The Top Thirty Reasons Gifted Humans Feel Guilty

September 26, 2016 by Paula Prober 37 Comments

Photo courtesy of Evan Kirby, Unsplash, CC

Top 30 Reasons You May Feel Guilty:

You aren’t living up to your potential.
You get impatient with people slower than you.
You’ve painted your living room 12 times in 5 years.
You haven’t won the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, or any prize except the spelling bee in third grade.
You got good grades in school for work that you did 30 minutes before it was due.
You’ve disappointed your parents because you didn’t become a neurosurgeon.
You’re responsible for all of the suffering on the planet.
You’re good at everything you try.
You live a privileged life in an economically prosperous country.
You hide your intelligence.
You don’t hide your intelligence.
You’re brighter than many of your teachers.
You’re competitive and always need to be right and usually are.
You didn’t invent the iPhone.
You’ve accomplished more than your mentors.
You didn’t have children.
You had children.
You make mistakes.
You’re emotional, sensitive, anxious and intense.
You’re not a perfect parent.
You’re reading a blog about giftedness.
You haven’t solved the problem of climate change or world hunger.
You haven’t gotten rid of your car.
You haven’t stayed in one job longer than 4 years, 5 months, 13 days, 8.5 hours.
You’re in therapy.
You’re terrified of failure and don’t try anything that might take you there.
You drove right by the person on the street with the sign who needed help.
You were born gifted.
You haven’t lived up to everyone’s expectations, including your own.
In spite of multiple signs of doom and gloom and despite the coolness of cynicism, you’re still idealistic and optimistic.

How many of these reasons did you check? You probably ought to feel guilty if you checked less than twenty.

Just kidding.

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To my bloggEEs: You may have noticed that I haven’t posted in a while. I was preparing for a webinar that I presented last week for SENG. (It should be posted on the site in a few weeks.) But I feel guilty that I abandoned you. (And I missed you.) Let us know how you’re doing and what you feel guilty about!

Author: Paula Prober

I'm a psychotherapist in private practice in Eugene, Oregon. I specialize in counseling gifted adults and consulting with parents of gifted children. The label "gifted" is often controversial and confusing. I use the metaphor of the rain forest to describe this population. Like the rain forest, these individuals are quite complex, highly sensitive, intense, multi-layered, and misunderstood. They're also curious, idealistic, highly intelligent, creative, perfectionistic, and they love learning. I've been an adjunct instructor at the University of Oregon and a guest presenter at Oregon State University and Pacific University. I've written articles on giftedness for the Eugene Register-Guard, the Psychotherapy Networker, and Advanced Development Journal. My book, Your Rainforest Mind: A Guide to the Well-Being of Gifted Adults and Youth, was released in June 2016 by GHF Press and is available on Amazon or at your independent bookstore.