Signs of giftedness

Traits and characteristics of giftedness

Giftedness can appear in many forms, reflected in a wide range of traits and life experiences. Reading through these characteristics can be both insightful and reassuring — many puzzle pieces may suddenly fall into place. Below is a comprehensive list of possible traits. Remember that not every gifted person will have all of them, and traits can combine in many different ways; there is no single type of “gifted person”.

Intelligence and creativity:

• you have above-average intelligence (IQ > 130)

• you learn quickly, grasp complex concepts fast, and make large leaps in thinking

• You are or were mentally precocious, showing rapid development and/or an adavanced development stage

• you have a high self-reflective ability and a natural drive for personal growth and development

• you have a good memory and quickly see connections that others often miss

• you have analytical insight and problem-solving skills

• you have the ability to clearly define problems and ideas, and you can assess the quality of ideas

• you think outside conventional frameworks, play with knowledge, and make unusual combinations that are not obvious to others

• when problems arise, you can quickly come up with several good solutions

• your ideas are creative, original, and you like exploring things

• you come up with new theories and structures

• you are able to apply acquired knowledge effectively, use your ideas in everyday life, and easily transfer learned skills to new areas

• you approach issues cross-disciplinary and from different perspectives

• you always want to gain knowledge, reading and gathering a lot of information

• you have a highly developed curiosity and ask endless "why" questions – why something is and how it works

• You have a large vocabulary and are linguistically skilled, with or without a distinctive use of language

• you have a vivid imagination and an unusual sense of humor and language

Social and emotional:

• You are highly sensitive, intuitive and have strong empathy

• you understand a person even before they have finished speaking and you “know” things without knowing how you know them

• you are sensitive to subtle signals from the environment, to the emotions and moods of others, and you often feel these within yourself

• driven by curiosity and genuine interest in others, you ask profound questions and follow up to gain deeper understanding

• You become easily overstimulated in crowded or new environments, which can cause dysfunction or extreme fatigue

• one moment you’re operating at 150% and feel capable of anything, the next moment you struggle to get started or see a way forward

• you are loyal in friendships and highly reliable

• you feel you are "different" from others, either being an outsider now or having been one in the past

• you often repeat things because you feel they don’t come across clearly

• you think differently, which often leads to being misunderstood by peers

• You have “unusual” interests and a different sense of humor, which can make it difficult to connect with peers

• at school, you were either (1) the weird girl/boy, (2) quietly blending in, and/or (3) achieving high grades but feeling disconnected from the group

• you are intense and often perceived as too much; some gifted people have adapted to their environment over the years, making this less noticeable

• you have difficulty truly connecting with others (non-like-minded people) because you struggle to sync on the same conversational frequency

• you sometimes doubt your own way of thinking because no one else shares your perspective

• others often tell you not to be so serious or complicated

• you experience feelings of (existential) loneliness and you often feel misunderstood

Work, life and society:

• you are idealistic and you think deeply about life early on

• you have a need for autonomy, difficulty with authority and a strong sense of justice

• you have a critical mindset and do not blindly accept rules and traditions; you question them

• you are self-directed, self-learning and self-determining; you may also be autodidactic and teach yourself new skills

• You are critical, stubborn and/or head-wise ;)

• you work on many things at the same time

• ou are entrepreneurial and know exactly how to improve something

• you set high standards, both for yourself and for others, which often leads to disappointment

• You are easily dissatisfied with your own performance (perfectionism)

• you often feel like you are underperforming or not reaching your potential

• you have strong concentration skills, and when something truly interests you, you can focus intensely and work on it for long periods, losing awareness of everything else around you.

• you can struggle both with starting projects (because there are so many possibilities and so much to do) and with continuing or finishing projects (once your interest has waned)

• you lack motivation to complete things you don't see the point of, which can quickly lead to boredom

• you tend to procrastinate and work best just before deadlines

• you dislike repetition; you enjoy experimenting and doing things in a different way

• your though processes often move too fast for colleagues and managers, so you are often knocked back or misunderstood

• you are impatient, especially when work is simple or boring to you

• you have a wide range of interests and quickly lose interest in work, friendships, or partners

• you change jobs more frequently than most people around you and are often seen as a chronic job-hopper who can’t stay anywhere long, or…

• you have adapted to society and the system, doing what is expected of you, but in the process, you’ve lost contact with yourself and your identity, and you no longer trust your own intuition

• you lack self-confidence and often have a negative self-image due to feelings of insecurity, (fear of) failure, perfectionism, or inferiority – or alternatively, due to disappointment, anger, guilt, indifference, or distrust

• you feel you are not fully using your potential, your unique talents and qualities, and you feel you are capable of much more than what you are currently doing

• you have difficulty finding rest and relaxation