Success - just meant to happen or made to happen?

This has come up recently with certain discussions and questions - If someone is good at something - were they meant to do it or did they work to make it happen?

It is easy when we see someone perform an athletic feat to want to emulate that feat - heavy deadlift, Tour DeFrance, a Marathon, etc... - and when we go to try that feat and find that we fall far short of where we think we should be or we endeavor to be successful and still find ourselves short of the mark we set for ourselves we tend to offer the explanation of -
"Well he/she was just built for or meant for that feat - I just don't have it."

True or False? Or Both???? (gotcha there)

There are certainly the examples of individuals who were meant to excel at various athletic feats - Jesse Owens, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, etc... - individuals who had the "natural" talent that placed them on the fast track for success but the "Talent fast-track" is littered with people who fall off of the track due to not working to access their talent.

There are individuals who should never succeed at a given sport because they are the opposite of what the expected success is in that arena - too short, too tall, too fat, too small, too stiff, too whatever... - but yet they succeed. Many people fall off this "Long road" to success - and they fall off sometimes right before they would succeed.

So it can be True - some are "meant" for success at a certain endeavor - and it can be False - some work their way to success and then there are those who do both - they have the talent and they have the work - and whether they are the superstar or in the top group of a particular endeavor - they succeed.

If you have chosen something to achieve but find yourself falling short of the mark you have set for yourself - don't blame or give yourself an easy out (well- guess I just wasn't meant for it?!) - step back - re-evaluate and try another approach. Enlist the aide of an experienced coach in the area you would like to succeed in but don't just stop with an easy out.

Success is sometimes right around the next corner - a better map, or guide might be what you need to find you were "meant" to succeed!