You Are A Genius: How to Find Your Advantage and Excel

Lately, the universe/God has been zeroing in on this message for me: I am only meant to be me. This message came in many forms. I pondered the fact that we don’t look at someone like Serena Williams, the tennis legend, and wonder why she can’t play basketball very well. It would be absurd for her to think to herself, “I’m a terrible basketball player. I suck at long distance running.” Of course! She’s meant to be a tennis player and and she’s a world class at it.

Similarily, a 7-foot NBA bastketball player doesn’t berate himself for being a terrible football player. He knows he’s meant to play basketball and he works hard to be at the top of his field. There is no way he could be a pro tennis player, pro basket player and a pro football player. Pick one thing and rock it.

Built Into The Design:

Physically, we’re also designed for different things. There are certain sports where being 7 foot is an advantage and other sports, like race-car driving, where being 7-foot has no advantage.

Then I start listening to the audiobook of Marie Kondo’s NYT best-seller, The Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up. The theme that lept out at me was that she was obsessed with tidying since she was a child. She gravitated towards homemaking magazine ever since she was kid! She obsessed over it for decades. This wasn’t work to her. It’s no wonder she became the genius queen of tidying. She is living out her purpose. Clearly, there are qualities we are given for a reason.

Whenever I find myself sucking at a task or area of life, I ask myself: is this something I want to improve and can improve?

For example, I have no interest in playing team sports. I prefer solo activities when it comes to fitness and this quality bleeds into my work. I can be happy sitting at my keyboard writing for a several hours. Sometimes this makes me even more satisfied than seeing people. Is this something I want to improve? Do I want to stretch myself to hang out with more people every week, or would I prefer to stretch myself to find more pockets of quiet time to write?

I choose the latter. This is built into my design. When God made me, He obviously put that quality in me for the unique purpose I’m here to fulfill. I now see it as an advantage that I can be happy for an entire weekend alone with my books and thoughts. For a social butterfly who becomes an event planner, the natural inclination to fill one's life with people works to his or her advantage. I’m no longer trying to be someone else. I want to be the fullest expression of me.

I will never be the genius of tidying, but I can be the genius me.

Consider these questions:

What advantages are you wired in with?

What makes you feel purposeful, satisfied and content?

What do you want to improve? (Not what you think you should improve.)

What’s so wired into your DNA that you can naturally excel at?

Excel In Your Assignment

What’s bubbling in my spirit is that you’ve got to be YOU. You’ve gotten to hone in on what makes you tick, zing and flow and then work until you become world-class at it. You can’t do everything, nor should you do everything.

Over the last 1.5 years of working in my jobs, I’ve discovered more of what I enjoy and what I find tedious and annoying. It’s not just about the tasks: I’ve noticed that there are certain actions I gravitate towards. These things come naturally to me and give me energy. For example, after spending 3 hours thinking through strategy, I am more jazzed for work. I enjoy solving big problems and developing systematic solutions. I love dreaming up messages that matter and putting them out through media.

There are other tasks that I feel drain or stunt my brain power. It feels like I am not designed to do those tasks repeatedly, unendingly. It’s not just because they are “mundane” tasks. There are people who love the repetitiveness, or the perfection of completion. That is what they are designed for, whereas, I am a mover and a shaper.

I’ve been pondering all of these thoughts in my heart, chewing on them and integrating them into my being.

I believe that we all have genius inside of us. My theory is that the reason we only see genius in a select few in society is because the majority of people are trying to fit themselves into a cookie-cutter version of a “white-collar human being”, instead of developing their genius.

Stop trying to be a good employee. Be an epic human.

How To Find Your Genius

1.Don’t Apologize for Being Different. Work it.

Developing your genius means that you’ll have to reconsider and possibly defy every rule that keeps you safe and “socially accepted.” The champion tennis player works harder than everyone else at the training club. She isn’t training just to show off at practice. She is training for the world championships. She doesn’t apologize for being different. The genius among us will always operate differently. This is why CEO’s typically operate at a different level than their employees. Those stripes are earned.

2. Become comfortable in your own lane.

This desire to bring forth my genius is why I’m now very okay with living my days and designing my life in an unconventional way. I want to live my fullest potential in this lifetime, and that’s going to require pushing my mental, spiritual and physical capacities to the edge. I eat differently. I think differently. I work differently. I am unapologetic about what I need and want to thrive in life.

3. Give it time but don’t quit.

This is going to take time. Now I understand why the olympics only happen every four years. If you want to compete against the best of the best in the world, it takes time to get into world-class shape. Chisel and refine every aspect of your performance so that nothing, not even the eyes of whole world on you, can take you off your game. This might take years, but years are going to pass anyway. I intend for my years to have a compound effect as I get better and better at my craft.

4. Train Your Genius.

Once you’ve found an area that you want to excel in, then put in the hours. That’s why I’m writing this at 6:00am and why I’ve designed my weeks to maximize the amount of quality time I can put into writing and creating content. I’ve adopted a “athlete” training mentality. I’ve got to put in the hours on the floor and in the ring. Now that I’ve started training, I can see the progress and it’s self-motivating.