...

It isn’t easy to manifest a gift,

Which is, I guess, all part of what makes a gift, a gift.

I don’t believe that there are many in this world

Simply blessed with natural ability.

That’s far too easy.

It takes all the viscera from the struggle,

All the plasma from the weeping wound.

No, the gifted don’t parade their talent as God given ability.

They parade the manifestation of that ability

As what should be understood

To be the God given gift.

To manifest a talent one is forced to pick at stitches,

To perpetuate the bleed for the sake of a clot.

It takes a different kind of person

To be willing to do that,

Let alone want to.

To crave the growth that results from difficulty,

The peeling of blisters to build the callous.

Now that’s a dangerous kind of addiction.

Withdrawal appears as idleness

And the thirst exposes the benefit.

If you want to be good at something,

Occasionally all you need 

Is the inclination

To try.

But,

If you want to be great,

If you want to be remembered,

Revered in mastery and appreciated as such,

Than you have to bleed... bleed, sweat and cry.

You have to familiarize yourself with the word

“Again.”

“Again.”

“Do it again.”

Not for the sake of the product

But for the sake of the process.

“Again.”

“Do it again.”

You have to fixate on the skipping record,

Ignore the road and take careful note

Of where the spinning wheel may be cause to take you.

Miles may go by before you have the chance

To check the placement of your feet.

And what is discipline without a destination

If not a draft of diesel for the combustion?

It isn’t easy to manifest a gift

But if you intend to touch the top,

That, I think,

Is how you must approach the climb.

Author's Note

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YcXhpgHwvI&ab_channel=MacMiller