As the Prison of Azkaban

Derived from Greek, asynchronous means not with time. It describes objects or events that are not coordinated in time. However, when discussing the anomalous thinker, it describes with stunning accuracy the “mismatch between cognitive, emotional and physical development of [these] individuals.” They may appear advanced in certain areas and not others. Because they are.

They are intelligent enough to understand complex ideas, grasp abstract concepts, wrestle with philosophical questions about meaning, observe and interpret patterns, and solve seemingly unsolvable problems. Yet, there can be (and usually are) huge gaps in understanding. While this can be temporary until they are taught or they learn in a more self-guided way (which can take longer for some), these gaps can be an immense source of frustration because there are so few that have the ability to teach them.

Because of the hyperawareness, some anomalous thinkers are aware that there are these vast chasms of ignorance, but are unsure about how to traverse them. They know that they don’t know something without always knowing what that something is or how to go about finding out.

And it’s intensely painful.

This asynchrony can become like the prison, Azkaban, from the Harry Potter franchise. This is because majority of the population cannot accept or process them in their dichotomy. They can’t grasp that they are a genius who struggles to understand very basic things that everyone else seems to comprehend with ease. For example, unspoken social norms, relationships, parallel parking, birthdays and the electric pallet jack.

So the anomalous thinker will often find one of two scenarios: someone only sees their gaps in understanding and assume they are stupid. This is incredibly destructive to the anomalous thinker. It can be debilitating and function as a speed governor in terms of their performance and growth.

In this scenario, they can find themselves imprisoned by micromanagement because they are perceived to be stupid. This perception is also reinforced by our endless stream of questions to gather additional data. For many of us, we make data based decisions and can’t or don’t make decisions without having enough data to process. Or we are simply curious. Additionally, if you happen to be given to Dabrowski’s imaginational overexcitability as I am, your head is almost always in the clouds. You may have been labeled a space cadet or airhead.

The hyperawareness, self reflection and impossibly high standards that they set for themselves only exacerbate the pain. All of these things can behave like Dementers in the prison of Azkaban. They can suck the joy and hope right out of you. If the anomalous thinker doesn’t do the work required to stay healthy mentally, they can end up (as Remus Lupin puts it) not needing walls because they are trapped inside their own heads.

The other scenario is that you have someone who only sees their vast body of knowledge and understanding and do not hold space for naïveté or understanding gaps. They will say things like ‘come on, it’s not rocket science’ or ‘just practice, you’ll get it’. As children there may even be more harmful phrases employed such as ‘I expected more from you.’ ‘You’re so much smarter than that.’

I’ve heard it all. Even the things that weren’t said. And each time, it inflicted pain.

The expectation is that you are smart enough to figure it out on your own so you are always left to do the heavy lifting on your own. Don’t get me wrong, I adore heavy lifting. Physically and cognitively. When the heavy lifting becomes a chronic state of being or is consistently outside of the areas of strength, then heavy lifting can be oppressive. It also takes it’s toll on the creative of side of our cognition, which for me, I rely on heavily. (No pun intended.) Continuing with the heavy lifting parallel, weight lifters use spotters. In that same way, your anomalous thinker would benefit greatly from having a spotter when doing heavy lifting cognitively and emotionally. Really most lifting in life. However, there are very few individuals with the unique qualifications required for that role.

Bright Sheng touches on the topic of not having qualified spotters in an inspiring and poignant Ted Talk titled, The Last Train. He discusses his inability to find someone capable of teaching him and his journey of self-learning. Typically wired individuals often view the anomalous thinker’s advocation of their need for qualified teachers as arrogance. It can also come across as a refusal to learn, when that couldn’t be farther from reality.

They have an insatiable drive to learn but this quest cannot be lead by a typical thinker or someone who who is unable to hold their brilliance and ignorance in tension. In fact, it requires an anomalous thinker. Someone who can see their genius and still hold space for their gaps in understanding. Someone intuitive and empathetic. There has to be a synergy within the teacher/student dynamic that unlocks performance potential in both parties.

If you happen to stumble across this somewhere along life’s path, don’t screw it up. We’ll talk more about self sabotage later on.

Dépaysement

(n.) The feeling of being in a completely foreign place; The disorientation that accompanies a drastic change of scenery. Or the weird feeling you get when you feel disoriented or lost in something you don’t understand.

Drenched in sweat, both exhausted and exhilarated, I felt as though I had been transported to another place and time. Dancing for me has always been transcendent. It’s been a way of escape but also a simple expression of my inner life. I’ve been dancing my entire life. In stolen moments, when no one is watching.

Tonight, that all changed. I danced as though no one were watching, yet the girl behind me had her eyes fixed on me. Stepping when I stepped and spinning when I would spin. She tried desperately to synchronize our movements but with little success.

She had a harried look on her face and didn’t seem to be enjoying the moment she was in at all.

I, on the other hand, was living my best life.

I was smiling and enjoying the very loud music in another language that I didn’t understand. I missed a step here and there and didn’t spin quite as fast as the other students did every time.

We were both experiencing dépaysement, just from very different points of view. As with most things, this word can carry both positive and negative connotations.

What she didn’t know is that a month or so ago, I was dancing where she was. Back row of class, unable to keep up, lost in dépaysement. I was frustrated and a bit embarrassed at my inability to do well something I had spent my life doing.

I began to recall all of the times that I had had that feeling. Feeling like a novice and honestly a bit stupid. I had it often enough that I remembered that feeling more than I remembered feeling smart and knowledgeable. This made me think. Why is it that I had this feeling so often?

Then I began to think about the last quarter. I had trained for a new position, at a relatively new job. It was my third position in which I trained. I had also taken on new clients in my business (which I work on days off from job). These new clients required me to learn new things in order to complete the project. I had also started this new dance class, started learning a new language and reading new books from a different topic than usual. The quarter before that had just as many new experiences.

I crave novelty. Not sure if it is some variation of hedonic adaptation or not. I think it is more of curiosity driven lust for learning. Whatever it is, it is the reason that I often feel like a novice lost in dépaysement. But realizing that I chose this shifted me from the negative connotations of it to the positive.

I realized that I love that feeling and that I require it to be happy.

Inspiration Required

You can’t be legendary if you have no energy…and it all starts with inspiration…Protect your inspiration.

Robin Sharma

Many anomalous thinkers are also highly sensitive and are affected deeply by the energy of those around them. It can be something communicated via their subconscious. They aren’t even aware that it is happening. They enter a room, a building and suddenly they are inundated with emotional data from everyone around them or at least those who are emitting the most energy. Processing that energy, even in the background, can be exhausting and will deplete the energy of your anomalous thinker.

Energy is precious. The anomalous thinker must guard their energy even more than the typically wired. Even the slightest brush with negativity can potentially have a profound impact. Tension, confusion, chaos, and fighting can debilitate the highly sensitive anomalous thinker.

Even more dangerous to them is a lack of inspiration. While they tend to be intrinsically motivated, it is based on the amount of inspiration taken in. Similar to a fire, the more logs the brighter and stronger the fire. When supplied regularly with logs, the fire can burn for long lengths of time. Anomalous thinkers are fueled by inspiration whether or not they realize it.

As the combustion engine requires fuel, so the anomalous thinker requires inspiration.

What inspires the anomalous thinker varies widely depending on the individual. The things that discourage or block inspiration tend to be a bit more universal. Among those things are: too long without play, or wonder or interruption of the status quo. They are very hard workers when motivated. However, even the hardest worker will need some kind of reward upon completion. At times, completion can serve as it’s own reward.

There are also strong, controlling personalities that can hinder inspiration when they inundate the anomalous thinker with rules, nagging and expectations that are contrary to wiring.

Nearly everything the anomalous thinker does requires inspiration. And last week’s motivation may not work for today. For optimal performance, peak performance and sustained performance, inspiration is required.

Under the topic of context, which we’ll discuss in greater detail in future conversations, the anomalous thinker must have an inspiration rich environment. If it lacks inspiration they can create an inspiration corner, closet, space…something. Pull out all the stops and make it happen.

As mentioned before, when the input threshold of inspiration is reached, and the period of processing is complete, the output will be phenomenal.

When properly inspired your anomalous thinker can do literally anything.

Out of Context

The original title that I toyed with for a while was the driving force behind this project originally. It was Lover’s Manual. Everyday Guide to Loving Your Underachieving High Achiever. It’s clunky and not at all aerodynamic, Yet it reveals a primary challenges for anomalous thinkers in life. Being a high achiever, who is currently underachieving.

I recall visiting some family and friends. They had purchased a new vehicle since the last time we visited. It wasn’t my favorite car, but it had a higher than average number of horses under the hood, and torque that brings tears to your eyes. I asked to take it around the block and back. I had plans to really find out what this vehicle was made of. Then a couple other family members asked to ride along. Hopefully I hid my disappointment well…don’t really know.

As I pulled out of the driveway, feeling the rumble of the engine, the potential energy that could be released, I thought about the human cargo and played it safe. I accelerated quickly but stayed within legal limits for speed. The car’s owner lamented over the disgusting misuse of the vehicle and reminded me that it was created with a capacity to accelerate to incredible speeds at incredible rates. He explained that in order to really see what she was capable of, I needed to get out of residential areas and school zones.

Sometimes we are unable to see or realize our highest potential because we are operating outside of our context. In real estate they say location is everything. For the anomalous thinker, potential rises and falls on context. How do we discover that context?

I think for the most part, we already know what that context is. At least we do deep down inside. It’s in there, hidden for us, not from us. We have to draw it out like water out of a well.

Sometimes that is discovered in solitude. In quiet meditation. In faith. It’s revealed in pieces. And sometimes those pieces lay before us, a jumbled mess. And we need help to make sense of it all.

There are however some universal recommendations for the context of anomalous thinkers.

A few shared best practices are: beauty, autonomy, understanding, functionality, inspiration rich (or at a minimum not inspiration hindering) and the right amount stimulation.

Context applies not only to your living confines, but also career, colleagues, and comrades. More important than all of those is your internal context…your mindset. Your external and internal context impact one another…but your internal context determines the boundaries of your life.

When we are diagnosing the anomalous thinkers we must consider his or her context. If we think about the animal world, each species is indigenous to somewhere, some region of the world. They rarely pass those boundaries. It’s as though there were some internal compass or navigation system tethering them to their context. Their diet, reproduction and survival are based entirely upon that context.