The Genius in ALL of Us

At one of my most recent courses (Foundations with CrunKeyser), they suggested this book to read.....and like the follower and believer in them that I am.....I wrote it down on my suggested readings page in the course binder. These two men that taught the course are unbelievable. Humbling to be in a room of such art and genius, but the humility that they carry is even more challenging.

The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk

I have only just begun but immediately like many of my other readings that they have suggested: Blink, The Tipping Point, Outliers......this book echoed the very training I have received to this point.  It encompasses both the passion I have for the bible and for manual therapy. It discusses the purposes that perfect practice and the amount of practice can grow in all of us. I read a few passages to Jody and just gripping the book I felt like my heart would explode just because something could be saying the very things that I have been telling myself over and over again.

  It has been a process in me that started when I was very young. Piano by our wonderful local organist in the town where I grew up. She was composed and pretty. And demanded the very best out of a person. Pushed for it. Never settled for less because she saw the untapped potential in each of her students. She saw what we could not and helped us, encouraged us, corrected us as any good teacher would. She was truly great because rather than stopping at good she pressed for us to practice and practice some more. She taught us the art of being disciplined. Through that there were a few of us that grew up together and by the time we were in high school we all went to competitions and excelled and ALL placed at state. That teacher knew the benefits of hard work and practice and taught us how not to quit when things/songs/days were tough but to keep on pressing and perfecting. She was the greatest artist I knew at that age and I cannot thank her enough. Those very things she impressed upon me through countless lessons about piano have far carried over into life. They are precious lessons now. I long for my kids to want to work hard and see the results of hard work and practice. (and not be allergic to it!!) I hope they will love hard work and dedication as much as I do. This is a scary time when it seems that more and more people (kids and adults) are just not willing to tap into their fullest potential. Although this is not a christian book, I apply these principles the same. God deserves are best...not our leftovers. Not my bad attitude. My focus, my hard work....committed only to Him. Let me close in sharing a short passage from the book by David Shenk and hope that it spurs you as much as it did me!

......There is an explanation, a simple and good one, but it implications are radical for family and for society.  It is this: some people are training harder----and smarter----than before. (It gives the example of Ted Williams in baseball.)  We're better at stuff because we've figured out how to become better. Talent is not a thing....it is a process.

...In recent years, a mountain of scientific evidence has emerged that overwhelmingly suggests a completely different paradigm: not talent scarcity, but latent talent abundance.  In this conception, human talent and intelligence are not permanently in short supply like fossil fuel, but potentially plentiful like wind power. The problem isn't our inadequate genetic assests, but our inability, so far, to tap into what we already have.

....But the new science suggests that few of us know our true limits, that the vast majority of us have not even come close to tapping what scientists call our "unactualized potential."  It also suggests a profound optimism for the human race.  "We have no way of knowing how much unactualized genetic potential exists," writes Cornell University developmental psychologist Stephen Ceci.


This was my FAVORITE:
Our abilities are not set into genetic stone. They are soft and sculptable, far into adulthood.  With humility, with hope, and with extraordinary determination, greatness is something to which any kid---any age----can aspire.
Partial Excerpts from David Shenk....The Genius in All of Us