Make Your Asynchronies Fruitful and Blissful

Extraordinary Minds: Portraits of Exceptional Individuals

and an Examination of Our Extraordinariness

by Howard Gardner 1997 Basic Books

Gardner’s investigates the exceptional and unique gifts of Mozart (The Master), Freud (The Maker), Woolf (The Introspector), and Gandhi (the Influencer).  He discusses the building blocks of extraordinariness, as well as both ordinary and extraordinary development.  In the last section of the book he discusses Three Key Common Elements of the four, and then provides Lessons for the Ordinary.

What I want to share here is my excitement about the Three Key Elements and his Lessons for the Ordinary.  Here are some quotes:

·      To begin with, one must have enormous dedication to one’s domain and one’s mission.  At a minimum, it takes ten years of steady application to master a domain.

·      My studies suggest some lessons about milieus that are conducive to extraordinariness. 

o   The orderly bourgeois life – dull though it may seem – continues to have much to recommend it.

o   It is advantageous for the young person to encounter adults who believe that one should work steadily in order to improve one’s skill in one or more domains.

·      Role models are crucial.  Either directly or through books, films, television, the aspiring youth ought to be exposed to individuals who pursue their mission even when the going gets rough.

·      …Become acquainted with other individuals of talent and sort out her mission in the milieu in which it is likely to be played out.

·      …Exposed to extraordinary models, ponder the lessons embodied in those models; and have the opportunity to enact critical practices in a relatively protected setting.

THREE KEY ELEMENTS:  Reflecting, Leveraging, Framing – these features are regularly associated with extraordinary accomplishment, indeed, that interact with one another in a dynamic way.  Reflecting is fundamental – the capacity to assume distance on oneself and one’s experiences proves the sine qua non of effective accomplishment.  That reflection typically proceeds in two directions: first, toward and examination of one’s own strengths and liabilities; second, toward an examination of the lessons from daily experiences.

·      Reflecting

o   Devote effort to understanding what has happened to us and what it means – what we are trying to achieve and whether we have succeeded.

o   Regular, conscious consideration of the events of daily life, in the light of longer-term aspirations.

o   Monitor one’s potential audiences – Seek feedback and listen to what others are saying.  Do not be overwhelmed; do not jettison your own critical faculties.  Savor the careful feedback of individuals knowledgeable in the domain.

·      Leveraging

o   We are all deviants from the norm in one or more particulars – in the accidents of our birth, our combination of intelligences, the contours of our personality, the particular experiences we undergo at home, in school, on the streets.  But it is less the asynchrony per se that distinguishes extraordinary individuals: crucial is the extent that they can identify this unusualness and make it work for them…to develop the capacity to ignore areas of weakness and, in effect, to ask: “In which ways can I use my own strengths in order to gain a competitive advantage in the domain in which I have chosen to work?”

§  V. Woolf, self confident to a point, was fragile in the face of criticism…By relying on written words and private conversations, while avoiding face-to-face public debates, she met others on her strongest ground.

o   The more that an individual can make use of his unique strengths in attacking a probable, the more likely that he will arrive at an approach that holds special, hitherto unanticipated promise for illuminating that problem.

·      Framing

o   The capacity to construe experiences in a way that is positive, in a way that allows one to draw apt lessons and, thus freshly energized, to proceed with one’s life

o   Critical is the capacity to see not so much the bright side of a setback as the learning opportunity it offers – to be able to take what others might deem an experience to be forgotten as quickly as possible and instead to reflect on it, work it over, and discern which aspects might harbor hints about how to proceed differently in the future.

o   The cumulative effects of such framing should not be minimized.  Suppose, conservatively, that a future creator or leader has one experience a week from which she learns an important lesson:  a few hundred experiences will have accumulated within a few years.  This accomplishment certainly places the individual in quite a different niche from the individual who does not pause to reflect or draw lessons at all, and from the individual who wholly misinterprets such experiences….Thus it becomes a habit of life.

·      Lessons for the Ordinary

o   Through sustained effort it is possible for normal individual to master the key elements and levels of a domain.

o   ….The willingness to devote years to pondering the world of human beings, and the daring to embark on new paths.

o   Engage in regular and searching introspective activities; locate one’s areas of strength and build on them as much as possible; and interpret daily as well as “peak” and “trough” experiences in ways that are revealing rather than defeating.

o   Of perennial importance is attention to excellence and high standards.

To Summarize:

Discover your difference – the asynchrony with which you have been blessed or cursed – and make the most of it.  Make your asynchronies fruitful, blissful.  Take stock of your experiences – both those that you cherish and those that make you quake – and try to frame them in positive ways.