If you’re like most of us, you know there are things that you do better than anybody else – areas where you believe you’re nothing short of genius, whether you say it out loud or not. Does your current work allow you to tap that genius?
If you’re like many people – and Gallup studies unfortunately back this up – the answer is no.
Today I’m happy to share “Identify Your Genius,” the first step in the book’s 5-step program. The goal is to:
Identify the foundation of your “practical genius,” which are hard assets – your skills, strengths, and expertise.
Identify your soft personal assets – your passions, creative abilities, and values.
Identify the sweet spot where the hard and soft assets meet.
Gina calls that sweet spot “the other G-spot.” (I’ve worked with Gina personally so can testify that her great sense of humor isn’t only on the page, she carries it with her!) She writes:
Think of your other G-spot as the ultimate measure by which you make every decision, whether it’s choosing your next employer, your next lover, or the next place you want to live. You can also consider it a formula that will never fail to hold you accountable to staying at the authentic, powerful core of who you are. The other G-spot is a place that is never tilted too far toward the soft (personal) side of who you are nor too far toward the hard (professional) side of who you are. Once you find it and learn to stay there, life becomes much easier, goals become more attainable, relationships prosper, and you will find that achieving results is far easier.
What about you: Have you identified your personal brand of Genius – and are you getting to use it at work?
Today's post is a Master's Mission from the team at myGreenlight, drafted from their recent Social Capitalist interview with author and investor James Altucher. If you aren't familiar with James, I highly recommend you check his work out. He's carved a personal brand out of unflinching (and hilarious) honesty in writing and talking about his rollercoaster of successes and failures. His stories and advice are almost guaranteed to help you let go of excuses and get to work! - KF
On the latest Social Capitalist webinar, guest James Altucher introduced myGreenlight to what he calls “The Daily Practice,” four steps that put you in the right place to succeed by helping you create better ideas and more energy. It was “The Daily Practice” that picked James back up after each of his failures and ultimately led him to success.
The Daily Practice:
Take care of your physical health. You can’t succeed if you’re sick and out of shape. Eating right and getting physically fit increases your energy and makes it much easier for you to succeed.
Take care of your emotional health/intimate relationships. If you’re in a series of bad relationships or constantly arguing with your family, spouse, or boss you are not going to have the emotional health to find the energy to build a business or succeed.
Mental health - flex your idea muscle. You have to be able to generate ideas and have the confidence that your ideas are good. Building your idea muscle requires practice and time just like building any other kind of muscle.
Spiritual health: Be prepared to surrender and find gratitude. You have to know that there are going to be times that are so difficult you will have to throw up your hands and say to a higher power, “I give up, I need help.” That can mean surrendering to the creative superpower inside of yourself or to a greater power outside of yourself. When you get to the point where you feel like you’ve done all you can, you need to be able to surrender and ask for help. When the help comes you also need to not take it for granted.
James believes that if any of these four things are out of whack you won’t have the energy to successfully put your goals first. They have to be working in conjunction for you to be able to rise up from failure.
Visit James' blog for a more specific take on how to institute his Daily Practice. Then take this week to try it out!
What tricks do you use to get your ideas and your energy flowing? Share with the group!
Life can get stressful at times. When you get stressed, you will tend to focus intently on your stressor. That focus can lead you to lose perspective on things that might be much more important.
Your mission is to create a simple reminder that will help you regain your perspective. Choose something that is a personal memory and something that has solid emotional meaning for you. It can be the birth of a child, the loss of a loved one, or a major life event. It could be a simple phrase you’ve heard someone important to you use when they were stressed (e.g., “this isn’t rocket science.”). Just make sure whatever trigger you choose has deep personal meaning to you.
Once you’ve chosen that reminder, practice using it when things get stressful. If you’re having a bad day at work, remembering what’s really important in life can make your present situation less stressful. So go ahead – pick your reminder and start putting it into practice in stressful situations. It will reduce your stress, help you regain perspective, and improve your performance.
Have you ever wondered if it’s worth reconnecting with a lapsed professional contact?
Your mission: Reconnect with a professional contact whom you haven’t contact with in 3 years or more, in person or via phone. As part of the conversation, ask the contact for information or advice on a current work project.
I actually pulled this “mission” from a study recently published in the MIT Sloan Management Review. The experience of hundreds of executives who reconnected with an old contact was that, YES, it’s absolutely worth it.
Professors Daniel Z. Levin, Jorge Walter, and J. Keith Murnighan found that the advice the executives received was as useful – often even more useful –than the advice they received from current contacts.
Here’s another tip: Don’t get too stuck on who’s the “best” person to contact. According to the study, when executives were asked to rank their top 10 lapsed contacts and reapproach them all, it turned out that the 10th most valued contact offered as many rewards as the 1st.
Adversity spares no one, and we are all deserving of our healings and dealings. However, we are social creatures, webs of emotion touching one another with our joys and sorrows, and must remain accountable to one another. The line between self-evolvement and responsibility is fine. We search books and worship, turn to dependencies for relief, neglecting to look for clarity in the one place it may rest most.
To emerge from your place of pain, to find answers to your questions, you must start from within. You do not dare do so, for you fear what you will see; I understand, it is scary. Our hardships are our greatest teachers, but our vision is blurred if we do not look to understand the pupil.
I remain loyal to you, holding up the bridge that connects you to me, but I fear my arms are weakening. I will not abandon you, for unconditional love will not allow it.
Put down your walls, emerge from your cave, and trust that human kindness is waiting for you. For you, I wish trust.
My friend Karen Salmansohn is a best-selling author that is known for creating "self help for people who wouldn't be caught dead doing self help." Every morning she starts the day by posting a new Set Your Intention for the Day poster on her blog. Here are a few of my favorites.
What a great way to motivate people. Contact Karen at karen at notsalmon.com. To see all of her posters check out her blog at notsalmon.com.
I have been an admirer of Neil Strauss since he wrote The Game, his brilliantly smart account of a society of professional pick-up artists. I’m always amazed at how he throws himself into his subjects.
Neil’s new book is the punchy, poignant, and provocative Everyone Loves You When You're Dead, a collection of sharp mini-stories that read like windows into the souls of his celebrity subjects.
Reading the book, this Lady Gaga quote drew my attention: "I'm terrified of therapy because I don't want it to mess with my creativity. What's worse: being normal or being abnormal?"
I can remember feeling that way, once. As a young man, if someone suggested meditation or yoga, I’d say, "I don't want to pursue this, I may lose my drive." What I was really saying was, "I don't want to be happy (content) because I'm afraid of not being successful."
In retrospect, it’s sad to me that I felt that way – shifting my perspective in the years since has only increased my success. I finally have some equilibrium in my life, and the folks around me are more engaged, my audiences more trusting of my intentions, my dreams closer than ever. There is much less "I" in the "We" I’m trying to create for professionals around the world and the message is resonating more clearly - first to me and to the folks we at Relationship Masters Academy are working to serve.
Now there’s part of me that thinks, “Sure, but Keith Ferrazzi isn’t Gaga. You NEED to be abnormal to have the audacity to be a pop star and travel by egg, and I can understand how she doesn't want to mess with that."
But, Lady Gaga, with a little therapy and introspection, I'm not sure that you would lose "it" after all. Maybe you would be a bit more considerate at the Grammy's and not wear a head-dress that blocks five rows of your peers behind you. (I wasn’t sitting behind her but noticed from my seat the craning necks of her fellow artists.)
In Neil’s book, she talks about her big heartbreak fueling her creative energy. But maybe, Lady, you could open yourself up to love again, allowing yourself to find an entirely new set of inspirations and showing off your creative versatility.
My suspicion is that tapping into who she really is and what her mission really is – who is she doing it all for? – could yield a lasting superstar. (Even if Madonna’s the better singer!)
I guess that's what I want for all you. I want you to find your lasting superstar. (I have called that your blue flame in the past.) And I'm certain that a good hard look inside is the shortest path. Don't be afraid of therapy.
And oh, go buy Neil's book. I'm really enjoying it. And it just got released this week so if you order it please get it now so he makes it "7 times New York Times Bestselling author" :)
If you've read the new book already, or read Neil's previous books, let me know what you thought in the comments.
Recently I met David, a partner of Compass Technology Group, through a mutual friend and we had a great time sharing stories and even singing a little (yeah, over dinner in a restaurant). Throughout the evening we exchanged thoughts and ideas; one caught Davids attention and look at the email below he sent to me. How wonderful. To turn around and respect someones words to the point of summarizing what he heard and send it back almost in post/tip style... what could be more generous?
This is the portion of our talk David summarized and sent to me in his email:
Are you intimidated by a room full of people?
Most people are; most people are also terrified about speaking in public.
But what if you could turn the tables on the room and make it more of an intuitively and intentionally interactive experience?
Next time you have to enter a room filled mostly with people you don't know, try this:
Think: "Care - Help - Share"
In the room, intentionally and genuinely, find someone for whom you can Care about something. Go up to the person and discuss the Care: " I like your shirt."..."I like your hair"..."You look so radiant, what happened today that you have this energy?"
Next, Help someone, this could be an idea, this could be an object, this could be listening, but help another person.
Finally, Share something with someone - it could be an experience - it could be a new drink idea - it could be anything that is constructive and genuine - something that you feel you can share with that one other person - it could be a story.
Try this next time you go into that crowd; see if it helps break down the fear of crowds and the intimidation many of us feel.
[David Arscott is a partner of Compass Technology Group. His Palo Alto, CA-based firm is an investor in both public and private technology companies.]
Almost all of you, I’m willing to bet, have a “morning ritual.” But how many of you have created one by design? This is so important to individual effectiveness, for everyone but especially for entrepreneurs who work independently or at home.
I first became aware of the idea when interviewing a pair of salesmen for Who’s Got Your Back. Together, they did an early morning gym session followed by a brainstorm, a process they called “day-righting.” After about a month of this routine, the team told me they saw dramatic improvements in their business and their lives.
So, what’s your version of day-righting? I travel so much and keep such an erratic schedule that my day-righting isn’t so much a morning process as a daily commitment to an hour-long workout, usually a social one, wherever I am.
But for those of you who start every morning at a fairly reliable time, I guarantee that designing a morning ritual will help you be more relaxed, more focused, and more productive throughout the day.
Here are some ideas to play with:
Exercise: You may not be a “morning exerciser” or have time for a full session, but even 10 minutes of movement (a high-intensity run or a yoga session) can prepare you for solid thinking.
Journaling: Spend 5 minutes reflecting in writing on the past day/night, and 5 minutes jotting down your expectations for today.
Meditation: I never found meditation to be practical as a daily activity until I went to Thailand, where I learned how to blend meditation and pre-existing routines. (Read about that here.)
Breathing: Breathe in deeply. Hold it in. Exhale. Hold it out. Repeat 10 times. This itself is a form of meditation.
Please share your tips and “day-righting” best practices with the rest of the community.
genius, whether you say it out loud or not. Does your current work allow you to tap that genius?
“The Daily Practice,” four steps that put you in the right place to succeed by helping you create better ideas and more energy. It was “The Daily Practice” that picked James back up after each of his failures and ultimately led him to success.
