Discovering Your Giftedness
A Step-By-Step Guide
Instructions for Telling Your Giftedness Stories
(1) Find a partner, as described earlier.
(2) Set a time and place to tell your stories. Choose a spot where you won’t be interrupted or distracted. Set aside or disable any communication devices.
(3) Plan on about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to tell your stories.
(4) If you want, make an audio recording while you tell your stories. That way, you’ll be able to go back later and check the details of what you actually said.
(5) Follow this format in telling each of your stories:
First, set the story up by establishing the context and describing how you got involved in the activity.
Next, walk your way through the story, describing in as much detail as possible the main steps and key actions that you took. Describe what you did in a way that your partner can see you in action.
Finally, describe what was satisfying about the activity. What did you most enjoy the most about doing it? Don’t just say, “I liked it.” See if you can put a description to that satisfaction (for more pointers on this, click here).
Click here for additional tips on telling your stories >>
(6) As you tell your stories, your partner should use a Giftedness Story form to write down some of the key words you use, especially:
• Action words (verbs). For example: planned, taught, evaluated, read, built, arranged, etc.
• The things or people you worked on, with, or through. For example: dog, team, machine, guitar, idea, group, etc.).
Click here for a blank Giftedness Story form >>
Copy off eight of these pages for your partner to use in recording the details of each story.
Click here for additional tips for your partner on recording information from your stories >>
Click here to see a sample of a Giftedness Story form filled in >>
(7) Tell your partner a total of eight Giftedness Stories. If you’ve already written expansions for eight of your stories, use those. If not, just pick eight, preferably from different periods of your life. You might even consider letting your partner choose which stories you tell.
(8) Count on taking between 10 and 15 minutes to tell each story. If you’re finishing your stories in 5 minutes or less, you’re probably not giving enough detail. On the other hand, if you’re spending 20 minutes per story, you may be going into details that are not relevant to what you did and how you did what you did.
When you're fished telling your giftedness stories, take a break.
You’ve earned it! You don’t have to go right into the next part of this exercise. In fact, you may want to set another time to meet with your partner in order to look for your motivational pattern. Just do whatever feels most comfortable to you.