Bruce Jenner: A great example of achieving the full potential of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.

Bruce Jenner was born with part of his intelligence awry because of dyslexia. He had to struggle to be able to read. He was terrified of being called upon to read in front of the class.

Children with dyslexia have problems reading, spelling and expressing themselves. As a result of this disability, he dreaded going to school where he felt that every other child was better than him. His self-esteem was at an all-time low then.

Fortunately, every child has almost all, if not all, the intelligences necessary for life. Although his verbal-linguistic intelligence was affected by dyslexia, his prominant innate bodily-kinesthetic intelligence inherited from his athletic parent's genes took him to success in the field. His father,William Jenner, had won a silver medal in the 100-yards race in the U.S. Army Olympics in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1945. Jenner's grandfather had run in the Boston Marathon several times. As he wrote in his book, "By the time I turned two, I'd already developed a big chest, wide shoulders and boundless energy, prompting my dad to nickname me Bruiser."

Let us see how he used this prominant innate intelligence to overcome his verbal-linguistic weakness.

Fortunately, little Jenner discovered something he was good at. His teacher wanted to see who could run the fastest and it turned out to be Jenner. He enjoyed the positive response then. As he excelled in sports, he worked at it to achieve his wonderful decathion success in the 1976 Olympics.

As he became aware of his ability in ahtletics, he realised that that was his strength, the strength with which he could overcome obstacles that dyslexia had placed in his path. One of the first and most important obstacle he had to remove was his inferiority complex developed from knowing that students with good verbal-linguistic intelligence could read and write well to achieve better grades than him.

His athletic ability was encouraged by his parents and coaches. His football coach's praise for his fantastic talent on the field gave him the confidence to strive to be the very best. As a result of focusing on his most prominent intelligence, Jenner was on the football, basketball and track teams at high school in Newtown, Connecticut. He won the water-skiing championship three times in the Eastern States Competition and was the New York pole-vault and high-jump champion. His wide athletic talent took him to become one of the greatest athlete in the world.

In Graceland College, through a football scholarship, he almost reached an insurmountable obstacle when he injured his knee and did not have the chance at football. Fortunately, 16 months later, he could play basketball and train on the tracks. Then, in 1970, he not only won his first decathion but broke the records. Decathion can only be won by athletes with all-round talent in sports as it covers ten different track and field events lasting two days. It covers running, jumping and throwing events requiring strength, skill, speed and endurance.

Since then, he trained for the decathion. He made it in the trials to be chosen to represent the United States in the 1972 Olympics and in Munich, Germany, he came in at tenth place. Though he was placed tenth, it was a terrific feeling to be chosen for the Olympics so quickly, merely two years after his first decathion in college.

Supported by his first wife, Chrystie Jenner, he often trained eight hours a day to aim for another chance at the Olympics. For winning the Amateur Athletic Union decathion in 1974 and 1976 as well as the Pan-American Games in 1975, he was chosen for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal where he won a gold medal, smashing his own world records. After this he stopped aiming for more athletic victories, having proved to himself that he was not inferior to any other, merely having different intelligence. As we can see, he not only became aware of his weakness, he had the determination to overcome it and worked very hard to do so. He is one great example to any human being with or without a disability.

Not only that! In going into his life, we learn how this great athlete, not only took his innate Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence to its highest potential in the decathion but came through speaking and writing aspiring messages to everyone which shows that he even worked on his weakness with success. This is possible as researchers have discovered that most of us exploited only about TEN PERCENT! of our brain. If we find a way to stimulate twenty or thirty percent of our brain power, imagine how much more can we possibly achieve. Wow! It would be just fantastic!

Getting back to Bruce Jenner, his good looks and modest demeanor helped him to become a national symbol and celebrity. With his celebrity status, he easily found fame in some film appearances. He was also a sports commentator. (That despite his problem with verbal-linguistic intelligence!)With an enthusiasm for success and life, he tried a number of entreprenuerial projects, the last rejuvenated by his third wife, Kris Kardashian who became the driving force behind a family business that covered a wide range of commercials. He also made appearances on television, sometimes with members of his family. He wrote books to inspire children. Success in life and business made a millionaire out of him.

Perhaps, we should see how this man could bounce back from obstacles. At one stage of his life of fame, he found that he still was burdened with the nervous dyslexia schoolboy mindset and his private life was in tatters. Everything was in a mess and his main source of income was from public speaking jobs. After working so hard, with two divorces, he found he had nothing much to show for it. Fortunately for him, his third wife came into his life to save him from his problem. Here, perhaps, we can say there is an element of luck. Or, could it be that, as I have often written, when one door closes, another opens.