The Gift in You: Discovering New Life Through Gifts Hidden in Your Mind (9 page)
Read The Gift in You: Discovering New Life Through Gifts Hidden in Your Mind Online
Authors: Caroline Leaf
Tags: #Religion & Science, #Christian Life, #Thought and Thinking, #General, #Religion, #Personal Growth, #Self-Actualization (Psychology)
CHAPTER ELEVEN:
{HOW TO COMPLETE THE GIFT PROFILE}
This Gift Profile has been developed over the past twenty years and is rooted in my theory of Geodesic Learning, which I developed to help understand the science of thought. For schools, businesses, ministries and individuals it has become an extremely useful tool in evaluating the structure of gifting. It is meant to encourage and guide us into realizing that we are all gifted at something, we just have to find it. There is something you can do that no one else can.
The profile is in a questionnaire format, arranged in seven different categories, each of which represents one of the Seven Pillars that make up your gift. Simply select a "yes" or "no" answer to each question. Circle "yes" if you think the question applies to you. Circle "no" if it does not.
Some questions may seem ambiguous, in which case you should follow your "gut instinct," circling "yes" or "no" according to your first re- action. Your immediate, instinctive reaction will be the most accurate.
If you feel that you are gifted in different areas of your life when you are at home, than when you are at the office, you have detected something very interesting at the heart of your gifting.
Each of us has a true-self, and each one of us also has been influenced by our environment and circumstances, adopting skills to function - adapting our gifting to our work situation and environment. So you may wish to complete the Gift Profile twice, once from a personal point of view and once from a professional and/or academic perspective.
Sometimes when people complete the Gift Profile for the first time, they can lose focus because their two roles (professional and personal) have become so intertwined that it becomes hard to separate them. As you complete the Gift Profile, you might find yourself thinking, "I don't really like doing this, but I have had to learn the skill," or "This doesn't come naturally to me, but I have developed this skill over the years."
If you find yourself saying this, then the skill you are evaluating, via the question you are reading, is not natural to you. You would need to circle "no" when you complete the Gift Profile from a personal perspective and "yes" when you complete it from a professional standpoint.
When you first complete the profile, use these questions to guide you:
- What do I like to do? (If you don't like it, don't select it!)
- What comes naturally to me?
- What appeals to me?
The second time you complete the profile, keep the following questions in mind:
- What have I had to develop to perform better academically, professionally and/or experientially? (For example, you may not naturally be organized but have had to train yourself in order to cope with your job or academics.)
- How has a particular skill or quality developed due to the nature of my work life environment or academic demands?
- What is it that I don’t like to do but have had to do or have learned to do in my work/learning/teaching/ home environment?
And remember:
- There is no right or wrong answer.
- You are not trying to impress anyone.
- Pure honesty is what is required.
- You are not supposed to score high on everything.
Most of the intelligences will be around 40-70%, a few around 70-80% and two or three might be higher. If you get a high score in most areas, you have either mixed your personal and academic profiles, or you have not been totally honest!
The highest scores, your strengths, focus on your abilities. These questions are just a sampling to give you an idea of where your strengths lie.
Please note, if you'd like your children to complete the Gift Profile, there are developmental aspects to the Gift Profile. The brain goes through growth spurts up to the age of eighteen years, which will affect the results of the profile. For example, in a young child from the ages of approximately five to eight years, the brain is going through a major growth spurt and is therefore still developing.
Over time, as the child's brain grows and matures, the scores will increase, but the dominant pillars will not change, unless a particular skill has been concentrated on and developed, like when piano lessons develop musical intelligence.
Remember that between the ages of eight and eleven, children may try too hard to give the answers they think the person asking the questions wants. So it is helpful to emphasize to younger children that it is good to say "no" to a question because what you are looking for is what they like, not what you as the teacher or mom wants them to like.
In effect, they may play the "school game." Younger children tend to be more natural. You also need to provide lots of examples for each of the questions for younger children.
Fill in your final percentages (blue for personal and red for professional /academic) on the gift combination evaluation chart at the beginning of the next chapter. Now find your highest scores. The easiest way to do this is to rank the scores from highest to lowest. (Remember, they should not all come out high!)
THE GIFT PROFILE QUESTIONNAIRE
Intrapersonal Intelligence
| Yes No |
2. I am easily able to express how I feel in detail. | Yes No |
3. I can easily find different ways to express my emotions and thoughts. | Yes No |
4. I can sit quietly for hours on my own thinking and sorting things out in my own mind. | Yes No |
5. I believe I am very well balanced. | Yes No |
6. I can work independently. | Yes No |
7. I am very organized. | Yes No |
8. I am motivated to set goals for myself and to achieve them. | Yes No |
9. I don't need people around me all the time. | Yes No |
10. I prefer to be on my own to being in a group. | Yes No |
11. I enjoy my own company. | Yes No |
12. I am very curious about the deep issues of life and love to ponder their meaning and relevance. | Yes No |
13. I love to philosophize. | Yes No |
14. I am challenged by the purpose of life. | Yes No |
15. It is very important for me to understand my inner experiences. | Yes No |
16. Human rights issues are close to my heart. | Yes No |
17. I am very affected by the plight of others. | Yes No |
18. I am determined to make a difference in life. | Yes No |
19. I have a desire to empower others. | Yes No |
20. I am a very good listener. | Yes No |
21. I only offer advice if asked. | Yes No |
22. I find it very easy to consider a person's problem and to advise him or her. | Yes No |
23. I never impose my ideas on others even though I always have an opinion. | Yes No |
24. I have insight into issues and life in general. | Yes No |
25. I love writing journal entries. | Yes No |
26. I enjoy receiving feedback on my efforts. | Yes No |
27. I prefer to work alone. | Yes No |
28. I often have opinions that set me apart from the crowd. | Yes No |
29. I prefer self-directed learning as in distance learning. | Yes No |
30. I consider myself to have a good self-esteem. | Yes No |
Interpersonal Intelligence
| Yes No |
2. I form friendships easily. | Yes No |
3. I keep good friendships for many years. | Yes No |
4. I recognize that there are many different ways of communicating with others. | Yes No |
5. I make use of these different ways of communicating. | Yes No |
6. I find it easy to tune into the needs of others. | Yes No |
7. I am able to perceive the thoughts and feelings of others. | Yes No |
8. I find it easy to counsel and guide people. | Yes No |
9. People tend to come to me for counsel and advice. | Yes No |
10. I like to influence the opinions and/or actions of others. | Yes No |
11. I enjoy participating in collaborative efforts. | Yes No |
12. I am able to assume various roles in a group - from the follower to the leader. | Yes No |
13. I prefer to lead rather than follow in a group. | Yes No |
14. I am quick to understand the verbal and non-verbal communication of a group or of a person. | Yes No |
15. I get on well with my parents, brothers and sisters. | Yes No |
16. I communicate effectively both on a non-verbal and a verbal level. | Yes No |
17. I can easily adapt my behavior and conversation to different groups and environments. | Yes No |
18. I can easily adapt my explanation or communication or behavior based on the feedback of others. | Yes No |
19. I am very good at mediating. | Yes No |
20. I love mentoring people. | Yes No |
21. I am good at organizing others into getting a group project done. | Yes No |
22. I can easily work with people from diverse ages and backgrounds. | Yes No |
23. I am a good leader and visionary. | Yes No |
24. I am good at managing people in terms of action planning and getting things done. | Yes No |
25. I am good at arguing a point and can be convincing. | Yes No |
26. I thrive on attention. | Yes No |
27. I like to be needed. | Yes No |
28. I am good at conflict management. | Yes No |
29. I am a good "solution-finder." | Yes No |
30. I like to generate many perspectives on topics. | Yes No |
