Today, I´m bringing you a nice little phrase for reflection; it´s the quote I told you about last week:

Everybody is a genius.
But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,
it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

What comes to mind when you read this phrase? Do you agree? Does it resonate with you?

We all have certain things we´re naturally very good at, and then other things at which we´re not that good. But how much do we value those natural talents and abilities? Do we appreciate them? Do we work on making the most of them, or do we underestimate them, thinking they don´t have any merit, or they´re not useful?

As we already know, education has traditionally focused almost exclusively on one type of intelligence, the one that could be measured through IQ (Intelligence Quotient). But thankfully, the fact that intelligence is not one but many is getting more and more recognized, and different classifications have come up, for example the theory of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner:

• Linguistic intelligence: the ability to master language (oral, written, non verbal) and communicate with others.
• Logical-mathematical intelligence: the ability to reason logically and resolve mathematical problems
• Visual-spatial intelligence: the ability to observe the world and its objects from different perspectives.
• Musical intelligence: the ability to distinguish sounds, rhythms and musical tones, as well as compose and interpret music.
• Bodily-kinaesthetic: the ability to coordinate our body movements, and also to use tools.
• Intrapersonal intelligence: the ability to understand and manage our internal states, emotions and focus of attention.
• Interpersonal intelligence: the ability to grasp and interpret what other people convey to us and empathize with them.
• Naturalistic intelligence: the ability to relate to our natural environment – animal and vegetal species, weather events, geographical events and nature phenomena

This list is an example of the many talents and skills humans have, each of us in our unique and irreplaceable combination, from which we can contribute to the world in different ways. The problem arises when we stubbornly apply the same measurement to everybody, especially if we only go by what society decides as the talents that "count".

What about you? What are you really good at, and what are you not that good at? Have you ever judged somebody (or yourself) according to the wrong criteria? Which talent, skill or intelligence was there and you didn´t get to see it or value at the time? And what could you do to give it its value and develop it?