Nine Dilemmas of Everyday Genius
Passionate, happy, patient people face these trade-offs every day. How will you choose?
The underlying principles upon which a fulfilling evolutionary life are founded ā a life that is rationally passionate, serenely active, creatively mature, energetically patient, and a genuine gift to all ā hinge on reconciling the Nine Dilemmas of Everyday Genius:
Either define, accept, and develop your gifts, or deny your gifts by fulfilling the wishes of others.
Either honor your need for independence and find some true peers, or tolerate isolation, misunderstanding, or loneliness.
Either take reasonable risks and avoid those that endanger your mission, or play it safe on the sidelines, risking a life full of regrets.
Either manage the boundaries in interpersonal relationships to be wisely discriminating, or pass up intimacy altogether.
Either listen to inner guidance and activate your soul’s intention, or refuse to hear and bury your creative spirit in a one-dimensional reality.
Either use your exceptional gifts to benefit humankind, or indulge yourself in spirit-devouring self-gratification.
Either value the different traits and abilities of others, or remain immaturely intolerant of others, chronically impatient and perennially disappointed.
Either turn frustration and rejection into creative energy, or cling to resentment and surrender your dreams.
Either initiate a balanced plan of Self-maintenance strategies, or wait for external sources to dictate and control your life.
(From The Gifted Adult, by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, Psy.D.)
