A background a young track star might have is growing up running from the day she could first walk. Did she notice the effort she was putting in and how it made her faster than most everyone else? Probably not, until she reached the point of joining the track team and competing. Then her “natural” talent, which was more likely practice without considering it to be anything but fun, was used to motivate her to put in more effort to be the best in the county/state/nation/world.
The things we do well are often the things we practice without ever thinking of them in that manner. It’s the baking done every week or two for decades. It’s the nightly meal making for a family. It’s the basketball games with friends. It’s the mountain biking every weekend. It’s the blogging daily. It’s the photographs we take of our lives.
At work it can be a different set of things. It’s the presentations produced, relationships managed, knowledge uncovered, and a million other things, but they are there too.
The complication is realizing what you’ve been practicing at for years without feeling it to be a burden, giving yourself credit for the skill, while also not suddenly making it feel like practice. Many skilled people are unaware of how skilled they actually are and sell themselves short over and over in life.
None of this is Right 