Online podcast presentations by multiple “Thought-Leaders And Role Models on Extraordinary Achievement – Helping You Succeed Under Pressure”

Free live online presentations May 21st – May 25th.
Recordings available after the Summit.

From the site:

Why do some people perform at their best under pressure and others choke?

What’s the difference between those who not only survive but thrive when faced with incredible challenge – and those who cut their losses and throw in the towel?

It’s not skill, talent or knowledge. And it’s not superior training or genes.

The “X factor” — that unmistakable quality that escapes easy definition — is mental toughness. And you know it when you see it.

… It’s the 140-pound farm kid from Nebraska who’s never seen the ocean before making it through the rigorous Navy SEALs training – while the former Olympic athlete drops out.

… It’s basketball unknown Jeremy Lin coming out of the D-League to lead the Knicks on a winning streak.

… It’s the 13-year-old winner of the National Spelling Bee spending countless hours in solitary practice with numerous spelling study guides and the dictionary to steadily improve her final ranking during five consecutive years of competition.

… And it’s tech entrepreneur Eric Migicovsky persevering in the face of rejection by potential investors to raise a record $7.1 million to fund development of his innovation through crowd-sourcing

Across every arena, the ability to drive relentlessly toward a goal despite failure, adversity and plateaus — to display grit when the going gets rough — that’s mental toughness.

One of the free presentations:

“Choke: Why We Blunder Under Pressure and How The Secrets of the Brain Can Help Get It Right”

• The “curse of expertise” and how the way pressure affects our performance depends on the activity and the type of memory required
• The “Obama effect” and other common stereotypes on performance
• Techniques that cure choking

LIVE: Thursday, May 24th at 9:00 AM PDT | 12:00 pm EDT | 6:00 PM CEST (Free recording available for 24 hours after)

SIAN BEILOCK, Ph.D, is a psychology professor at The University of Chicago and one of the world’s leading experts on the brain science behind “choking under pressure” and the many factors influencing all types of performance: from test-taking to public speaking to your golf swing.

She is the author of Choke: What The Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To.

See the list of presenters and sign up for

The Mental Toughness Summit

It doesn’t always work out that way.

In her Unwrapping the Gifted post “Multipotentiality,” K-12 gifted education specialist Tamara Fisher quotes Bryant (a pseudonym), a graduating senior who lists his possible future careers as “applied psychologist, scientific psychologist, college teacher, philosophy, mathematics, architect, engineer.”

He says, “I find it difficult to choose between careers because I fear how large the choice is. Having many options available is pleasant, but to determine what I will do for many years to come is scary.”

Fisher notes, “Multipotentiality is the state of having many exceptional talents, any one or more of which could make for a great career for that person.

“Gifted children often (though of course not always) have multipotentiality. Their advanced intellectual abilities and their intense curiosity make them prime candidates for excelling in multiple areas. This can be both a blessing and a curse.

“On the bright side, they have many realistic options for future careers. But on the downside, some of them will struggle mightily trying to decide which choice to make.”

Fisher adds that having “so many great possible outcomes can be a source of debilitating stress.”

Too many options

In her post Multipotentiality: When High Ability Leads to Too Many Options, Lisa Rivero describes Jason, a college junior, who “is trying to decide what to do after graduation. He is leaning strongly toward graduate school but is unsure of whether he wants to stay in the United States or study abroad. An honors student at a liberal arts university, he has taken a wide variety of courses–from chemistry and calculus to philosophy and political science–and he has gotten As in all of them.

“While he knows he is fortunate to have so many options available, he also sometimes panics that he will make the wrong choice and end up in a job he doesn’t like. If he gets a Ph.D. in political science, will he be tracked into being a college professor? If he pursues a master’s program in economics, will he regret not continuing with political science? And what about all of those classical languages he has studied? Were they just a waste of time?”

She adds, “This frustration can continue past adolescence as adults with multipotentiality may find themselves drifting from job to job, unable to settle in any spot long enough to know if it would satisfy over the long term, feeling that their lives and careers are a hodge-podge of failed attempts.”

Too little challenge?

In the case of Jason, Rivero writes, “Rather than indicating that he is equally good at everything, his college career thus far might instead be an indication that he is not being challenged at a level to show relative passions and aptitudes. Perhaps he would continue to thrive and be engaged in graduate-level math but find post-college classical languages more frustrating and less interesting.

“Alternatively, he might excel in a job that allows him to use his knowledge of Latin and Greek and Sanskrit but find that his interest in political science wanes once it becomes more specialized or practical. In addition, his temperament may determine whether the pursuit of research, teaching, or field work is the most comfortable fit.

RIvero explains, “The authors of the Journal of Counseling Psychology article describe this good fit as ‘optimal adjustment’ – a match between personal abilities, personal preferences, and requirements and rewards from the workplace environment.”

Parts of this article were adapted from Lisa Rivero’s book A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Teens: Living with Intense and Creative Adolescents. [The image is also from the article.]

And that can be true for adults too. Of course many people are able to realize multiple talents.

In my Psych Central post Amber Benson on Writing: Creating is Kind of Intoxicating, I wrote about actor Amber Benson (Tara on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) who also has multiple credits as a novelist and screenwriter, director and producer.

Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was often referred to as a renaissance man.

An obituary noted, “In addition to his photography, film work and poetry, he composed a symphony, sonatas, concertos, film scores, and wrote novels, instructional photography manuals, essays and three memoirs.” (From my post Being “scattered” and proud of it.)

But having advanced potential and exceptional capabilities in many talent areas also means, almost by definition, you are underachieving: you can’t do everything.

One of the pleasures of my life has been pursuing serial interests in often radically different fields: being a research assistant in genetics and later in left/right brain wave research; a visual effects camera operator, and multiple other jobs and pursuits.

But one of the ‘costs’ has been a life unmoored to any career, and many periods of anxiety and self-doubt.

Thankfully this series of sites I have created is not only creatively rewarding, but also of some value to other people.

Related:

Underutilized talents, too many aptitudes

The Too Many Aptitudes Problem, by Hank Pfeffer
“Most people have about four or five strong talents… Most jobs require about four or five. As many as 10% of the population has double that number of aptitudes… There is evidence that people with too many aptitudes (TMAs) are less likely to obtain advanced education and/or succeed in a career than those with an average number of talents.”

Adult underachievement – not living up to our high potential
In a very real sense, everyone may be called “underachieving” regardless of whether they are gifted or not. One short definition is “Performance below potential.”

Are you a scanner personality? Maybe all you need is a good enough job.
Barbara Sher writes about and leads retreats for Scanners – “also known as renaissance men and women, eclectic experts, happy amateurs and delighted dilettantes.”

Book: Your Own Worst Enemy: Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement
- by Kenneth W. Christian, PhD.

Related post: Adult Underachievement: Kenneth Christian, Ph.D. on living up to the “gifted” label – or not

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Book: Developing Multiple Talents – The personal side of creative expression
- by me, Douglas Eby
“Part book about creativity, part compendium of useful tidbits, quotations and research, and part annotated bibliography, this is a wildly useful and highly entertaining resource.” – Stephanie S. Tolan, fiction writer and consultant on the needs of the gifted.

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Program / ebook: Renaissance Business – “Specifically for the Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur”
Author Emilie Wapnick notes, “My resume reads like it belongs to ten different people. Music, film, web design, law, business, personal development, writing, dance, sexuality, education– all of these are or have been interests of mine. They come and go (and sometimes come again).

Video: A Disturbing Trend in the Blogosphere…
“Why are all these successful multipotentialite entrepreneurs telling us to “pick one thing” when they themselves USED their diverse background to build their business?!”

Related: The Productivity for Multipotentialites Course – “Ah, isn’t it lovely having so many different interests? Being a multipotentialite is wonderful, except when it comes to actually getting all of those great projects done.”

Productivity for Multipotentialites is “a complete productivity system for multipotentialites. Throughout the classes, you will be introduced to a number of practices and rituals to help you integrate all of your passions into your life, without the stress.”

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“The natural trajectory of giftedness in childhood is not a six-figure salary, perfect happiness, and a guaranteed place in Who’s Who.”
Linda Silverman – in her book Counseling the Gifted and Talented.

In her keynote address The Universal Experience of Being Out-of-Sync, Linda Silverman, Ph.D. argues that giftedness should not be defined as simply high achievement in school or recognized accomplishment in adult life.

“The fact is that achievement is very much a function of opportunity (Hollingworth, 1926), and greater opportunities for success are available to those who have greater financial resources.

“Achievement, particularly recognized individual achievement, is culturally determined. In some cultures, individuals shun individual recognition; instead, they value moral courage or collective prosperity for generations to come, and use their gifts for the good of the group.

“Another way of understanding giftedness is to see it as developmental advancement.

“In every culture, there are children who develop at a faster pace from early childhood on, are inquisitive to a greater degree than their agemates, generalize concepts earlier than their peers, demonstrate advanced verbal or spatial capacities at an early age, have superb memories, grasp abstract concepts, love to learn, have a sophisticated sense of humor, prefer complexity, are extraordinarily insightful, have a passion for justice, are profoundly aware, and experience life with great intensity.

“While these traits may or may not propel the individual to world renown, they appear to correlate with moral sensitivity in childhood and ethical development in adult life.

“Their sensitivity, intensity, awareness, and moral courage set these individuals apart from others throughout the lifespan.

“In some societies these characteristics are applauded while in others they are punished.”

On the Gifted Development Center page about the Advanced Development Journal there is a brief overview:

Are you an undetected gifted adult who needs more information on adult giftedness?

As a gifted adult, you may know you are different but not realize why.

Many gifted people experience:

* a sense of humor and creativity few others understand
* a sense of alienation and loneliness
* outrage at moral breaches that the rest of the world seems to take for granted
* being out-of-step and on a separate path

When you were a child, how many of the following characteristics were descriptive of you:

* Were you advanced in your development of speaking, reading, or other skills in early childhood?
* Were you fascinated with words or ideas?
* Did you ask a lot of questions?
* Did you have an unusual perspective of things and events?
* Were you a good problem solver?
* Did you have a good memory?
* Were you exceptionally sensitive?
* Did you have a great sense of humor?
* Were you insightful?
* Were you perfectionistic?
* Were you intense?
* Did you collect things and organize your collections?
* Were you a rapid learner?
* Did you show compassion for others?
* Did you enjoy older playmates and the company of adults?
* Were you argumentative?
* Did you have a large vocabulary?
* Did you have a creative imagination?
* Were you an avid reader?
* Did you have a wide range of interests?
* Did you like puzzles, mazes or numbers?
* Did you have a great deal of energy?
* Did you have a long attention span?

If many of these characteristics fit you, you are probably a gifted adult.

~~~

Achievement / Underachievement

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the book Outliers: The Story of Success, thinks people become outstanding – “outliers” on the upper end of intelligence, ability and achievement curves – only through many hours of concentrated effort.

See video in my High Ability site post Outliers and developing exceptional abilities.

A webinar by SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted): “Understanding and Treating Anxiety, Depression, Bipolar Disorder and Underachievement in Gifted Children, Adolescents and Young Adults” – presented by Jerald Grobman, M.D. – noted many social and emotional issues that may compromise the realization of advanced potential.

See a video excerpt from the webinar in my post Adult underachievement – not living up to our high potential.

[Photo from Davidson Institute for Talent Development / Young Scholars page]

gifted adults, gifted adult information, gifted adult personality, psychology of giftedness, high ability, high aptitude, advanced development

“It can’t be done” is never the truth.

What people really are saying when they utter these words is: “I don’t how how to do it.” Or, “it can’t be done the way we’ve always tried in the past.”

Or, “it can’t be done according to the only way I can think of doing it.”

Here’s why “it can’t be done” is never an accurate statement, no matter what you are referring to.

It is impossible to know anything, for certain, about the future.

Given what we know we might be able to make reasonable predictions about the future, but we never know everything that might be relevant.

Moreover, even if we did, things change all the time, making things that might have been very difficult yesterday relatively easy today.

Many things that were considered impossible years ago have since happened.

In fact, most “things” that exist today would have been considered impossible to someone living a couple of hundred years ago: airplanes, automobiles, television, space travel, heart transplants, and even indoor plumbing.

Actually we don’t have to go back that far.

The personal computer, the Internet, video Skype calls to and from anyplace in the world (free), and cell phones would have been considered impossible even 50 years ago.

Any yet we are certain we are telling the truth when we say to others (and to ourselves): “It can’t be done.”

Steve Jobs Regularly Did The Impossible

Doing more of what we did yesterday isn’t very difficult.

Even doing things a little differently or a little better isn’t very difficult.

A lot of people do more, different or better every day.

But doing something that has never been done before, that most people think is impossible isn’t that easy.

It takes guts. It requires us to ignore the naysayers and not fear failure.

Unfortunately most of us are all too willing to accept “it can’t be done” both from others and from ourselves.

> Continued: It Can’t Be Done.

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From a tribute to Steve Jobs:

‘Those who knew Jobs often spoke of his passion for his creations.

“It sounds ridiculous to talk about love when you are making a gadget,” said Larry Brilliant, the former director of Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, and a longtime friend of Jobs.

“But Steve loved his work, he loved the products he produced, and it was palpable,” Brilliant said.

“He communicated that love through bits of steel and plastic.”‘

From article: “To his millions of fans, he was simply Steve” By David Sarno and Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times October 6, 2011.

Biography: Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson. – The publisher describes the book as revealing that Jobs was “Driven by demons and could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. [The book] is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.”

~~

“Think Different” is an advertising slogan created for Apple Computer in 1997 by advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day. It was used in television commercials, print ads and a number of TV promos for Apple products. The slogan was discontinued in 2002.

Original Version: The original “Long version” appeared on posters made by Apple.

The Crazy Ones

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

[Source: Wikipedia/Think Different page.]

> See hundreds of posts about developing multiple talents on the main site (where you are now) and the related sites: click on TalentDevelop Sites in the menu bar above.

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In his famed Commencement Address, Steve Jobs also emphasized the value of thinking differently:

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“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.

“And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

— Steve Jobs, Stanford University Commencement, 2005 transcript:  ‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says.
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How many times have you attended a personal growth workshop, or listened to a self-help audio course, or viewed a set of DVDs designed to change your life?  Given the type of people who usually read my blog, probably most of you.

And how many times did you get a high when you completed the program … that dissipated shortly, leaving you almost where you were before you started?

Based on what many of you have told me, an awful lot of you.

Why don’t these courses that usually offer such valuable information produce lasting change?

Based on everything we know about change, they should.

But what if our assumption about what produces change is wrong?

> Continued: Why Self-Help Often Doesn’t Work … And What Does

“In my opinion, women need and want someone to look up to that they feel have the full sense of who they are, and says, ‘I’m great.’ ”

She also sees herself as unique: “I don’t see myself as ever being like anybody else. I don’t see myself as an heir.”

More quotes:

“When I say to you, there is nobody like me, and there never was, that is a statement I want every woman to feel and make about themselves.”

“I am focused on the work. I am constantly creating.”

See more in my Women and Talent post Lady Gaga: “I don’t see myself as ever being like anybody else.”

“My friend complained about how difficult it is these days to be an independent filmmaker, how hard it is to find government arts grants, how the audiences have all been ruined by Hollywood and how the world has lost its taste…etc, etc.”

[Photo apparently of Herzog working on his documentary Grizzly Man (2005), which he wrote and directed.]

Can you relate? I certainly can, at least to some degree. And those kinds of complaints can fit many other forms of creative expression besides filmmaking, and can contribute to (or be based on) limiting thinking and beliefs that hold us back.

Gilbert notes that Herzog replied to her friend, saying something along the lines of, “Quit your complaining. It’s not the world’s fault that you wanted to be an artist. It’s not the world’s job to enjoy the films you make, and it’s certainly not the world’s obligation to pay for your dreams. Nobody wants to hear it.

“Steal a camera if you have to, but stop whining and get back to work.”

She says there is deep value for her own creative work in his brusque advice.

Continued in post Stop Whining And Get Back To Work.

• Self-limiting beliefs

• Fears and insecurities. She admits, “I know what it’s like to be severely limited by fear.”

• Freiling notes when she was in college, she could not commit to a single major or career path.

She continues to have a wide-ranging impact on helping others, and comments, “I specialize in helping entrepreneurs create true wealth from the inside out.

“In the last few years, I’ve gone from being $30k in debt to building an online brand that brings in over $575k a year; all from following my heart, leveraging my talents, and becoming a force for inspiration and empowerment in the world.”

See a video in my post: Katie Freiling on her personal growth as an entrepreneur

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“This simple but powerful word got me thinking of all the different places someone who wanted to change course could start. Here are 6 tips to get you started on getting started.”

Item 4: “Start listening more to yourself and less to others. Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

“Unfortunately, even in childhood, our dreams too often get dismissed by others.”

Continued in her article The Key to Changing Course is to Start: 6 Tips on How to Get Started
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