10 surprising places to find your hidden genius

Made with MidJourney.

‘Genius’ is not reserved for a special few.

Those we call geniuses found something that worked and dove into that thing deeper than most.

There’s a genius living in you right now.

You just need to dig that sucker out.

Here are some places to find yours...

1. Childhood passions.

Remember what sparked your attention when you couldn’t stop snot dribbling out your nose.

I loved to draw pictures. Drawing pictures was my career in my twenties.

Action: Spend 20 minutes today noting all the things you loved doing as a child.

How can you bring more of that into your adult life?

2. Things that repeatedly infuriate you.

Our strongest emotional reactions often point to places that give us a ton of energy.

For example, I want to throw a stinking tantrum when I see talented people throwing their lives away. So I enjoy my work as a coach.

Action: List three things that make you angrier than most. Then ask, ‘How is my anger pointing to my passion?’

3. Childhood struggles.

This is a big one.

Struggles, especially those we’ve found hard to forget, often point to things we care for deeply.

I struggled a lot with speaking up in class.

I wanted to connect with people, but I screwed it up out of fear. My great passion today is helping people better communicate through writing.

Action: Journal for at least ten minutes on your greatest childhood struggles. How might they point to a secret superpower in you?

4. Recurring daydreams.

Hey Lucy! It’s okay to stare out the window.

What if your daydreams didn’t indicate a juvenile mind but a hungry one?

Action: keep a daydream journal for a week. Look for patterns in your fantasies, and find a way to make it a reality.

5. Effortless skills.

There may be things you do that come naturally to you that you downplay as normal. But seen from the perspective of Nosy Nancy, they’re pretty incredible.

Action: What are those things, and how can you weave more of that magic into your week?

6. Unique life experiences.

I went on my first solo trip to Iceland when I was nineteen.

I got rained on for nine days straight and ate a puffin.

That trip sparked in me a love for freedom and adventure that informs most of my life decisions.

Action: What are some cool experiences you’ve had that moulded you into a unique human others would want to learn from?

7. Can’t-stop-blabbering topics.

You know what it’s like. You’re with a good friend or your mother, and you get this warm feeling rise up in your chest.

It’s not this morning’s bacon and eggs. It’s that lovely rush of excitement that appears when you land on a topic that fascinates the pants off you.

Action: How can your blabber topics direct you towards what you must focus more on?

8. Recurring praise.

Take notice, and you’ll see cool people praising you for the same handful of things.

Maybe you’re a good listener or a wizard at dad jokes. Don’t just brush them off. Note them down.

People are describing your genius when they tell you.

Action: Create a praise list. When someone praises you freaking take the compliment and figure out why it’s significant to you.

9. Cherished possessions.

I don’t own much, but what I do highlights what matters to me most.

I still buy paperback books, for example, even though the last thing I need as a nomad is to be weighed down by heavy Robert Greene tomes.

Action: After humans and animals, what do you run back to get when your house is on fire (share in the comments)?

10. Your bookshelf.

When people come to me to grow their personal brand, I tell them we need to figure out their 'zone of mastery.'

This is the area you can develop most rapidly that creates value the world needs most from you. One of the first places we look is their bookshelf.

For me, it’s human behaviour, performance and communication.

Action: What books or films do you go to again and again? How might these books reveal your zone of mastery?

All the best,

Alex.

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