Perfectionism can start early with gifted individuals having parents who are perfectionists themselves. Related: Managing Expectations of Career from Loved Ones They play close attention to the expectations of others and anticipate the criticism that may come from them. It is not uncommon for this anxiety to paralyse the child in the later years of high school stopping them from actually sitting the Higher School Certificate.Ĭoncerned that they will make mistakes and their work isn’t to their high standards, can make them feel embarrassed & think they will suffer humiliation. This behaviour follows through to teenage years and many develop later on in life as presenting as gifted adults anxiety. They avoid getting an adults’ judgement and therefore can avoid perceived criticism of their work. This behaviour can again go back to childhood where a child will draw a picture and if they feel it is not good enough will throw it out before anybody sees it. Thinking you need to do things perfectly is very common among gifted people. When the gifted feel like an outsider, their desire to apply themselves and achieve personal goals can diminish. If a self-concept starts off negative, further judgements in the workplace that are negative, will have their self-worth suffer and their self-view conditioned by others.Īs humans we all want to belong and feel connected.

It very much depends on the individual and how their concept of self has been built from when they were a child. Reduced motivation results as well as the want to attempt hard job tasks. If a gifted person moves to work environment that is a better fit, it can also lower their self esteem if the challenge is too much. This is not healthy for the person as they know deep down that their abilities are not valued and career needs for growth are not met.įinding the right environment that supports their difference can however be a fine line and requires careful consideration. If the gifted worker is not amongst other gifted employees, they can behave by dumbing themselves down in the hope that they will connect and satisfy the need of belonging to the organisation group. This can make them feel alone and isolated. When they grasp concepts and excel at their work, their peers can become jealous and the gifted person may feel rejected and have a sense of not belonging. Regardless of whether you see it as a good idea or not, the gifted need the extension, they see things & feel things differently. To not be extended in some form would have these youngsters crawling the school walls with boredom.

Their want to be successful all the time can become very intense and if they don’t achieve success 100% of the time, they continue to have a negative view of themselves.įrom a very young age, the gifted usually are segregated from their peers for certain subject areas which they naturally excel at. This can continue as they grow into an adult. The gifted child starts to equate their personal value based on what they have achieved via their performance. This can start in childhood, for example when the gifted child arrives home having achieved well at school but the parent reacts in a negative way. If others criticise and are negative towards them, they plunge themselves into a territory of self-criticism and experience a sense of shame. If others are positive in their assessment of them, they have a neutral view of themselves. These two things can lead them to judge their self-worth. Self-identity usually starts in two ways for the gifted:įirstly, they usually begin by comparing themselves to others and secondly, they pay very close attention to listening to what others say to them about them. Most gifted persons grow up not knowing they are gifted until identified in later years at school or through the person pursuing answers as to why they feel different in their lives or careers.

Below I highlight the start of how a gifted person develops through to common thinking traits they all potentially share. Take examples of gifted Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Nicole Kidman & Quentin Tarantino all masters in their fields but as gifted individuals think quite differently to the average. When you meet a gifted person, you are meeting an individual that brings emotions, feelings and thinking at a far more deeper level than the average person and it shows in the work they do.

Gifted adults