QUOTES
This holiday season, I urge you to, drum roll please, give to yourself. Stay true to your natural desires. Turn off the autopilot mechanism, disable obligation, ditch comparison, and dive into the cool waters of authenticity.
Dare to live this season as honestly as you can. Let everyone else "shop till they drop" or stand helplessly at parties. Listen to and love yourself first, and you will set free a light that buoys everyone around you. It's never "selfish" to tend your own magnificent soul.
Tama J. Kieves, in her newsletter Trusting the Journey Times [see her site awakeningartistry.com] - she is author of This Time I Dance!: Creating the Work You Love.
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BOOKS etc
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck.
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1 Adult genius, unexceptional kid
"The young Mozart’s prowess can be chalked up to practice, practice, practice. Compelled to practice three hours a day from age three on.. No wonder they thought he was a genius." Malcolm Gladwell
How we think of talents in others and ourselves may have a profound effect on nurturing and realizing those abilities. Maybe "genius" or precocity is not some kind of inborn trait. Maybe talent can be sought - or suppressed.
[The photo is Tom Hulce as Mozart in Amadeus (1984), from the page Achievement / success.]
Carol S. Dweck, PhD, a Professor of Psychology at Stanford, thinks "our society tends to believe that geniuses are born, not made. And I wouldn't dispute that there might be a strong innate component, but it's just clear from the histories of so many geniuses that motivation is a key component.
"And when you sift through the literature on creative genius, the researchers agree that motivation is perhaps the number one component in the realization of genius.
"Many of our most illustrious geniuses in every field were people who were considered ordinary as children, and then just caught fire around their topic and achieved amazing things that we know about today-from Darwin, to Coleridge, to Cézanne. All of these people were not necessarily extraordinary children."
From Interviews with Carol Dweck.
In his article The Myth of Prodigy and Why it Matters, Eric Wargo notes one way "to look at precocity is of course to work backward — to look at adult geniuses and see what they were like as kids. A number of studies have taken this approach, Malcolm Gladwell [author of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking] said, and they find a similar pattern.
"A study of 200 highly accomplished adults found that just 34 percent had been considered in any way precocious as children. He also read a long list of historical geniuses who had been notably undistinguished as children — a list including Copernicus, Rembrandt, Bach, Newton, Beethoven, Kant, and Leonardo Da Vinci (“that famous code-maker”).
“None of [them] would have made it into Hunter College,” Gladwell observed.
Wargo continues, "We think of precociousness as an early form of adult achievement, and, according to Gladwell, that concept is much of the problem. 'What a gifted child is, in many ways, is a gifted learner. And what a gifted adult is, is a gifted doer. And those are quite separate domains of achievement.'
"To be a prodigy in music, for example, is to be a mimic, to reproduce what you hear from grown-up musicians. Yet only rarely, according to Gladwell, do child musical prodigies manage to make the necessary transition from mimicry to creating a style of their own.
"The 'prodigy midlife crisis,' as it has been called, proves fatal to all but a handful would-be Mozarts. 'Precociousness, in other words, is not necessarily or always a prelude to adult achievement. Sometimes it’s just its own little discrete state.'
"Early acquisition of skills — which is often what we mean by precocity — may thus be a misleading indicator of later success, said Gladwell.
“'Sometimes we call a child precocious because they acquire a certain skill quickly, but that skill turns out to be something where speed of acquisition is not at all important... We don’t say that someone who learned to walk at four months is a better walker than the rest of us. It’s not really a meaningful category.'
"When we call a child 'precocious,' Gladwell said, 'we have a very sloppy definition of what we mean. Generally what we mean is that a person has an unusual level of intellectual ability for their age.'
"But adult success has to do with a lot more than that. 'In our obsession with precociousness we are overstating the importance of being smart.'
"In this regard, Gladwell noted research by Carol Dweck and Martin Seligman indicating that different dimensions such as explanatory styles and attitudes and approaches to learning may have as much to do with learning ability as does innate intelligence.
"And when it comes to musicians, the strongest predictor of ability is the same mundane thing that gets you to Carnegie Hall: 'Really what we mean... when we say that someone is "naturally gifted" is that they practice a lot, that they want to practice a lot, that they like to practice a lot.'
"So what about the ur-child-prodigy, Mozart? Famously, Mozart started to compose music at age four; by six, he is supposed to have traveled around Europe giving special performances with his father, Leopold. 'He is of course the great poster child for precociousness,' Gladwell said. 'More Upper West Side adults have pointed to Mozart, I’m quite sure, as a justification for sending their kids to excruciating early music programs, than almost any other historical figure.'
"Yet Gladwell deftly debunked the Mozart myth. 'First of all, the music he composes at four isn’t any good,' he stated bluntly. 'They’re basically arrangements of works by other composers. And also, rather suspiciously, they’re written down by his father... And Leopold, it must be clear, is the 18th-century equivalent of a little league father.'
"But most importantly, the young Mozart’s prowess can be chalked up to practice, practice, practice. Compelled to practice three hours a day from age three on, by age six the young Wolfgang had logged an astonishing 3,500 hours — 'three times more than anybody else in his peer group. No wonder they thought he was a genius.'
"So Mozart’s famous precociousness as a musician was not innate musical ability but rather his ability to work hard, and circumstances (i.e., his father) that pushed him to do so. 'That is a very different definition of precociousness than I think the one that we generally deal with.'
"A better poster child for what precociousness really entails, Gladwell hinted, may thus be the famous intellectual late-bloomer, Einstein. Gladwell cited a biographer’s description of the future physicist, who displayed no remarkable native intelligence as a child but whose success seems to have derived from certain habits and personality traits — curiosity, doggedness, determinedness — that are the less glamorous but perhaps more essential components of genius."
From article The Myth of Prodigy and Why it Matters, by Eric Wargo, The Association for Psychological Science Observer, Aug 2006.
Posted on High Ability
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2 Feeding our spirituality with fantasy films
"The creative process shrivels in the absence of continual dialogue with the soul. And creativity is what makes life worth living."
That quote by Marion Woodman, a mythopoetic author and Jungian analyst, is from the page Spirituality.
One of the reasons films like "The Golden Compass," "Beowulf," the "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" films, and "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" can be so emotionally resonant and powerful is they effectively tap into spiritual, as well as political issues.
Quoted in the article Fantasy films? There's truth in there too, by Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times Dec 10, 2007, "Golden Compass" writer-director Chris Weitz, who adapted the film's screenplay from Philip Pullman's novel, said "One's always tempted to go the rather stock route of saying it's escapist fare, and we really need that now.
"But if you look at 'Lord of the Rings' or 'His Dark Materials,' they're not really escapist inasmuch as they deal, at least in analogy, with some of the things that are going on in politics and society."
Guillermo del Toro, writer and director of "Pan's Labyrinth," says fantasy films are inextricably bound up with spiritual issues, no matter how hard filmmakers may try to submerge them. "In the same way that no movie can be nonpolitical, these genre movies cannot avoid being somewhat spiritual. They can be a crass, failed exercise in spirituality. But no matter how much they try to avoid it, they are tackling subjects . . . rooted in spirituality."
The article adds, In a world dominated by rationality, Del Toro sees fantasy as the last refuge of the unknown, a place to address questions that still elude science.
"The more we get technology into our lives and the more we demystify our beliefs, the more we create a void," he says. "As spiritual entities, we need to fill that with something, with some mythology or cosmology that allows you to believe in something beyond your next cellphone bill. . . . and the latest Nintendo game.
"I think that movies of the genre do that. They make the supernatural or the magical palatable to the supposedly jaded 'here, now' generation."
[Related post: Guillermo del Toro on the power of fairytales.]
Related page: Myth & story - on which is a quote by Thomas Moore: "The soul has an absolute, unforgiving need for regular excursions into enchantment. It requires them like the body needs food and the mind needs thought. ... We have yet to learn that we can't survive without enchantment and that the loss of it is killing us."
Posted on Talent Development Resources
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3 With or without the label and notable accomplishments
So much categorizing people as gifted children or adults emphasizes having achieved significantly, having some distinction - high IQ or SAT scores, having a bestseller book or movie or being a sport superstar.
And with perfectionism and high levels of self criticism, many gifted and talented people feel they don't make it.
Actor Ellen Muth, who starred as George (for Georgia) Lass in the tv series "Dead Like Me," has admitted she had low self-esteem, like her character, and also said, "But I still feel like I haven't accomplished anything.. like I haven't made it anywhere, I haven't done anything, and I'll never get anywhere in life, and I'm going to be a failure my whole life. And I know in the rational part of my mind that it's not true."Earlier in her life, at 14, Muth gained widespread acclaim for her portrayal of the young Selena in the film "Dolores Claiborne" and her starring role in the "The Young Girl & the Monsoon" earned her the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival Best Actress Award in 1999. She is a member of MENSA.
It can help us develop a more accurate self concept as a high ability person to garner awards and acclaim, but most of us do not get much recognition.
Cheryl M. Ackerman, PhD notes in her article Gifted Adults, "It is important to remember that just because a person was not identified as gifted when they were in school, doesn’t mean she isn’t a gifted individual.
"In addition, something that may seem as benign as whether or not a person was identified as gifted can have significant effects on the development of his self-concept and self-esteem.
"While the fundamental characteristics of gifted adults are the same regardless of whether or not they were identified earlier in life, those who were not identified face the challenge of making sense of their gifted characteristics without the gifted label to guide them in any way."
One of the people in the book When Gifted Kids Don't Have All the Answers: How to Meet Their Social and Emotional Needs, by James R. Delisle, PhD et. al., is Christine, 15, who asked, "Why is giftedness linked to achievement -- that is, what I can or cannot do -- instead of what and how I feel?"
As adults, we still are pressured to achieve.
Robert Maurer, PhD, in his article The Vision Thing notes, "Successful people are able to sustain their identity as separate from their profession and what's happening to them. That's particularly important in the arts, where what happens to you bears only faint correlation to your talent."
Related article: Being gifted without the scores - by Nora Brahim.
More High Ability - gifted/talented articles.
Posted on High Ability
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4 Couldn't quite handle the high school thing
In a recent interview, Keira Knightley declares she was never interested in playing "girl" roles. "This is a ridiculous thing to say," she admits, "but I never liked being a teenager. I never felt comfortable being in a group of giggly girls. I always felt embarrassed and frightened by it."I couldn't quite handle the high school thing, and I wanted to leave as soon as I could. So I suppose I never really wanted to explore it, whereas I did want to be a woman. Some of the teen flicks can be great, but it wasn't the story I wanted to live in. Apart from Natalie Wood's character in 'Rebel Without a Cause' [1955], where she plays a teenager, I just couldn't imagine doing it. I wish I could have. I think I would have been a much better person for it." [Interview mag., Dec/Jan 2008; photo from 'Atonement']
Many other talented and creative people "couldn't quite handle the high school thing" and felt like outsiders, finding their teen years to be difficult and emotionally challenging.
"The passage through adolescence was a lonely, involuted time for me," said writer Maxine Kumin. "I had no one to eat lunch with, and took my sandwich to the locker room, where I pretended to be busy writing an article... I took refuge in scholarship... At Radcliffe, epithets with which I had been branded -- bookworm, greasy grind, brain trust -- became a badge of honor." [From book: Jane Piirto. My Teeming Brain: Understanding Creative Writers.]
Anthony Hopkins was dyslexic and hated rugby, and so was treated as an outcast in his native land - but he claims the treatment from his peers gave him just what he needed to become a movie star: "It gave me the fire and anger to become an actor. I wasn't afraid of anything. The acting covered up the loneliness." [imdb.com 1.30.01]
As a teen, Nicole Kidman towered above most of the others in her class and has said she thought of herself as "the ugliest person alive on earth."
On weekends, when most kids were at the beach, Kidman was often alone on the stage of the school theater. "I would just lock myself in there," she says. "I thought it was fantastic having that stage all to myself. I'd be teased about going off to the theater instead of the beach with everyone else.
"I felt like an outsider, but it is character building not to be a pretty child who just bats her eyes and gets her way." [Cosmopolitan, Jul 1991]
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Video: Heavy metal and gifted children - dealing with being social outsiders
More High ability / gifted videos
Posted on Teen / Young Adult Talent~~~~~~
5 Screenwriter Nancy Oliver: "Is this what I'm supposed to be doing?"
At the 2007 Toronto Film Festival, “Lars and the Real Girl” received a standing ovation. Screenwriter Nancy Oliver was recently interviewed for the Los Angeles Times by Jeff Goldsmith, and expressed her perspectives on a number of challenges facing writers and other artists. Here is an excerpt:When Alan Ball offered you a staff writing job on HBO's "Six Feet Under," you were literally getting ready to leave town and give up on your writing career. Why is that?
When I moved out here I decided that I would give it five years because I'm not a kid anymore. When Alan called, I was moving because my five years were up. It was very difficult because I was doing it at a later time in life than most people.
I didn't have the years to screw around. I was going to go back to Florida, find a place on the beach and figure out another way to make a living... But after the first day [of thinking about it], I was like, "What? Are you crazy? Yeah, I'll do this!" Then I was clearly onboard.
How do you battle writer's block, if you get it?
There's plenty of struggle, no question about that. I had had a block . . . for five years and I wasn't sure that I would ever be able to write a big piece again. I've been working since I was 21, trying to put it all together, and hit just one dead end after the next. You question sometimes, "Is this what I'm supposed to be doing? I'm following my dream and it's leading me into the gutter!"
How did your writing habits change as you went from writing by yourself to being part of a writing team?
"Six Feet Under" changed me a great deal, and it was a wonderful training ground that really toughened me up. I'd been sensitive for quite some time and when you have to put your stuff on the table and let everybody go at it, it either makes you stronger or kills you. I really enjoyed it because I got so much out of getting other people's opinions. I think I'm a braver writer now. Less wimpy.
[From The real woman behind 'Lars', by Jeff Goldsmith, Los Angeles Times, Dec 12, 2007; photo by Robert Durell.]
In another interview, Oliver explained part of her inspiration for the story: "It was a ‘what if?’ thing. Like, ‘What if we didn’t treat our mentally ill people like animals? What if we brought kindness and compassion to the table?’” [From Guy and Doll, and the Woman Behind Them, by Margy Rochlin, The New York Times, October 7, 2007.]
The photo (by George Kraychyk, NYTimes) shows Ryan Gosling as Lars, far right, cutting food for his doll companion Bianca, at a meal with Paul Schneider and Emily Mortimer.
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Sensitivity and identity questions are relevant for many writers and other artists, and a number of mental health issues addressed on the site may be of interest in terms of self-exploration, and story material.
Here are some related Talent Development Resources pages:
Mental health
Intensity / sensitivity
Highly Sensitive
Being Creative and Self-critical
Identity
Posted on The Inner Writer
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