I've always been considered a good writer and a terrible singer. I pick up sports quickly but draw like a 2-year-old. My talents, such as they are, seemed pretty set by the time I was in my late teens. Most of us think of talent as an ability we're born with and have fairly little control over. But increasingly, experts are questioning the notion that genes limit how far we can go. 'We're at a very interesting moment in this discussion, where new science is giving us an X-ray of what lies beneath speed and fluency of great performances,' said Daniel Coyle, author of 'The Talent Code' (Bantam Books, 2009). 'A lot has to do with genes, but more doesn't.' This sounds like the familiar nature-versus-nurture arguments -- how much of us is what we are born with and how much is due to our environment. But scientific research shows that the interplay between environment and genes is far more intricate than that. 'I'd like to blow up the words nature and nurture as two distinct things,' said David Shenk, author of 'The Genius in All of Us' (Doubleday, 2010). 'They are completely intertwined.' Talent, Shenk said, needs to be seen as a process rather than as a thing that we either have or we don't. 'I see this as the beginning of a more nuanced conversation,' he said. Why does this matter? Because if we think of talent as more or less immutable, then we're selling ourselves and our children short. K. Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, is one of the leading researchers in the field of expertise. He has spent years studying what makes people great at what they do, be they violinists or chess players or athletes. In his research, he said, there appears to be very little evidence that talent is linked to individual genetic differences. One exception he sees is height. It's difficult, for example, to be a professional basketball player if you're too short or an Olympic gymnast if you're too tall. But it does not follow, Ericsson said, that everyone can become great, or even really good, in a given arena. First of all, you need to have parents willing to put in an intensive amount of resources and time in helping you excel. In fact, research has shown that most people who are really outstanding in their fields don't come out of nowhere. Top-notch musicians are usually born into families where music plays a dominant role. The same is true with sports or any other endeavor. In addition, by studying those who have excelled, Ericsson has found that they engage in something he calls 'deliberate practice.' It involves spending hours a day in highly structured activities to improve performance and overcome weaknesses. The practice is not necessarily enjoyable and requires someone willing to put in the grueling hours over at least 10 years. From his observations, it takes a minimum of a decade of deliberate practice to excel in any field. But he is not talking about practicing every day, all day. Four hours a day is usually the maximum that anyone can do to really get the most out of the effort, he said. After that, exhaustion sets in. 'Most people wouldn't be able to engage in deliberate practice for even a few weeks,' Ericsson said. And that's one of the biggest reasons why more of us don't get to -- or even near -- the top levels in a given field. Not everyone agrees with Ericsson that genes play such a minimal role in talent. Dean Simonton, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, who has also studied this area for many years, argues that 'genetics influence how quickly and how well a person can master the expertise necessary to perform at world-class levels.' Moreover, the very process of acquiring that expertise requires tremendous drive and determination. But where does that exceptional motivation and energy come from? Is it learned or inherited -- or another combination of nature and nurture? While, for example, we may not inherit a music or a writing gene, Simonton said, our openness to experience is partly attributed to genetic influence, and 'that trait is correlated with achievement in all domains that require exceptional creativity.' So what's the point of this? That it's awfully hard to become great at something? We probably all know that. And the reality is that most of us are not going to be Picassos or Shakespeares. But these concepts are still important. Because even if we give lip service to the idea that hard work will make us better, it's awfully hard to overcome the belief that we're born a certain way and there's not much we can do about it. 'Most of us are far from our potential,' said Angela Duckworth, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. 'The prevailing wisdom, for much of the last century, has been that talent is the most important determinant of achievement. Our focus in the next millennium is turning to all those things that unlock talent, including grit, self-discipline and confidence.' Grit is what Duckworth calls perseverance or, as she defines it, 'the capacity to sustain effort toward a very long-term and challenging goal.' Her studies have shown that grittier individuals thrive in extremely challenging situations, and that grit is quite distinct from talent. But it's dangerous for parents to think that if talent is much more malleable than we used to believe, we can somehow make our children into great ballplayers or artists. Those of us who have tried -- trumpet lessons, anyone? -- know you can't force your children to become interested in something. Or you could probably push your children to excel in an area by parenting in a way few would advocate -- 'withhold love and affection and trade it for achievement,' Shenk said. As the recent memoir by the tennis star Andre Agassi shows, that recipe can produce a highly accomplished yet very unhappy adult. 'I want my kids to aspire to greatness,' Shenk said. 'I want them to work hard and to have the deep satisfaction of striving. But I don't want them to have a two-dimensional life.' What we can do is teach ourselves and our children that we have far more ability to develop our skills than we think we do, but that it doesn't come easily, said Daniel H. Pink, author of 'Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us' (Riverhead, 2009). 'A lot of parents are obsessed with cognitive skills,' like reading or mathematics, Pink said. 'But we're not good at teaching noncognitive skills,' like sticking with it when the work gets tough and understanding that failure and disappointment are part of success. 'Are we establishing a generation literate in perseverance?' he asked. 'After all, what's more satisfying than getting something and mastering it?' With all this talk about talent, it's easy to forget one thing. While I love watching someone who is terrific at what they do and I also know the great feeling of accomplishing something difficult, it's too easy to let admiration of such skills overshadow less visible attributes -- like kindness and generosity. While I may marvel at great achievers, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to live in a world full of them. 