For the Gifted: Living at the Edge of Competence
In transforming potential into performance, talent and achievement, and giftedness into expertise, Dr. Maureen Neihart has identified seven crucial mental competencies. These include a tolerance for stress or anxiety, ability to take realistic risks, goal setting, mental rehearsal, mood management, positive explanatory style or optimism, and finally reconciling acceptance and approval issues.
She posits that in creating true competent experts, talent is not enough. Neither is hard work. Childhood talent is not a factor that explains elite performance in adulthood, and the time (may it be weeks, months or years) we’ve spent practicing our work won’t necessarily make us experts. Intrinsic motivation is the key to success, and the seven mental competencies above are crucial in honing our talent.
I will touch on each one eventually, but I’d like to start with that which struck a personal chord — taking realistic risks. Dr. Neihart argues that to truly develop our talents, one must live at the edge of competence. Note the following diagram.

We all have something we’re already good at and comfortable with — that is the comfort zone. Beyond the comfort zone (light blue area) is everything that’s possible to us. Those possibilities require more effort and hard work to achieve. Everything else beyond that line is the realm of the impossible — no matter how hard you try, you just can’t achieve it.
For example, I’ve been learning tennis. At where I am now, I cannot defeat Roger Federer (World No. 1 to those who don’t know) and that falls in the realm of the impossible. Perhaps, I can defeat someone who has had a month head start in training. That game will be the fight of my life but it’s possible. What is in my comfort zone right now is the thrice weekly training I have with my personal coach. Those drills and exercises I can do. However, I will not improve if I remain there.
What coach has done lately was to drill me harder. He would throw the balls faster and make me run harder. He would put more spin on the ball to make it harder to hit, or would drop the ball close to the net when I am far behind the baseline. He would do that and expect me to return the ball. When I don’t, he would do it again until I do. This line between what I can still do and barely can (red line) is the edge of competence.
Filed under: Essays and Commentaries | Tagged: Education, gifted, Pisay, psychology, Society, Students, Teaching, youth | No Comments »
Social Science 2: Asian Studies teacher,

















