I know. You’re not gifted.
Humor me.
If you were gifted, here are some things you would need to know.
1. Intelligence is not a fixed, hard, immutable thing. Intelligence is not an either you-are or you’re-not situation. Sure, you have a rainforest mind. You’re smart, sensitive, empathetic, analytical, creative, intense, perfectionistic and complicated. But that doesn’t mean that your traits and abilities can’t shift, change and grow. That doesn’t mean that you can’t be confused, dumb, embarrassing and a complete failure some of the time. The key, according to Carol Dweck, author of Mindset, is that you’re open to growth. That you love learning. And, when you think about it, it’s all learning. One way or another. And, I know your mother told you this but maybe you’ll listen to me: You learn more from your mistakes and failures than from your successes. Think about it.
2. Your mistakes, failures, and embarrassments. Entertaining stories for holiday gatherings, memoirs, and TED talks.
3. Intelligence is not the same as achievement. Some people who are extremely bright, have not graduated from college, have not discovered relativity, have not won a Nobel prize and are not billionaires. I might also suggest that the reverse is true. High achievers and rich people are not necessarily extremely bright. I won’t mention any names.
4. Effort and sustained practice are required for outstanding achievement. You may have believed that if you were truly gifted, you shouldn’t have to exert effort to produce greatness. You’d be wrong.
5.Remember that long odd conglomeration of things from my last post? The list of reasons you might feel like an impostor? Valerie Young makes sense of them in her book The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women. Check it out.
6. And, finally, here’s the thing. The Thing. As you struggle to understand and accept that you have a rainforest mind, that you may, in fact, be g-g-gifted, imagine that there’s something you’re here on the planet to do. No pressure. Don’t get all nervous on me. Well, maybe a little pressure. It doesn’t need to be something “insanely great.” It’s not about that.
You know what I’m talkin’ about. You’ve felt it. Begin to open to the possibility that now is the time to find it, feel it, do it and be it.
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To my darling bloggEEs:
I hope I didn’t just freak you out with that last part. I promise to help you figure it out. That’s why I’m here. That’s what I’m here on the planet to do.
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