The more you repeat a behavior, the deeper the groove and therefore, the easier it gets to do it again without having to try so hard.

Talent - the natural ability to advance to an above-average skill level with minimal or no effort - is overrated. Yet many organizations hire for talent, and place "talent" at the top of the list of preferred employee attributes. The problem with emphasizing talent over other factors is this: talent merely determines where you begin at a certain point in time, not how you improve towards mastery of a skill over time.

Putting your focus on talent is like getting into your car on a Saturday morning, and determining your weekend plans based on how much gas is in the tank. This may be appealing. It’s also quite limiting.

Zen master Shunryu Suzuki makes the case that there are four different levels of inherent talent. He uses the analogy of “four horses” - ranging from "1" (most talented) to "4" (talentless):

1. Responds to the rider’s will, before it sees the shadow of the whip.
2. Responds to the rider’s will, just before the whip touches its skin.
3. Responds to the pain of the whip on its skin.
4. Responds to the pain of the whip reaching the marrow of its bones.*

It is up to the rider, as the horse’s guide, to make an effort to communicate the exact action desired. Since the fourth horse cannot seem to act according to the rider’s direction, requiring a tremendous amount of prodding, we might be tempted to give up on this horse.

Achieving Mastery
Mastery alone is not an indication of superior performance. Instead, taking action to practice (the natural effect of which is often improved skill) is much more desirable over the long term.

Let me first be clear about my definition of "mastery". To me, this means combining experience and knowledge so that one acts more than thinks while engaged in a skill.

This is often referred to as unconscious competence.

As the learning of a skill typically goes:
a. Unconscious Incompetence (I don’t know what I don’t know).
b. Conscious Incompetence (I observe how my actions hurt me).
c. Conscious Competence (I choose actions that help me).
d. Unconscious Competence (my actions help me).

Learning towards mastery has no defined "finish line." Even having reached unconscious competence, like the first horse, we continue in the process of improving through practice. The more we act instead of reasoning with our actions, the more mastery we have gained and the more fluid our behavior feels.

Over time, most horses that seek improvement will catch up to those who rest at their original skill level. Eventually, without striving to develop, that 1st horse will be no better than the others. He may even fall behind horses with less talent. True mastery comes to those who begin a practice of improvement from any level. This means practice for even the most talented.

Eventually, the talented horse (#1) must learn how to practice with the same effort that a talentless horse (#4) has been applying from day one. That gives the advantage to the talentless horse: his behavior does not need to change, only continue. As Suzuki says, "If you study calligraphy, you will find that those who are not so clever usually become the best calligraphers. Those who are very clever with their hands often encounter great difficulty after they have reached a certain stage."

In other words, talent gives you an early advantage. But it is effort that leads you towards mastery. One way to move to learning towards mastery is to ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?”

Why am I Doing This?
There is an important distinction we make when we decide the reason for being engaged with a specific skill. We might answer the question "why am I doing this?" from two very different angles:
1. To demonstrate a skill, interested in the end result (seeking praise/rewards)
2. To develop a skill, interested in what we will learn about ourselves in the process (seeking internal and external feedback to inform the path towards mastery)