Autonomy
Being self-directed and self-defined are traits of creatively talented people, but there may often be internal and external influences that compromise that autonomy.
Mary-Elaine Jacobsen [author of The Gifted Adult] notes in her article Giftedness in the Workplace that gifted adults “may fail to respect their own need for solitude, reflection, and time to daydream or play with concepts and ideas. They may shame themselves when their strong bids for autonomy result in a pattern of butting heads with authority figures…”
Earl Nightingale [founder of personal development company Nightingale-Conant] says in his article Life of the Unsuccessful, “More than any other factor, perhaps, the unsuccessful person can usually be identified with a group that is at the mercy of events. The successful person seeks autonomy and makes his or her own plans and has the self-esteem and inner excitement and knowledge to know that those plans can be followed.”
In his article Hey, grads: Have you figured out the rest of your life yet? [usatoday.com 6/11/2006] Chris Ballard notes that people “want to feel in control. While researching a book about people who are very good at unusual jobs , I found something grads would be wise to consider: the perception of autonomy is often more powerful than actual autonomy. The people I spent time with — characters that included a ‘lumberjill’ and a wall-walking repairman — were often fine with their long hours and the way their professions at times consumed their lives. The reason: They felt they were doing the work of their own free will.”
Ballard’s book is The Butterfly Hunter : Adventures of People Who Found Their True Calling Way Off the Beaten Path
Another book - Affect, Creative Experience, And Psychological Adjustment by Sandra Walker Russ - notes that a list of core characteristics of creative individuals includes high valuation of aesthetic qualities in experience, broad interests, attraction to complexity, high energy, independence of judgement, autonomy and a firm sense of self as “creative.”
[The image above is from The Wall, 1982]
