Inborn talent is finally being exposed as an illusion.

The good news now is that anyone acquire talent.

The bad news is, it takes some effort. And it has to be the right kind of effort.

Books like Talent Is Overrated, The Talent Code, Bounce and Outliers all agree that what really matters is the amount and quality of your practice. More practice is better. Much more practice is much better. And best of is practice that’s slow and deliberate, always challenging yourself to go slightly beyond your current ability.

So now you’re talented. Now what?

For as Calvin Coolidge said: “Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.”

You’ve got to do or create something with the talent, of course. And I believe the key to that is what Willis Harman calls “emotional concentration”—the mustering of an inner emotional force that powers accomplishment.

Some years ago, when some the world’s most famous composers were asked how they created their great works, many of them spoke of how they generate emotional concentration.

Richard Strauss described “an ardent desire and fixed purpose combined with intense inner resolve.”

Puccini grasped “the full power of the Ego within.” Then he felt “the burning desire and intense resolve to create something worthwhile.”

And Wagner said that: “I become one with a vibrating, omniscient Force that I can draw upon to an extent that is limited only by my own capacity to do so.”

Many of the best copywriters I know begin a project by working themselves into a state of emotional concentration.  Some do it by falling in love with the product or service they’re writing about. Others envision—in extraordinary detail—the future success of their efforts. Others get in touch with their passion to help the reader better their lives through the product or service they’re writing about.

Just as a magnifying glass gathers and focuses the rays of the sun into an intensity that can burn through paper, emotional concentration can gather and focus your talent and puts it to work, enabling you to burn through obstacles and forge accomplishments and success.

You don’t have to be a composer or a copywriter to take advantage of “emotional concentration.”  Whenever a successful outcome is important to you, take some time to sit quietly and get in touch with the part of you that desires and knows you can achieve the outcome that you want.  Think about why you want that outcome and all those that it will benefit. Do whatever, for you, generates emotional concentration.

Talent in any area can take you only so far.

To go farther and get there faster, try adding “emotional concentration” to the mix.