Developing multiple talents is an adventure – but not a sure thing

developing multiple talents, scanner personality, gifted adult books, gifted adult information, gifted adult personality

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In this American Express commercial, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) of the tv comedy 30 Rock is called on for a series of executive and creative decisions, as well as being a mom. As a multitalented multitasking marvel, Lemon handles the demands with relative ease.

But this is, after all, a fictional character and a commercial.

In real life, do people with multiple talents realize their abilities as readily and fully as they want?

Tina Fey herself is certainly multitalented.

She is a writer, screenwriter, comedian, actress, and producer.

The Mommy Track’d blog enthuses, “Tina Fey must have the secret. It’s not easy to juggle a high-flying career, a marriage and a three-year-old daughter all at once. But Fey’s doing it and doing it pretty well. She’s married with a toddler and gets up to go to work every day, writes the show or at least part of it, and then also stars in the program. Somehow she makes it work. One of her Emmys was for writing, the other for her acting.”

In an interview, Fey said, “I don’t think you should limit yourself. The sky is the limit. Your dreams and goals are only as big as you make them. It literally is a full time job juggling all three positions [acting , writing, producing 30 Rock]. Aside from my job, I’m a full-time mommy too.” [Associated Content]

Achievement and self-realization aren’t assured

But that level of achievement and fulfillment does not hold for all gifted and talented adults. Maybe not for most.

Author Marylou Kelly Streznewski says in her book Gifted Grownups, “For too long society has believed that if you aren’t president of General Motors, you aren’t gifted. If the estimates of the researchers are correct, and between 3% and 5% of the population is gifted, then we are talking about several million people.

“What the interviews [in the book] revealed was that a gifted person of multiple talents may not be as fortunate as a multitalented Bill Bradley (Rhodes scholar, basketball star, senator, author). He or she may be struggling through a series of false starts into careers and college majors, trying desperately to find the one that clicks.”

[From my post Gifted Grownups book: "There are large numbers of frustrated gifted adults"]

Realizing you are exceptional

A therapist and head of a private adult school, Mary Rocamora has found “Simply knowing one is gifted often opens a floodgate of energy. Clients who came to therapy with established gifted identities were characteristically passionate, intense, and unafraid to unleash the shadow side of their personality.”

From her article Counseling Issues with Recognized and Unrecognized Gifted Adults – an article, she notes, “is based on my own experience over the last 13 years counseling multi-talented performers, writers, metaphysicians, and people who were clearly gifted in self-transformation. I have worked extensively with two types of gifted clients: those who knew they were gifted and were highly self-actualizing in their field, and those whose giftedness was unrecognized, masked, under-utilized, or thwarted in some way.”

One way to learn more about your real talents is to find and engage your passions.

Chris and Janet Attwood write on their site The Passion Test: “People who are passionate work harder, do better work and more motivated than those who aren’t. Needless to say they also enjoy their work more.

“Who do you think has the greatest opportunity to prosper when times are tough? The person who hates their work and has to drag themselves to work every day, or the person who loves what they’re doing and can hardly wait to get to it?”

In their articles on the Scanner personality and Renaissance Souls, Barbara Sher and Margaret Lobenstine write about “bringing a passionate attention” to a variety of interests, simultaneously or serially.

Multitalented doesn’t mean you have to do it all at once, all the time.

And there are many factors that can encourage or inhibit talents.

In her article Common Misconceptions About the Gifted, Mary Rocamora notes “the term ‘gifted’ refers to individuals who, in addition to high intelligence, share personality traits such as perfectionism, introversion, intensity, sensitivity, idealism, and overexcitability.

“As Abraham Maslow noted, giftedness can manifest in a myriad of ways, although we don’t typically reward our gifted auto mechanics and gifted homemakers.

“Another misconception is that ability automatically leads to high achievement, that compelling talent will overcome all obstacles.

“As children, many of us heard inspiring stories about eminent men and women who did just that. However, the reality is that there are both circumstantial and psychological factors that can adversely affect the actualization of the gifted.

“Poverty, ethnicity, opportunity, lack of understanding about the nature of giftedness in the family, and being female are circumstances that can impede talent development.”

Adult eminence

Ellen Winner, PhD says, “We cannot assume a link between early giftedness, no matter how extreme, and adult eminence. The factors that predict the course of a life are multiple and interacting. Over and above level of ability, important roles are played by personality, motivation, the family environment, opportunity, and chance.”

From her book: Gifted Children : Myths and Realities.

Still there are many, many inspiring examples of people who show we can overcome obstacles and contribute our talents to this great journey.

The photo is Gordon Parks (1912-2006), often referred to as a renaissance man: film work, poetry, photography, music, novels…