Am I gifted?

Giftedness

You’re asking yourself, “Am I gifted?”

Or rather, you’re asking yourself, “Why is it that all this stuff about giftedness seems to really fit for me? Surely I can’t be gifted, can I? I mean, isn’t everyone like this? Am I really that special? Isn’t it really arrogant of me to even think I might be gifted?”

And so it goes: the starting phase of the giftedness exploration and self-acceptance journey.

Let’s have a checklist. A nice, grounded checklist so you can tell straight away if you should carry on reading.

Signs of being gifted

Intensity. High.
Sensitivity. High.
Perceptivity. High.
Fast learner in various domains
Quick mental processing / recall
Mental flexibility / fluidity / agility
Ability to handle complex thoughts and solve complex problems
Curiosity, and the willingness and energy to investigate, leading to…
…a broad, rich and eclectic bank of knowledge, skills, and random facts
Multiple interests spanning different fields, careers and hobbies (see also: Polymath, twice-exceptional, and ADHD)
Other people comment (positively, negatively) on how clever (too clever) you are, how good a memory you have, how intense you are
You read checklists about signs of being gifted, agree to most if not all of the points, and still have doubts, concerns, questions, and want to find multiple sources to cross-check. A few times. And then some.

So Am I Gifted?

Let’s be frank, here. If you weren’t gifted, it’s highly unlikely that you’d be reading this of your own accord.

You might be asking, “but am I really gifted?” – and this is either going to be a question of a) doubt in your self-assessment (usually a calibration issue) b) a longish legacy of people saying unkind things to you or c) a question about how gifted you are. Options a) and b) are good material for self-reflection, people-watching, journalling, or gifted therapy. Option c) requires a little more scrabbling about the internet into the topics of being moderately / highly / exceptionally or profoundly gifted.

You could go for a diagnostic giftedness test, of course. The professional validation can be important. And after you go through the test, and receive your results, there will most likely still be a period of exploring, investigating, learning about and validating your own experiences through matching them up with those of other gifted people. Not to mention processing and integrating all of this and what it means for you practically, emotionally, etc.

Self-diagnosis is a valid route – although perhaps we should say self-identification or self-recognition here.

You might also be wondering about – or experiencing – some of the typical things gifted people often encounter in their lifetimes: depression, loneliness, overthinking, emotional disconnect, and other conditions. Maybe understanding your giftedness might help make some/all of these go away (spoiler: it can certainly help lessen them).

You are probably going to continue your quest to figure out if you’re really gifted or just making it up. This might take anywhere from not much time at all, to several years before you come back to an updated version of this page and go, “oh, hmm. Looks like I am actually gifted after all.”

As you explore giftedness, you’re likely to do it in a gifted kinda way. To whit: thoroughly. Intensively. Intensely. Your mind is going to be making connections all over the place. Realisations. Validations. And a hefty dose of self-doubt – can you really trust your own judgement on this matter?

I’ll leave you to go find out…

What’s next?

1. Do nothing

Always an option. But this far down the page… I don’t think so.

2. Do It Yourself

But of course. Explore the world! Find out all the things. Exhaust the supply! Sign up for my newsletters for articles like this and other writings. Or buddy up…

3. Do It With Someone

Ah, the short-cut. Get someone else to assess you. A useful process, and very satisfying to have a professional stamp of approval.

Then there’s another option. I don’t offer assessments. But I do offer a conversational space where you can explore, make sense of, and figure out your own giftedness alongside someone who’s done it for herself and other people. If you want to figure out your giftedness with my brain alongside yours, drop me a message.