Skip to main content

The Risk Averse Genius

Fear of failure and humiliation is a common characteristic of gifted individuals. It’s a negative trait that develops gradually; you can call it the curse of the gift. It all begins when people start noticing their genius and praise starts flowing in from left, right and center. Parents, relatives, teachers etc. make it their business to remind these brainy tots that they’re super brilliant at every available opportunity.  Unfortunately, the frequent wows and praises work against them in the long-run as they resort to shunning activities and challenges, which they perceive difficult for fear of failing to meet the obvious expectations of everyone.
As the negative trait of fear of failure and humiliation develops, it becomes like a thick dark cloud that hampers the brightness of a shining star. And if corrective measures are not employed to arrest the situation early enough, the cloud can linger indefinitely. As they grow older their brightness become duller and duller and eventually, the once promising geniuses turn into perennial under-performers or if they’re lucky enough they end up being jack of all trades, master of none.
Nurturing Genius
There is no telling how much potential geniuses possess. These people are intellectual power houses; some of their innovations to date are mind blowing. If you try to comprehend them you’ll crack your brain. ‘The perennial under-performers’ and ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ mentioned above, possess equal or even higher abilities than some renowned geniuses. The only difference between them is lack of nurturance of their gifts.
They may have begun well, being darlings of everyone for their smart brains and effortless intelligence. Praises and awards were their lot, but as life presented new experiences, they lacked courage to tackle new challenges, for fear of failure and humiliation. Their abilities turned rusty due to inactivity and their potential was buried under layers of fear. They became risk averse and slowly faded into oblivion. Now they’re past glory.
Rule of thumb
Geniuses have natural effortless intelligence. So please don’t interfere with its performance with your praises and wows, lest they get addicted to public opinion. If you must praise them, then do a little twist, praise their efforts not their brains. Praising their efforts will encourage them to take up more challenging activities in future and this way they’ll be confident enough to crack every problem that comes their way and provide those most needed solutions. I can’t think of a better way of engaging their abilities and harnessing their potential than this.
So whenever a genius does something that is incredibly smart/records an incredible achievement, forget about their intelligence and remark their efforts. If you keep on appreciating their efforts, you’ll push them further and further towards their optimal performance. In other words, you’ll help them tap into their brain power. For the only way of unlocking genius in gifted individuals is by engaging them in intellectually stimulating activities. In so doing, there will be no room for development of the negative trait of fear of failure and humiliation hence no risk averseness.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Injustice: The Demon of Doom

Injustice is an age-old vice that has tormented humanity since sin found its way to the world. It’s an agent of regression that fights against humanity and posterity. Many mortals have been subject to the burdensome yoke of Injustice at one time or another. With advancing of age, Injustice has gained momentum and has become like a fierce tsunami; it has shaken crucial pillars of our society. The world is writhing in pain in the claws of the demon of doom. Injustice fans the flames of many social evils on one hand and squeezes life out of the dreams of its victims on the other. The despicable demon of doom has successfully managed to lord it over humans who apparently have a strange weak willpower to fight back. This vice is older than all of us; we come, suffer helplessly, lament endlessly and go. Every time a new life checks-in on earth, the world heaves a sigh of relief and rejoices that finally someone has arrived to take the bull by its horns and put to an end the rut...

Modern Family Dilemma

Modern Setting Breadwinning Every Morning Dad and Mom leave the house and go out on a breadwinning mission. End Month Dad and Mom bring home their pay checks. Pen and paper in hand, its budgeting time. Bills, investments etc. are the agendas. On the first day of the month they both hit the road again and the cycle continues. Housework Don’t even go there. It’s a tug of war. Dad says, “Babe where is my food. Please iron my shirt. Feed the baby. And blah blah blah ….” Mom goes like, “Dude are you for real, do I look like a super machine that works on a 24 hr basis while you do 12?” Dad either walks out of the door enraged and goes out to look for consolation elsewhere or retorts bitterly, “you’re my wife and housework is your duty, didn’t your mama train you? Go get my food and stop complaining.” Mom is now weeping and mutters amid sobs, “but honey we’re both doing the breadwinning don’t you think we should share the housework too.” Dad sinks deeper into t...

Ignorance: The Silent Killer

Ignorance is the greatest known enemy of humanity. And who could have said it better than God through Prophet Hosea in a message to His chosen people (Israel)? He said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Most social evils in our society stem from ‘limited knowledge’ or 'lack of it'. Take a closer look at your life and recall how many mistakes you’ve made, how many opportunities you’ve missed out, how many ugly outcomes you were unable to prevent etc. all because you were not in the know. A person’s quality of life is to a great extent determined by what they know. The more you’re aware of your circumstances and how to deal with them (i.e. good understanding of your inner potential and how you can tap it and leverage it, coupled with a good understanding of the systems in the world, because a person cannot function in isolation) the greater your chances of experiencing a better life. In short, much suffering plaguing humanity would be avoided if knowledge ch...