as survival skills, they look at me and say “what a talent you have.” When we’re young, the things we learn in order to survive become our talents when we’re adults.

There’s a corollary: That talent was born out of fear. Fear of not being good enough, fear of getting bullied, fear of your world crashing down.

Until you deal with that fear, you will continue to be driven by the fear.

You have to unlock the talent from the fear that birthed the talent if you want to be able to experience your talent freely, and not be a slave to it.