High-level skill in music, writing, and other disciplines requires hard work and close monitoring of your progress. The object is to hold yourself to a high standard, and compare your own performance with that standard. With the resulting information, you can then work to elevate your ability.
This process seems inescapable, yet it divides our attention between the experience of creation and the ongoing evaluation of our work. Then we lose the wholeness of attention that gifted children achieve so easily but that we have somehow lost.
We don’t want them to lose it, yet a high standard is necessary if they are to develop their talent. So we have to find a way to help them preserve their total focus while also building their skill.
A Case of Brilliance 