#Gifted lyrics free#

And they may be intolerant of mistakes, criticism, or setbacks - something that can hamper their progress.” Sounds familiar I’m sure everyone knows someone who fits this description. They may not believe that effort and intelligence are incompatible, but the fixed mindset is still toxic: Dweck says, “they may feel that their talent makes them superior to other people. Dweck asserts that fixed mindsets can and need to be changed into growth mindsets, which will help us be able to finally fulfill our potential - we have to let go of the “cloak of specialness… built to feel safe, strong, and worthy” that you probably have if you can identify as a Gifted Kid Burnout.īut of course, not all gifted kids end up as failures or burnouts, and work to become quite successful. The fixed mindset opposes the growth mindset’s idea of developing traits through effort Dweck observes this fixed mindset as believing “success is about being more gifted than others, that failure does measure you, and that effort is for those who can’t make it on talent.” She claims that any advice about “effort being the key to success” can’t be put into practice by anyone with a fixed mindset, because “their basic mindset… is telling them something entirely different”.

This growth mindset rejects labels (even positive ones like “gifted”) and instead, as Dweck states, “ that a person’s true potential is unknown (and unknowable) that it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.” The growth mindset pushes people to make themselves smarter - the fixed mindset rests on its laurels of already being “smart”.ĭweck describes measuring people’s mindsets by this question: “Did they believe their intelligence was a fixed trait or something they could develop?” If they believed in the former, they had a fixed mindset if the latter, a growth mindset. Realizing the harm that labels can do, positive or negative, and moving on to adopt the “growth mindset” would be incredibly helpful to anyone who was slapped with words like “gifted” which define their intelligence andtalent. A lot of parallels are already appearing between the fixed mindset and Gifted Kid Burnout. Research done by Professor Carol Dweck (author of Mindsets: The New Psychology of Success) shows that giving kids positive labels such as “gifted”, “talented”, or “smart” in their formative years pushes them into what she calls a “fixed mindset”: believing that qualities are “set in stone”, “fearing challenge and devaluing effort” - with a fixed mindset, people “ want to do anything that could expose their flaws and call into question their talent”. Why would these “gifted” kids, who supposedly showed so much promise in their early years, end up depressed, anxious shells of their former selves in adulthood instead of the high-achievers they were supposed to be? Why do so many people seem to be able to relate to “Gifted Kid Burnout”, anyway? I think I’ve managed to figure out one of the biggest causes of this issue. This oft-shared “Gifted Kid Burnout Bingo” is the image that really sums up this phenomenon. I believe that this pushed me into a certain mindset one that needs to be changed, if I want to get back on my feet.Ĭan you relate to this image? If you can, read on. So, who’s to blame for this? Myself? The smothering expectations my parents put on me, or the incompetency of my teachers? My low socioeconomic status, and tumultuous home life? All of these may have contributed to my downfall - however, what I think did the most damage was being labeled as “gifted” in the first place. They (or you) had a “reading level” higher than normal for their grade: high-school or college-level? Well, none of that really matters today right now, there’s a good chance they’re sitting in a depressed haze playing video games and smoking weed, while still thinking they’re better than everyone else for some reason. Chances are, you probably know someone (or, you are someone) who did well academically back in their early school days, and maybe even got into one of those programs for “gifted and talented” kids.

Sounds like a joke, right? Unfortunately, for myself and many other people labeled as “gifted/talented” in their early years, it’s a lot closer to the truth than you may think.

#Gifted lyrics free#

Gifted Kid Burnout: Breaking Free of “Smartness”