Giftedness

What comes to mind when you hear the word Gifted? What does it mean that someone is Gifted?

Does it mean they are special? More talented? Is their future bright? Will they get all kinds of stuff they may or may not deserve? Extra help...? Extra opportunities...?

Is it like a special club others can’t belong to like the VIP lounge at the airport...? Or access to first class on a long flight? A ride to easy street?

Would you be surprised to learn that most gifted people really struggle with many facets of regular life? And many of them are envious of their ‘internally uncomplicated’ peers, and the smooth simplicity that is being ‘normal?’

Giftedness offers no guarantees of life satisfaction. No guarantees of finding one’s tribe. No guarantees of professional achievement or satisfaction. Statistics on how gifted people fare in life can actually be pretty abysmal.

Giftedness is a frustrating paradox of constantly being told how rare or exemplary you are, in some areas, only to experience considerable difficulty with using those  assets to actually improve your life. Things most people take for granted like having close friends and a satisfying way to spend your time can elude you forever, despite working hard to achieve them.

Giftedness requires you to be on a growth path to find your place and fulfillment in life. It automatically separates you forever from most other people, and demands you actively participate in the mess and stress in between Primary Integration (internal uncomplicatedness) and the goal of a very distant future called Secondary Integration (internal and external uncomplicatedness and true autonomy) which very few people ever reach.

The only guarantee is you will never ‘fit in’ with normal people and you will never experience the ease and simplicity most people take for granted, known as ‘internal uncomplicatedness.’

In short, it is a hard and demanding road, and can be very mysterious, solitary, and even dangerous. Most people will think you are too fortunate and too lucky, or too weird to consider you a peer or a friend, or they will be closed-minded or hostile to your actual challenges. And there's just no straightforward, predetermined way forward.

Awesome!

Movie examples of Gifted characters:

Max Fischer in Rushmore
Elf
Ferris Bueller
Flint from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Good Will Hunting
Harry Potter
The Incredibles
Matilda
Searching for Bobby Fischer
Temple Grandin