Talent is a state of mind
that everyone can achieve

Hi, my name is Roman Golovach, I'm the headmaster of Portals Academy. I want to share with you my story of how I reveal talent and develop creativity.
Let's go!
Until the age of 24, I thought that talent is an innate gift that I don't have.
Creativity seems like something that belongs to people who are born with it.
The limiting belief I had about talent and creativity shaped my worldview. When I was in 10th grade, I wanted to learn how to make websites. When I was learning - I encountered difficulties, and eventually gave up. The guitar was also on my list of things to learn, but I gave up on it as well. Dance, music, design, web development, writing is not for me.
All my independent studies ended the same way - I gave up because  I was thinking that I am not talented. Creative people were doing it better than me, so I kept thinking that creativity was an inner gift.
I was always jealous of talented people and wished to be born talented.
I heard that happiness can be found in the family, in the religion, in business and wealth, entertainment, creativity, travel, politics, and helping people.
Let me share with you another path to happiness, which still brings me joy to this day. You probably don't know about it yet, just like I didn't. 
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To define "happiness" let's use a metaphor.Imagine the world around us is a forest. It is huge, unpredictable, and dangerous, but it gives us so much joy to discover its secrets.I used to go mushroom hunting with my father and brother when I was a child. It happened one day that I got lost. To find the way back to our car, my father taught us to use the sun.
I started walking toward the car, orienting myself to the sun, thinking I was walking in the right direction, but I wasn't sure about it. It was my first time getting lost, and it was very scary. I was crying but kept walking. On the way, I saw other people, who were also doing mushroom hunting. I ran to them and asked where is the parking lot?
They told me that I’m going in the right direction. After they told me that, my mood and psychological state changed completely. I became calm and happy. I continued my journey and walked to the car, happily.
End of the story.

What is interesting about this story, was that I was going in the right direction the whole time. But half of the way I was unhappy, and the other half of the way I was happy. What happened in the middle? In the first part of my journey, I was unsure of what I was doing, even though I happened to be going in the right direction the entire time.However, only after other people confirmed that I was actually going in the right direction, I was able to calm down and be happy.Sometimes, all we need in life is confirmation of our direction.


We all experience ups and downs along our earthly journey called "life." The most important thing in life is to be confident about your direction. It will give you a state of happiness and tranquility. I don’t mean the instant release of dopamine and endorphins, but a deep feeling of fullness, confidence, and harmony.Childhood is a time when we are given direction. School, university, work, and the institution of the family are examples of directions. As I said at the very beginning family, religion, and business ... - are all directions one can take in life, and in my case, they didn’t work.When could something go wrong?
When we go out into the world and generally accepted values ​​no longer work. 
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After graduating from university, I never mastered a profession, and as a result, I completely lost my direction. The quality of education can be compared to the Internet in the 60s - useful, but not at its best. I did not know where to go next, it seemed to me that 5 years of my life had been lost.Usually, in cases like this, people say, "I'm searching for myself." But they usually fail to mention where exactly they are searching.I suppose this phrase is intentionally left unfinished.“I am searching for myself in the world” - this suggests that the world is a puzzle, and I am a small piece of this puzzle, which should be placed in the right spot.Considering that the world is huge, and life is relatively short, you may not have the time to find your place in this huge puzzle. If the world is like a forest, then you need to know which way to go or just confirm it (since you are probably on the right track).This is exactly what happened in my life.

 At 24, I would never have believed I would write a music album, enter the world of theater, learn to dance, sing, play various musical instruments, create an IT company (I didn't even know how to program), and complete many exciting projects!Despite studying well, I wasn't all that creative. At that time there weren’t classes on creativity and nobody really understood its importance to human life. In a former soviet country like Belarus, creativity wasn’t considered a good life skill.
 Most creative people have problems with drugs, and it’s hard to find a well-paid job. Only if you have natural creative abilities, then you have chances, otherwise - not worth trying. When I finish composing my first electronic music track, I called my mom and excitedly told her all about it.
She replied:
“Roman, our neighbor, is a musician. And he is an alcoholic”.
It sounds funny today, but this describes how people generally perceived creativity at that time and maybe even to this day.  Throughout my life, I admired musicians, actors, businessmen, writers, designers, and artists. I thought creativity was for the elite, and talent is an innate gift.
It’s normal to say “I’m not a creative person”, but it’s strange to say “I’m a stupid person”.
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When I graduated from university, I worked at a job with no opportunities for advancement. I spent money carelessly, abandoned what I started, and compared myself with others, thinking that they were lucky, but I was not. There were times when I felt like I couldn't do anything, I didn't know what to do in my life and where to start.
My search for a job only made me feel more depressed. There was always a requirement for 3-4 years of experience and a list of skills that I didn't have. I read a lot of motivational literature, and biographies of great people, but nothing helped. I was living with a deep feeling that I’m doing something wrong. I had everything I need, but I was not happy.
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Today, I understand this phenomenon of human life. We could feel unhappy because our inner potential wants to grow, but we don’t allow it to happen because of our old habits or limiting beliefs. 
It was a fortunate discovery that I came across the work of Viktor Klimenko, a Soviet professor of psychology. All his life he was working with talented and gifted kids. He wrote more than 100 works, including articles and books. I read one of his works about his research about creativity and talent, and it changed my life.---I was always going in the right direction, but I was not sure about it. In this work, I confirmed my direction and immediately become happy. I learned that talent or creativity is not an innate gift. He describes talent and creativity as a state of mind that anyone can achieve. All you need to do is to develop your mind. If we have the option to choose reality, what it would be, the reality where talent is an innate gift or talent is a state of mind that everyone can achieve?
I chose the second one because I didn’t like the first one.---Clarity gives you motivation. This is the law of nature. Our brains work this way. Our brain needs valuable reasons to create action. We Hi, my name is Roman Golovach, I'm the headmaster of Portals Academy. I want to share with you my story of how I reveal talent and develop creativity.Hi, my name is Roman Golovach, I'm the headmaster of Portals Academy. I want to share with you my story of how I reveal talent and develop creativity.can understand what is good for us, but it’s impossible to do anything because our brains control our lives. I wanted to be creative all my life, but I gave up not because I stop wanting, but because my brain didn’t have clarity or reasons to change.If we want to change a life, we need to give very valuable reasons for our brain. In another case, it’s very easy to give up very quickly and come back to old habits. And most dangerous, that we're still going to survive. I would survive without developing creativity and revealing talent. I would survive without music, dance, theater, meditation, design, writing, new languages, and participation in exciting projects.
Understanding that talent is an achievable goal created a strong reason why I should learn how to dance, make music, learn new languages, take on challenges and accomplish projects. Before, I kept giving up because I didn’t have strong reasoning why I should keep going, and for how long. 
Understanding that talent is a state of mind, that I can achieve, changed my learning process. I didn’t give up anymore. I continued to challenge myself, work on projects that I want to do, learn and improve skills that I need, expand my world horizon by taking courses and reading books, and eventually did everything that was hard with the clear goal of developing my mind and achieving a new state - talent.

“Why are you doing these silly projects?” - I often heard this question.
“Because I want to develop my brain and achieve a new state”
When we talk about talent in a normal way, we think about some special ability that someone has. It could be acting, writing, music, math, chess, drawing and so on.
It’s clear. But what is Talent as a state looks like? How to describe this state?It’s actually very simple. Just imagine yourself, but smarter. Talent is a state where you:
1) Want to do different projects.
2) Know how to finish projects or don’t worry if you don’t finish them.
3) You're not afraid to learn new things.
4) You're excited about new challenges.
5) You want to do things differently
6) You want to develop your skills and continue growing7) You are happy about your life and want to grow---People at high levels seem to have a long and complicated journey to get there. But it's not the whole truth! We think people are successful when we see them receiving the fruit of their labor. However, true success begins long before the point of public recognition.It begins the moment you develop a sense of clarity about your direction. A running engine is a good metaphor to explain the state of mind you achieve once you've confirmed your direction and have clarity. A running engine can take us  to the top, where we become visible to the world.
A running engine can inspire us to do things.A running engine can transform challenges into interesting tasks.
With a running engine, problems become rivals by which  we could grow.With a running engine,  10,000 hours can become an exciting journey towards professionalism.Portals Academy's existence is not the result of a sudden flash of talent and a flurry of hard work.
The engine began running many years ago and has naturally progressed to this point, where it is now visible to the world. A running engine is a deep understanding that talent is a state of mind, which anyone can achieve.
{you just need to finish 100 Portals}

The goal of the Portals Academy is to start your engine and confirm your direction.
Happiness is much closer than we think, sometimes all we need to do is confirm that we are headed in the right direction.