High Ability

Even people with exceptional talents can feel insecure and struggle with low or unhealthy self-esteem. Meryl Streep, for example, has said, “Why would anyone want to see me again in a movie? And I don’t know how to act anyway."

Many highly talented people had low confidence or impostor feelings growing up, or as adults. You can learn to build your own confidence.

By Emilie Wapnick. "Childhood bullying is something that a lot of multipotentialites seem to have experienced…And yet the truth is that the worst, most enduring bullying I ever experienced was not inflicted by my classmates at all, but by myself."

By Lisa Erickson, MS, LMHC

I’ve been thinking about varieties of perfectionism since having a discussion with a gifted trauma survivor. It became clear that some of their perfectionism was an expression of giftedness and some was related to family of origin issues. Same outcome, different sources.

By understanding the differences in the sources of perfectionism we can clarify what can be embraced and managed, and what can be healed.

A life filled with the temptations of talent...by Mark Sherman, Ph.D. in Real Men Don't Write Blogs

"Thousands upon thousands of people who I believe are like me are those who have never found the professional skin to fit the riot in their souls." -- Seymour Krim

Walter Isaacson's bio of Steve Jobs makes references to his intense physical activity and emotional responses that many gifted people experience.

Sharon Lind, a gifted education and parenting consultant, notes in her article Overexcitability and the gifted, “A small amount of definitive research and a great deal of naturalistic observation have led to the belief that intensity, sensitivity and overexcitability are primary characteristics of the highly gifted.”

~~~

Storify on recent Twitter #gtchat: Overexcitablilities of Gifted Adults

http://storify.com/gtchatmod/gtchat-overexcitablilities-of-gifted-adults

Tina Fey is the creator and a writer of the wry TV comedy series “30 Rock” and also stars as the producer of the TV show-within-the-show, Liz Lemon....she is certainly multitalented: a writer, screenwriter, comedian, actress, and producer, and also the mother of two young children.

Although extraverts outnumber them, introverts form the majority of gifted people. How are extraverts and introverts different?

“I think I’m a weird combination of deeply introverted and very daring. I can feel both those things working.” Actor, director, writer Helen Hunt

"My wife knows. My family knows, as do a few close friends. But what would my co-workers think? My editors? My sources on the science beat?

When I imagine them knowing, I can't get an image out of my head: My seventh-grade English teacher, glaring at me, with a look that needed no words. You are lazy and stupid, Gareth. Why are you even wasting my time?

I am dyslexic.
Reading is slow for me. If I try to read aloud, it is halting, even with children's books. I can't spell.

I was never able to learn cursive, and I am virtually unable to take handwritten notes while someone is talking. If it weren't for a strange quirk in the disorder -- I can type notes and listen -- I could never have hidden my struggles at work, because I wouldn't be able to do my job at all....

I am writing this column reluctantly, because I don't know what people will think; a part of me probably still believes that I should be ashamed.
But I also have to write this, because I know there is at least one kid out there who is feelingthe despair that clawed at me for so many years. I want this kid to know: It's never going to be easy, but put your heart into it and you will blow them away." - Gareth Cook

Many children and adults with dyslexia are amazing storytellers, so it shouldn't be surprise that this Pulitzer Prize winning journalist is dyslexic. Dyslexics may have strengths at recognizing a good story, seeing an issue from different perspectives, analyzing complex and conflicting information, and being able to empathize in deep ways.

To read more:

http://reallyducksoup.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html

and http://dyslexia.yale.edu/cook.html

By Scott Barry Kaufman. The facts are quite different than the media would have us believe. Look at this headline, from Psych Central: “Key to Greatness is Working Memory, Not Practice”. First of all, their studies actually show that both working memory and practice contribute to differences in performance, not one or the other.

Second of all, we already determined that their studies don’t actually involve greatness. Third of all, practice is actually a much better predictor of “complex task” performance than working memory. That headline is wrong on so many levels, I could hurl! So again I ask: is high working memory necessary for greatness?

As most of you know, giftedness is not something that ends with childhood. It is a way of seeing the world and processing information that remains throughout your life. That is especially true with the emotional aspects of giftedness. The intensity takes on a different look, as the gifted child becomes a gifted adult and develops different coping skills. But, the emotional intensity remains is just as much a part of the gifted adult as it is the child.

"I am realizing that some of my somewhat crazy behavior in my teens and as an adult may actually be related to being gifted."

~~~

Related post: Is uncommon intelligence or intensity a gift?

http://highability.org/556/is-uncommon-intelligence-a-gift/