Abstract
Gifted and talented children one day become adults and the experiences of their pre-adult years at home, in their various communities, and in school settings impact both their success and their happiness as adults. While development, education, and life experiences affect all individuals, it is in the interactions of high ability, ability-related performance, and what can best be called wisdom that the gifted and talented individual will find happiness. This chapter explores the dynamics related to the transformation of gifts into personal thriving. Talent has been called the development of the gifts into high-level performances, thriving begins with talent development but looks beyond high-level performance to deep satisfaction and what allows the gifted and talented to flourish across their life span. The notion of thriving includes academic and career success and adds the goal of personal happiness. Thriving is explored through the aspects of the psychology of human strengths, subjective well-being, strength of character, integrity, wisdom, the interaction of ability–interests–accomplishments, spirituality and faith, and positive personal relationships.
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Sayler, M.F. (2009). Gifted and Thriving: A Deeper Understanding of Meaning of GT. In: Shavinina, L.V. (eds) International Handbook on Giftedness. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6162-2_9
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