Acting on Your Genius
When I think of genius, I think of your potential, that well of unnameable energy inside of you that is waiting to be expressed. In our work, our hope is to draw that out and help people act on their unique form of genius. Luckily, we see that happen again and again, so we know that it is possible and there is nothing better than witnessing how it transforms a person.
My first observation is that the easiest way to tap into genius is through your vision. What you can see in your mind’s eye. The ideas that come to you and won’t leave. What you want to create, do, be, or have is always going to be unique to you. I very much like the way Arthur Schopenhauer articulates the idea of genius and vision:
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
No one else has the same vision that you have. That’s the genius that I love to help people bring into reality.
The First Step is Clarity
You have to know what you want. Bonus if you know why you want it, because clarity does not automatically equate to action or perseverance in the face of adversity. But a strong why will help. We created our vision guide to help people write their visions if you’ve never tried it, we highly recommend going through the process of writing your vision and seeing what comes up for you.
If you aren’t ready to do a deep dive, another way to summon clarity in the short term, is to think about what you want your Fall to look like. What does fully expressing yourself, taking action, and doing what is most meaningful to you look like in the upcoming quarter? Write it down, paint a picture, imagine it happening.
Goals as Guideposts
Not everyone has a vision they are dying to bring into reality. It doesn’t mean you won’t, it may be that you haven’t experienced enough yet to formulate it. It’s much more common for people to come to us with a list of things they want to accomplish than a fully fleshed out vision. Goals are the guideposts that put you on the path to your vision, whether you know where you are going at the outset or not. Trust them. Often times we’ll find that as you set goals and work towards them, you realize there was so much more to the goal than you originally realized and it’s opened up a whole world of possibility and learning.
The Regret of Inaction
The hardest thing is not executing on your genius. It’s much harder than doing the work. Having something really meaningful that you want to do and talking yourself out of it, or seeing someone else do it, or start but give up is painful. Acting on your genius, your unique vision, pursuing your goals whether it’s through the clarity of the big picture or by following the guideposts that present themselves along the way, is a reward in and of itself. It feels good to be aligned with what you want and the action you are taking.
Daniel Pink noted in his book, The Power of Regret,
Over time, people regret what they didn’t do more than what they did do. Regrets of inaction are far more common than regrets of action.
It’s All About Action
To move from having a lot of potential into realizing that potential, you have to take action. For us accountability is not the only way to get into action but it does make a huge difference. It is the way that we’ve seen work extraordinarily well over many years and we believe it comes down to three things. Focus, structure, and community. Focus is the outgrowth of attention, and attention is in especially limited supply these days. Realizing your genius requires you to stay focused. Structure is innate to many but not to everyone. We find that it helps us create a container for action. Otherwise, things can get lost, jumbled, forgotten. Structure helps us remember the path and follow it. Which brings us to community. We all need feedback. Creating, making, acting and doing can definitely be solo activities. We don’t necessarily need people to tell us what to do, or how to do it, but being seen and heard and reflecting with others, prevents us from getting in our own way or staying stuck.