Learn how to overcome performance anxiety using the Neurolinguistic Programming technique of anchoring.
During NLP training we teach that NLP can help to over come performance anxiety, deal with stage fright and move you to achieving your peak state and giving the performance of a lifetime. Anchoring is just one of tools we at the SPARC offer to help performers deal with stage fright.
Anchoring, put very simply, is attaching a certain behavior or state to a certain stimulus or trigger. Anchoring is not a new phenomenon or trick, we anchor things all the time and are probably quite unaware of doing so. Perhaps the smell of freshly baked muffins takes you right back to your grandmother’s kitchen, or hearing a certain song on the radio instantly reminds you of your first dance with someone you love. These are both strong anchors, a trigger (the song) leads to a certain feeling/state or behavior (the good feelings associated with the first dance).
Stage fright is something that many performers have to deal with at some point in their career. Whether auditioning, performing at conservatory recitals, singing for a new teacher or for friends, performance anxiety can manifest itself in many ways and in a variety of situations. As a singer I understand the crippling effect that nerves can bring to a performer. The shaking knees, uncontrollable butterflies, shallow breathing etc, the awful feeling of being unable to control these physical manifestations and the sensation of being caught in a decline where performance gets worse and worse spiraling towards a crash and burn moment. Uugghh…..
That was how I was and yet I knew how I wanted to be. I wanted to feel calm and to be full of self-confidence, to see myself succeeding and to hear my voice ringing out with joy.
Anchoring is one of the NLP techniques I learned and now teach to my clients to assist them in achieving their peak performance at NLP Training in Hyderabad, India.
There are a number of different types of anchor and the one I find most useful personally is a self-anchor that I placed on my thumb. As a trainer I knew that to squeeze my left thumb, even in mid performance, would be effective and not seen by the audience.
To create a positive self anchor:
•Select one place on your body that you can touch easily. (Grasping the wrist, pressing one specific knuckle, pinching the thumb and fore finger are all good suggestions and easy to remember). Be precise and specific about where you want to place your anchor.
•Sit quietly for a moment and begin to think about exactly how you would like to be when performing
•Once you have selected a positive resource (self confidence or calm or joy etc), think of a time when you experienced this resource. It doesn’t have to be a performance, just a time when you really experienced this.
•Step into this experience and feel it totally and fully, see what you saw, hear what your heard and feel what you felt. Make the picture bigger and brighter, the sounds in stereo or louder. If these changes are helpful and increase the sensation in a positive way then keep them…if it was better the way it was then go back to that.
•Once the sensation is reaching it’s peak… fire the anchor (remember that’s the self anchor you decided upon …grasping your wrist, pinching your thumb and fore finger in exactly the same place and with the same amount of pressure) letting go of your anchor as the sensation subsides.
•Now think of something completely different… a pink giraffe, the smell of popcorn…anything!!!
•Now think of a time in the past when you were performing. Imagine it in your minds eye. Step into this … see what you see, hear what you hear and feel what you feel. When you are ready fire your self-anchor and notice how it is different NOW!
•This time think a future performance. Allow your imagination to come up with time if you need. Step into this performance, see what you see, hear what you hear and feel what you feel. Fire your self- anchor and notice how it is different NOW!
Keep practicing and trying out your new self anchor in as many created and past performance situations as you wish. Remember it is very important to fire the anchor in precisely the same place on your hand /wrist/ finger and with the same amount of pressure each time. The more you practice the easier it will become.
Now you have anchored your success, and a sure fire way to access your peak performance is at your fingertips!
About The Author
Psy.Visesh is a consulting psychologist and certified NLP Trainer from Hyderabad, India. Visesh practices privately in Hyderabad, where he employs NLP and cognitive behaviour therapy, to help people with psychological problems. Visesh has 10 years of training experience, delivering Neuro Linguistic Programming courses to his clients. You can contact him on dearvisesh@gmail.com or +91 94401 35779.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Top Ten NLP Techniques For Business
This article discusses the techniques of Neuro Linguistic Programming NLP that can have the most impact on your business or professional life. These are skills that are taught in our NLP courses in Hyderabad.
1. RAPPORT
Rapport is a state that exists between two or more people that leads them to believe they are “on the same page”.
Rapport is essential in any business interaction. When individuals are in rapport it leads to mutual respect, and trust. When you have rapport:
• Clients will buy your products
• Subordinates will eagerly follow your directions
• Colleagues and superiors will respect your view
Many books offer techniques to build rapport, mainly around matching the posture or the other person (often called anchoring). While these techniques are valid, they run the danger of being artificial. The other person is likely to notice if you “try” to match them, and it is possible they will consider your behavior to be manipulative.
In fact, when rapport is natural, matching occurs as a matter of course. Look round the next time you are in a restaurant, coffee shop, bar or other public place. You will see groups of people all sitting or standing in a similar way, with similar posture and physiology.
What this means is that if we can find a way to get into natural rapport with the for example a client in a business interaction, everything else follows naturally. Neuro Linguistic Programming has a great technique for getting into rapport naturally:
• As you speak to the other person, soften your gaze, so you begin to notice your peripheral vision
• As you do so, you will begin to notice movement all around you
• As this skill builds, you will begin to notice the other persons breathing
• Begin to breathe at the same rate
As you breathe at the same rate as the other person, you will naturally attune to their movements, physiology, gestures etc. You will naturally begin to match these without thinking about them.
2. CALIBRATION SKILLS
Neuro linguistic programming teaches that each and every one of us has a unique and distinct “map of the world”. This map tells us how things are, how things work, and what rules apply in the world, for us. Each person’s map is different. Understanding this principle is vital in understanding our employees, business colleagues, customers and clients.
A map includes elements such as:
• Where does that person locate things in space? You can tell by where they look and where they gesture.
• What words are important to them?
• What values are important?
• What do they believe about themselves and the world?
• What patterns do they use in their behavior?
Calibration is all about respecting and being curious about the other persons map or the world, including the above elements. Calibration includes using our eyes and ears to notice:
• The words that the other person uses.
• The gestures that they use.
• The physiology that they adopt.
• Where their eyes move when they speak about various things.
• How do they organize time?
• What do they talk about as being important?
When we have this information, we can use it to influence the other person by pointing out the ways in which the thing that we want is aligned with what is important to them. Doing this in a way that uses their words, gestures and physiology will be extremely effective in being influential in business
3. ANCHORING
Anchoring is a neuro linguistic programming NLP technique that involves attaching a specific internal state to an external stimulus. Here are some common business examples:
• The boss who only wants to see you when there is a problem. Every time you see him you think “Here we go again”.
• The salesman who only calls to sell you something; “Tell him I’m busy”.
• The colleague who always whines about his life “Oh, Joe’s at it again”.
• The subordinate who comes round with problems for you to solve “Don’t I have enough to do!”
Here are some more business anchoring examples:
• The boss who walks round encouraging his employees “He’s great!”
• The salesman who calls to make sure the last thing you bought is working fine (and invite you to the golf outing) “Put him though!”
• The colleague who comes round to offer words of encouragement “Joe’s on vacation? How will I manage?”
• The subordinate who offers three solutions to every problem “That’s a great kid, we need to keep him!”
Be positive most of the time, and people will feel good when they see you coming.
There are times we need to deal with business customers, suppliers, and subordinates in a way that is less than positive. Make sure that this is done is a consistent way; ask to see them in the same place for each of these, or stand in the same place in your office, use the same tonality in your voice, the same expression. When you have done this a couple of times, you will find that all you need to do is stand in that place, or use that tone or expression. Words will be unnecessary.
4. BELIEFS
Henry Ford said it best: “Whether we believe we can, or we believe we can’t, we are probably right”.
Our beliefs deeply impact everything that we do. Those who believe they “can’t” do something don’t try, or if they do they set themselves up for failure. On the other hand, those who believe they “can” get right on and do it. Those who succeed in buisness or professional life have positive beliefs about themselves and the world.
Fortunately beliefs are ultimately under our own control. NLP gives us several tools and techniques for changing beliefs. Ultimately these involve changing our reference experiences, memories and the meaning we attach to those memories. When we are able to accept beliefs as what they are, i.e. our temporary and changeable view of how the world operates, then they become flexible, and become “useful” or not-useful” rather than “true” or “false”.
5. VALUES
People’s behaviors reflect those things that they value. A company or other business organization behaves as the sum of the individuals, and the organizational systems that make it up.
Neuro Linguistic Programming teaches the importance of values. Values are used in NLP to supply leverage to assist a client to change.
Therefore only by creating and holding individual values which advance the objectives of the business organization, will the behavior of the individual employees be aligned with corporate goals.
Values operate at every level of an organization:
• The business organization has a culture which includes certain corporate values
• Separate business lines or groups within the organization have values, which may or may not be aligned with the values of the organization
• Individuals within the organization have their own individual values
Be ensuring the that the business organization has clearly stated and ethical values, by which it actually operates, can it hope to have the values of the groups within the organization, and values of the individuals within the groups, aligned.
6. META MODEL
Neurolinguistic programming’s Meta Model is a tool to understand, on a deep level, what people are saying. It is extremely useful in business as well as in other areas of life.
Suppose Bob reports to you “All my projects are going well”. You might feel happy about the situation, and then be surprised a week later when a major client calls up complaining that he has not received the report your company promised him. You are blindsided and embarrassed.
Upon speaking to Bob, you may find, for example:
• He had forgotten you had assigned the project to him; or
• Although he knew the deadline the client had given, he actually knew the project would take two weeks more than that, and was pleasantly surprised that he was only one week behind schedule.
If you had used the meta model you might have asked:
• What projects in particular are going well?
• What does “going well” mean? Are they on time? On budget? Is the deliverable up to the standard the client is expecting?
Had you asked these question you might have avoided the embarrassing call with the client. The Meta Model provides a framework in business for becoming aware of where the gaps in your information are, and tools for filling in those gaps through questions.
7. PERCEPTUAL POSITIONS
Perceptual positions are a concept in Neuro Linguistic Programming that refers to the concept of “I”, “You”, “We”, “They” etc. These positions are vital for effective business decisions.
When we experience the world, we tend to do so from the position of “me” or “I”. What do I want? How will this affect me? While this is a perfectly valied way to see the world, it is not the only way. When we realize this and internalize this knowledge, then we can begin to gain further valuable information about the business issues and the world around us.
We can begin to ask questions like:
• What do I want out of this?
• What does my client want?
• What does my boss want? What do my colleagues want?
• What answer will best serve the interests of all the parties?
• How will this impact on the organization as a whole? How will it affect the relationship between the organization, its customers and suppliers?
• How will it affect investors, shareholders and lenders?
• How will this affect the wider system? The world?
• How will it affect all these parties tomorrow?
If all business decisions were made after considering all the possible perceptual positions, they would likely lead to better results and less disastrous decisions!
NLP offers systematic tools for considering a situation from multiple perspectives, and to do so in such a way that we truly experience the situation from thus other business perspectives.
8. STRATEGIES
In Neurolinguistic Programming, a “strategy” does not refer to a corporate plan, or financial structure, rather it refers to the way in which an individual does (or does not do) something..
Neuro Linguistic Programming states that we make decisions and undertake behaviors in a systematic way, which is to say that the we will be doing the same things within our mind each time we make a decision or undertake a behavior. This explains why people have the same problem all the time (or nearly all the time): they are always, or nearly always, late with their projects, or always early; they always get on well with clients, or always get on badly.
By studying the strategies of employees who out-perform, or underperform, their peers, we can identify what strategies work in the business, and which do not. This allows us to:
• Help underperforming employees to change their under-performing strategies; or
• Systematically teach the skills of business superstars to other employees.
Similarly, studying the strategies of clients, for example their buying strategy or their regret (or non-regret) strategy, we can increase sales and create loyal customers.
9. META PROGRAMS
Neuro Linguistic Programming teaches that each individual is unique and their world view, beliefs, values, memories, experiences, skills etc are unique.
The closest NLP gets to general classes of behavior is in the NLP concept of Meta Programs. Meta Programs are extremely useful in business because it offers a quick and easily applied tool for determining an individuals strengths and weaknesses, and how they will react in a given situation. In this sense it is similar to the Myers Briggs or similar tools used in business, for example in recruiting. The benefit of the Meta Program system is that it allows the information to be gathered in a purely conversational manner, using a relatively small number of simple questions.
10. COACHING PATTERN
Dealing with employees, suppliers, customers and other individuals in a business environment can be difficult precisely because they are individuals.. As a result they have good days and bad days, and if we have to deal with them on a bad day, watch out!
The neuro linguistic programming coaching pattern allows us to conversationally change a persons mood, and move them into exactly the resourceful state they need to have, exactly at the time that they need it.
The coaching model is one of the many patterns and techniques we teach on our NLP trainings here in Hyderabad.
About The Author
Psy.Visesh is a consulting psychologist and certified NLP Trainer from Hyderabad, India. Visesh practices privately in Hyderabad, where he employs NLP and cognitive behaviour therapy, to help people with psychological problems. Visesh has 10 years of training experience, delivering Neuro Linguistic Programming courses to his clients. You can contact him on dearvisesh@gmail.com or +91 94401 35779.
1. RAPPORT
Rapport is a state that exists between two or more people that leads them to believe they are “on the same page”.
Rapport is essential in any business interaction. When individuals are in rapport it leads to mutual respect, and trust. When you have rapport:
• Clients will buy your products
• Subordinates will eagerly follow your directions
• Colleagues and superiors will respect your view
Many books offer techniques to build rapport, mainly around matching the posture or the other person (often called anchoring). While these techniques are valid, they run the danger of being artificial. The other person is likely to notice if you “try” to match them, and it is possible they will consider your behavior to be manipulative.
In fact, when rapport is natural, matching occurs as a matter of course. Look round the next time you are in a restaurant, coffee shop, bar or other public place. You will see groups of people all sitting or standing in a similar way, with similar posture and physiology.
What this means is that if we can find a way to get into natural rapport with the for example a client in a business interaction, everything else follows naturally. Neuro Linguistic Programming has a great technique for getting into rapport naturally:
• As you speak to the other person, soften your gaze, so you begin to notice your peripheral vision
• As you do so, you will begin to notice movement all around you
• As this skill builds, you will begin to notice the other persons breathing
• Begin to breathe at the same rate
As you breathe at the same rate as the other person, you will naturally attune to their movements, physiology, gestures etc. You will naturally begin to match these without thinking about them.
2. CALIBRATION SKILLS
Neuro linguistic programming teaches that each and every one of us has a unique and distinct “map of the world”. This map tells us how things are, how things work, and what rules apply in the world, for us. Each person’s map is different. Understanding this principle is vital in understanding our employees, business colleagues, customers and clients.
A map includes elements such as:
• Where does that person locate things in space? You can tell by where they look and where they gesture.
• What words are important to them?
• What values are important?
• What do they believe about themselves and the world?
• What patterns do they use in their behavior?
Calibration is all about respecting and being curious about the other persons map or the world, including the above elements. Calibration includes using our eyes and ears to notice:
• The words that the other person uses.
• The gestures that they use.
• The physiology that they adopt.
• Where their eyes move when they speak about various things.
• How do they organize time?
• What do they talk about as being important?
When we have this information, we can use it to influence the other person by pointing out the ways in which the thing that we want is aligned with what is important to them. Doing this in a way that uses their words, gestures and physiology will be extremely effective in being influential in business
3. ANCHORING
Anchoring is a neuro linguistic programming NLP technique that involves attaching a specific internal state to an external stimulus. Here are some common business examples:
• The boss who only wants to see you when there is a problem. Every time you see him you think “Here we go again”.
• The salesman who only calls to sell you something; “Tell him I’m busy”.
• The colleague who always whines about his life “Oh, Joe’s at it again”.
• The subordinate who comes round with problems for you to solve “Don’t I have enough to do!”
Here are some more business anchoring examples:
• The boss who walks round encouraging his employees “He’s great!”
• The salesman who calls to make sure the last thing you bought is working fine (and invite you to the golf outing) “Put him though!”
• The colleague who comes round to offer words of encouragement “Joe’s on vacation? How will I manage?”
• The subordinate who offers three solutions to every problem “That’s a great kid, we need to keep him!”
Be positive most of the time, and people will feel good when they see you coming.
There are times we need to deal with business customers, suppliers, and subordinates in a way that is less than positive. Make sure that this is done is a consistent way; ask to see them in the same place for each of these, or stand in the same place in your office, use the same tonality in your voice, the same expression. When you have done this a couple of times, you will find that all you need to do is stand in that place, or use that tone or expression. Words will be unnecessary.
4. BELIEFS
Henry Ford said it best: “Whether we believe we can, or we believe we can’t, we are probably right”.
Our beliefs deeply impact everything that we do. Those who believe they “can’t” do something don’t try, or if they do they set themselves up for failure. On the other hand, those who believe they “can” get right on and do it. Those who succeed in buisness or professional life have positive beliefs about themselves and the world.
Fortunately beliefs are ultimately under our own control. NLP gives us several tools and techniques for changing beliefs. Ultimately these involve changing our reference experiences, memories and the meaning we attach to those memories. When we are able to accept beliefs as what they are, i.e. our temporary and changeable view of how the world operates, then they become flexible, and become “useful” or not-useful” rather than “true” or “false”.
5. VALUES
People’s behaviors reflect those things that they value. A company or other business organization behaves as the sum of the individuals, and the organizational systems that make it up.
Neuro Linguistic Programming teaches the importance of values. Values are used in NLP to supply leverage to assist a client to change.
Therefore only by creating and holding individual values which advance the objectives of the business organization, will the behavior of the individual employees be aligned with corporate goals.
Values operate at every level of an organization:
• The business organization has a culture which includes certain corporate values
• Separate business lines or groups within the organization have values, which may or may not be aligned with the values of the organization
• Individuals within the organization have their own individual values
Be ensuring the that the business organization has clearly stated and ethical values, by which it actually operates, can it hope to have the values of the groups within the organization, and values of the individuals within the groups, aligned.
6. META MODEL
Neurolinguistic programming’s Meta Model is a tool to understand, on a deep level, what people are saying. It is extremely useful in business as well as in other areas of life.
Suppose Bob reports to you “All my projects are going well”. You might feel happy about the situation, and then be surprised a week later when a major client calls up complaining that he has not received the report your company promised him. You are blindsided and embarrassed.
Upon speaking to Bob, you may find, for example:
• He had forgotten you had assigned the project to him; or
• Although he knew the deadline the client had given, he actually knew the project would take two weeks more than that, and was pleasantly surprised that he was only one week behind schedule.
If you had used the meta model you might have asked:
• What projects in particular are going well?
• What does “going well” mean? Are they on time? On budget? Is the deliverable up to the standard the client is expecting?
Had you asked these question you might have avoided the embarrassing call with the client. The Meta Model provides a framework in business for becoming aware of where the gaps in your information are, and tools for filling in those gaps through questions.
7. PERCEPTUAL POSITIONS
Perceptual positions are a concept in Neuro Linguistic Programming that refers to the concept of “I”, “You”, “We”, “They” etc. These positions are vital for effective business decisions.
When we experience the world, we tend to do so from the position of “me” or “I”. What do I want? How will this affect me? While this is a perfectly valied way to see the world, it is not the only way. When we realize this and internalize this knowledge, then we can begin to gain further valuable information about the business issues and the world around us.
We can begin to ask questions like:
• What do I want out of this?
• What does my client want?
• What does my boss want? What do my colleagues want?
• What answer will best serve the interests of all the parties?
• How will this impact on the organization as a whole? How will it affect the relationship between the organization, its customers and suppliers?
• How will it affect investors, shareholders and lenders?
• How will this affect the wider system? The world?
• How will it affect all these parties tomorrow?
If all business decisions were made after considering all the possible perceptual positions, they would likely lead to better results and less disastrous decisions!
NLP offers systematic tools for considering a situation from multiple perspectives, and to do so in such a way that we truly experience the situation from thus other business perspectives.
8. STRATEGIES
In Neurolinguistic Programming, a “strategy” does not refer to a corporate plan, or financial structure, rather it refers to the way in which an individual does (or does not do) something..
Neuro Linguistic Programming states that we make decisions and undertake behaviors in a systematic way, which is to say that the we will be doing the same things within our mind each time we make a decision or undertake a behavior. This explains why people have the same problem all the time (or nearly all the time): they are always, or nearly always, late with their projects, or always early; they always get on well with clients, or always get on badly.
By studying the strategies of employees who out-perform, or underperform, their peers, we can identify what strategies work in the business, and which do not. This allows us to:
• Help underperforming employees to change their under-performing strategies; or
• Systematically teach the skills of business superstars to other employees.
Similarly, studying the strategies of clients, for example their buying strategy or their regret (or non-regret) strategy, we can increase sales and create loyal customers.
9. META PROGRAMS
Neuro Linguistic Programming teaches that each individual is unique and their world view, beliefs, values, memories, experiences, skills etc are unique.
The closest NLP gets to general classes of behavior is in the NLP concept of Meta Programs. Meta Programs are extremely useful in business because it offers a quick and easily applied tool for determining an individuals strengths and weaknesses, and how they will react in a given situation. In this sense it is similar to the Myers Briggs or similar tools used in business, for example in recruiting. The benefit of the Meta Program system is that it allows the information to be gathered in a purely conversational manner, using a relatively small number of simple questions.
10. COACHING PATTERN
Dealing with employees, suppliers, customers and other individuals in a business environment can be difficult precisely because they are individuals.. As a result they have good days and bad days, and if we have to deal with them on a bad day, watch out!
The neuro linguistic programming coaching pattern allows us to conversationally change a persons mood, and move them into exactly the resourceful state they need to have, exactly at the time that they need it.
The coaching model is one of the many patterns and techniques we teach on our NLP trainings here in Hyderabad.
About The Author
Psy.Visesh is a consulting psychologist and certified NLP Trainer from Hyderabad, India. Visesh practices privately in Hyderabad, where he employs NLP and cognitive behaviour therapy, to help people with psychological problems. Visesh has 10 years of training experience, delivering Neuro Linguistic Programming courses to his clients. You can contact him on dearvisesh@gmail.com or +91 94401 35779.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
characteristics of a GENIUS
According to Tony Buzan, these are the tell-tale characteristics of a genius. Read through the following list and see how many you recognize in yourself. You could be a genius for all we know! Don't worry though if you are sadly lacking in the characteristics of a genius. You can still learn how to become a genius whatever your age. So, there's still hope!
The Characteristics of Genius
Here then are the main characteristics of recognized geniuses with a description and tips, where appropriate, on how to develop that characteristic.
1. Vision This characteristic of genius concerns how clear and compelling the genius' vision of their life's chief goal is. Geniuses formulate very clear and precise inner pictures of what they want to accomplish, how they will do it, and the success they achieve. If you want to develop this genius character trait, get in touch with your main values, your life purpose, and forge an exciting and fulfilling ambition to work towards. Keep working to become clearer and more specific about it. Put 100% of your passion into it. Example: Muhammad Ali, boxing genius, and his powerful vision of himself as The Greatest.
2. Desire Desire as a characteristic of a genius has been labelled, by author Jack M. Zufelt, as The DNA of Success. The core desire of geniuses is so powerful and all consuming that they will let nothing stop them from acheiving their goal. Think of Thomas Edison's unrelenting commitment to inventing the first working light bulb. Geniuses speak of having a 'burning' passion or being consumed with the desire to achieve their goal. Can you imagine what you could achieve if YOU had that level of DESIRE in your life? Build this genius characteristic into your life by fanning the flames of your chief interests and aims. Build a momentum behind your desire.
3. Faith You might not have thought of this as one of the characteristic of a genius. I know I didn't! But what this means is that geniuses have faith in themselves and their own mental abilities to achieve their goals. They also demonstrate faith in the Mastermind Group they build to support them. This mental fortitude is so important especially when you are bringing something very new and innovative to the world. You have to have faith in yourself to overcome resistance to your new genius ideas and products. Start to build faith in yourself in small ways. When you say you are going to do something, do it.
4. Commitment This characteristic of genius is described as a determined decision to act on the vision, desire and faith previously mentioned. Most geniuses make some kind of public declaration of their intent which demonstrates their commitment. You can build this trait by writing down your goals and making your goals known to others. This will create extra pressure and help you commit to achieving what you want to do. You'll face ridicule if you don't carry through so this forces you to commit. Example: Think of JFK's commitment to the Space program which saw man walk on the moon within a decade.
5. Planning Geniuses demonstrate a remarkable ability to make specific workable plans to accomplish their chief aims in life. Do you have that characteristic of genius? I'm not sure that I do! But geniuses can plan in the short-term, medium-term and long-term. Brian Tracy says that one of the defining characteristics of millionaires is the ability to think long-term. It's not surprising geniuses think like that too.
6. Persistence Genius isn't just about thinking smart. It involves tremendous amounts of energy too. Let's face it geniuses are grafters. You don't get to hear about any lazy geniuses! There is too much to accomplish to sit around wasting time. Maybe that's why persistence is one of the main characteristics of a genius? They are just so tenacious and stick-to-the-task like superglue! Why don't you push yourself the extra mile in what you do? You may surprise yourself and discover you can be persistent to. I think of persistence as 'concentration-in-action'.
7. Learning From Mistakes In NLP, there is a saying, There is no failure, only feedback. This has been 'hi-jacked' straight from geniuses! As a characteristic of genius, this means that geniuses see all errors and mistakes as tremendous learning opportunities. Multi-millionaire business guru, Michael Masterson, recently launched a book called READY, FIRE, AIM. This takes the genius perspective that it is better to get going straight away, and then learn from your mistakes as you are moving along, than to try and figure out the perfect solution from the get go. Like flying a plane or sailing a boat, you are always making mistakes and course correcting. Geniuses do this BIG time! When you make a mistake, ask yourself, 'What can I learn from this? How can I improve and do better next time?'
8. Subject Knowledge Geniuses are greedy-guts for knowledge! If you guzzle down books by the bucketload, maybe you have this characteristic of a genius. If you hang out in the non-fiction section of the library, or are curious about everything, or are a Wikipedia junkie, you might be on your way to genius. Geniuses build vast knowledge about the specialized subjects and about the world in general. They love to learn! Do you?
9. Mental Literacy As a characteristic of genius, knowing about the brain and how it works might seem like something as new as neuroscience itself. But it's important to note that geniuses have always placed placed great importance on their thinking organ: the brain! You can develop this genius characteristic by learning about the brain, and about how to develop your memory, use thinking skills, learn, and be creative.
10. Imagination Imagination rules the world, claimed Napoleon. It certainly rules the world of geniuses. How else could they plan and make vivid goals without the ability to visualize and imagine themselves having done it? Develop your imagination through using it more often. Improve your visualization skills and you'll soon have this genius trait. To imagine means to set your inner 'image engine' running! Look out the window. Can you imagine what it would be like to actually be that bird flying across the sky?
>> Back to top of characteristics of a genius list
11. Positive Attitude Why is a positive attitude such an important characteristic of genius? It doesn't take much to figure it out. If you have a negative attitude, you will believe it can't be done, and you will give up too soon. Geniuses are possibility thinkers. They always think in terms of things being possible somehow. They remain optimistic, upbeat and have a pragmatic 'can-do' attitude to everything. What about you? Do you have this optimistic, happy-go-lucky characteristic of a genius, like Mozart did?
12. Auto-Suggestion Psychologists suggest that 90% of our self-talk is negative and self-defeating. Oops! Compare that to geniuses who are completely the opposite with 90% of their self-talk being positive and supportive. Do you see a clue? I think I do! Never mind the neighbours, get into the habit of talking positively to yourself out loud! Think of your sporting heroes who shout encouragement to themselves and pound their fists into the air during a match -- there's a whole lot of positive self-talk going on there! Repeat: I am a genius! I have all the characteristics of a genius!
13. Intuition This is a toughie to comprehend because intuition is such an abstract concept. But this genius characteristic is very pronounced. Tony Buzan calls it a kind of "Super Logic in which the human brain compares its historical matrix of multiple quadrillions of bits of data with a new matrix of experience." Hmm, nice one, thanks Tony! What he means is that intuition is where your unconscious mind cross references your learnt knowledge with your experiential knowledge and spits out wisdom! Damn it, that's too complicated too. Let's just say you get a feeling or sense of what is the right thing -- and you listen to it!
14. Mastermind Group (real) Geniuses don't exist in the ivory towers that we tend to think of them inhabiting. Most geniuses have other great minds around them. Napoleon Hill identified the concept of the Mastermind Group in Think and Grow Rich. It seems that all geniuses have a posse of advisers, guides and friends that they call upon to help further their goals. What about YOU? Have you got smart people in your genius posse? Are your pals supporting you? Maybe you want to work on this characteristic of genius? Get a group of people you admire, like and who stimulate you that you can meet with and discuss your plans.
15. Mastermind Group (internal) Most geniuses have role models that they admire and try to emulate. Look at your book shelves, look for posters on your walls. Is this one of your characteristics of a genius? Do you have a hero that you want to be like? Napoleon Hill developed a 'crazy' idea. He used his imagination to visualize meeting his heroes and discussing his plans with them. These 'meetings' got so real and life-like that at first he got a bit scared. That's the power of your genius mind and creativity. Try this out yourself. It frees up your mind to come up with unexpected answers to your challenges.
16. Truth / Honesty William Shakespeare wrote, To Thine Own Self Be True, and it's a characteristic of genius to live by that creed. But geniuses don't limit honesty to themselves. They hold Truth to be one of their foremost values, so they are honest and truthful to everyone around them. Ooh, that's gonna be a hard one to live up too, don't you think? “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” Who said that? Albert Einstein. 'Nuff said!
17. Facing Fears / Courage Geniuses don't have less fear than you or I. In fact, their awareness and senses are so great that their feelings are magnified. They see deeper and feel deeper fear. But the defining characteristic of a genius is that he acts in spite of his or her fear. Geniuses, as we have discovered, have such compelling reasons to live, that they are incredibly courageous in the face of their fears and challenges. Quite a lot to live up to!
18. Creativity / Flexibility Having the mental fluidity to think swiftly, generate new ideas, and consider alternatives is amongst the classic characteristics of a genius. This trait is best summarized as having a mercurial, associative mind. That means a mind that is quick to generate lots of unique options and insights. You can develop this sort of mind by using techniques such as lateral thinking and mind-mapping. Edward de Bono and Tony Buzan are real masters at teaching this.
19. Love of the Task This characteristic of a genius is really exemplified by those who love their subjects so passionately that they feel compelled to teach it to others. This is the abiding sense of care and responsibility towards knowledge. It reveals the deep desire to help others come to know and love the subject as the genius does. It also entails just the passion for the tasks that need to be done to accomplish the great goal. A da Vinci might have a goal to paint a portrait that is so lifelike and that conveys the essence or soul of the person. But he still loves the task of mixing the paints, preparing the canvas, and ensuring everything is to order. Geniuses live in the moment like that, attending to the task at hand with a fierce love and attention.
20. ENERGY (physical / sensual / sexual) There is something about creative genius that seems to be filled with an abudance of physical, sensual and sexual energy. A quick scan of the biographies of geniuses throughout history will show their enormous appetite for sex (think of Bach with his, what was it, 18 kids?!). Napoleon Hill covers this in his Think and Grow Rich book, too, in the chapter on Sex Transmutation. You can learn to harness your powerful physical energies to empower your pursuit of your major chief aims in life. So, are you filled with this characteristic of a genius? Is there an over-abundance of lusty, passionate, sensual energy in you? If not, have you locked it away? Can you let it out? It's there to fuel your mind as much as anything!
The Characteristics of Genius
Here then are the main characteristics of recognized geniuses with a description and tips, where appropriate, on how to develop that characteristic.
1. Vision This characteristic of genius concerns how clear and compelling the genius' vision of their life's chief goal is. Geniuses formulate very clear and precise inner pictures of what they want to accomplish, how they will do it, and the success they achieve. If you want to develop this genius character trait, get in touch with your main values, your life purpose, and forge an exciting and fulfilling ambition to work towards. Keep working to become clearer and more specific about it. Put 100% of your passion into it. Example: Muhammad Ali, boxing genius, and his powerful vision of himself as The Greatest.
2. Desire Desire as a characteristic of a genius has been labelled, by author Jack M. Zufelt, as The DNA of Success. The core desire of geniuses is so powerful and all consuming that they will let nothing stop them from acheiving their goal. Think of Thomas Edison's unrelenting commitment to inventing the first working light bulb. Geniuses speak of having a 'burning' passion or being consumed with the desire to achieve their goal. Can you imagine what you could achieve if YOU had that level of DESIRE in your life? Build this genius characteristic into your life by fanning the flames of your chief interests and aims. Build a momentum behind your desire.
3. Faith You might not have thought of this as one of the characteristic of a genius. I know I didn't! But what this means is that geniuses have faith in themselves and their own mental abilities to achieve their goals. They also demonstrate faith in the Mastermind Group they build to support them. This mental fortitude is so important especially when you are bringing something very new and innovative to the world. You have to have faith in yourself to overcome resistance to your new genius ideas and products. Start to build faith in yourself in small ways. When you say you are going to do something, do it.
4. Commitment This characteristic of genius is described as a determined decision to act on the vision, desire and faith previously mentioned. Most geniuses make some kind of public declaration of their intent which demonstrates their commitment. You can build this trait by writing down your goals and making your goals known to others. This will create extra pressure and help you commit to achieving what you want to do. You'll face ridicule if you don't carry through so this forces you to commit. Example: Think of JFK's commitment to the Space program which saw man walk on the moon within a decade.
5. Planning Geniuses demonstrate a remarkable ability to make specific workable plans to accomplish their chief aims in life. Do you have that characteristic of genius? I'm not sure that I do! But geniuses can plan in the short-term, medium-term and long-term. Brian Tracy says that one of the defining characteristics of millionaires is the ability to think long-term. It's not surprising geniuses think like that too.
6. Persistence Genius isn't just about thinking smart. It involves tremendous amounts of energy too. Let's face it geniuses are grafters. You don't get to hear about any lazy geniuses! There is too much to accomplish to sit around wasting time. Maybe that's why persistence is one of the main characteristics of a genius? They are just so tenacious and stick-to-the-task like superglue! Why don't you push yourself the extra mile in what you do? You may surprise yourself and discover you can be persistent to. I think of persistence as 'concentration-in-action'.
7. Learning From Mistakes In NLP, there is a saying, There is no failure, only feedback. This has been 'hi-jacked' straight from geniuses! As a characteristic of genius, this means that geniuses see all errors and mistakes as tremendous learning opportunities. Multi-millionaire business guru, Michael Masterson, recently launched a book called READY, FIRE, AIM. This takes the genius perspective that it is better to get going straight away, and then learn from your mistakes as you are moving along, than to try and figure out the perfect solution from the get go. Like flying a plane or sailing a boat, you are always making mistakes and course correcting. Geniuses do this BIG time! When you make a mistake, ask yourself, 'What can I learn from this? How can I improve and do better next time?'
8. Subject Knowledge Geniuses are greedy-guts for knowledge! If you guzzle down books by the bucketload, maybe you have this characteristic of a genius. If you hang out in the non-fiction section of the library, or are curious about everything, or are a Wikipedia junkie, you might be on your way to genius. Geniuses build vast knowledge about the specialized subjects and about the world in general. They love to learn! Do you?
9. Mental Literacy As a characteristic of genius, knowing about the brain and how it works might seem like something as new as neuroscience itself. But it's important to note that geniuses have always placed placed great importance on their thinking organ: the brain! You can develop this genius characteristic by learning about the brain, and about how to develop your memory, use thinking skills, learn, and be creative.
10. Imagination Imagination rules the world, claimed Napoleon. It certainly rules the world of geniuses. How else could they plan and make vivid goals without the ability to visualize and imagine themselves having done it? Develop your imagination through using it more often. Improve your visualization skills and you'll soon have this genius trait. To imagine means to set your inner 'image engine' running! Look out the window. Can you imagine what it would be like to actually be that bird flying across the sky?
>> Back to top of characteristics of a genius list
11. Positive Attitude Why is a positive attitude such an important characteristic of genius? It doesn't take much to figure it out. If you have a negative attitude, you will believe it can't be done, and you will give up too soon. Geniuses are possibility thinkers. They always think in terms of things being possible somehow. They remain optimistic, upbeat and have a pragmatic 'can-do' attitude to everything. What about you? Do you have this optimistic, happy-go-lucky characteristic of a genius, like Mozart did?
12. Auto-Suggestion Psychologists suggest that 90% of our self-talk is negative and self-defeating. Oops! Compare that to geniuses who are completely the opposite with 90% of their self-talk being positive and supportive. Do you see a clue? I think I do! Never mind the neighbours, get into the habit of talking positively to yourself out loud! Think of your sporting heroes who shout encouragement to themselves and pound their fists into the air during a match -- there's a whole lot of positive self-talk going on there! Repeat: I am a genius! I have all the characteristics of a genius!
13. Intuition This is a toughie to comprehend because intuition is such an abstract concept. But this genius characteristic is very pronounced. Tony Buzan calls it a kind of "Super Logic in which the human brain compares its historical matrix of multiple quadrillions of bits of data with a new matrix of experience." Hmm, nice one, thanks Tony! What he means is that intuition is where your unconscious mind cross references your learnt knowledge with your experiential knowledge and spits out wisdom! Damn it, that's too complicated too. Let's just say you get a feeling or sense of what is the right thing -- and you listen to it!
14. Mastermind Group (real) Geniuses don't exist in the ivory towers that we tend to think of them inhabiting. Most geniuses have other great minds around them. Napoleon Hill identified the concept of the Mastermind Group in Think and Grow Rich. It seems that all geniuses have a posse of advisers, guides and friends that they call upon to help further their goals. What about YOU? Have you got smart people in your genius posse? Are your pals supporting you? Maybe you want to work on this characteristic of genius? Get a group of people you admire, like and who stimulate you that you can meet with and discuss your plans.
15. Mastermind Group (internal) Most geniuses have role models that they admire and try to emulate. Look at your book shelves, look for posters on your walls. Is this one of your characteristics of a genius? Do you have a hero that you want to be like? Napoleon Hill developed a 'crazy' idea. He used his imagination to visualize meeting his heroes and discussing his plans with them. These 'meetings' got so real and life-like that at first he got a bit scared. That's the power of your genius mind and creativity. Try this out yourself. It frees up your mind to come up with unexpected answers to your challenges.
16. Truth / Honesty William Shakespeare wrote, To Thine Own Self Be True, and it's a characteristic of genius to live by that creed. But geniuses don't limit honesty to themselves. They hold Truth to be one of their foremost values, so they are honest and truthful to everyone around them. Ooh, that's gonna be a hard one to live up too, don't you think? “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” Who said that? Albert Einstein. 'Nuff said!
17. Facing Fears / Courage Geniuses don't have less fear than you or I. In fact, their awareness and senses are so great that their feelings are magnified. They see deeper and feel deeper fear. But the defining characteristic of a genius is that he acts in spite of his or her fear. Geniuses, as we have discovered, have such compelling reasons to live, that they are incredibly courageous in the face of their fears and challenges. Quite a lot to live up to!
18. Creativity / Flexibility Having the mental fluidity to think swiftly, generate new ideas, and consider alternatives is amongst the classic characteristics of a genius. This trait is best summarized as having a mercurial, associative mind. That means a mind that is quick to generate lots of unique options and insights. You can develop this sort of mind by using techniques such as lateral thinking and mind-mapping. Edward de Bono and Tony Buzan are real masters at teaching this.
19. Love of the Task This characteristic of a genius is really exemplified by those who love their subjects so passionately that they feel compelled to teach it to others. This is the abiding sense of care and responsibility towards knowledge. It reveals the deep desire to help others come to know and love the subject as the genius does. It also entails just the passion for the tasks that need to be done to accomplish the great goal. A da Vinci might have a goal to paint a portrait that is so lifelike and that conveys the essence or soul of the person. But he still loves the task of mixing the paints, preparing the canvas, and ensuring everything is to order. Geniuses live in the moment like that, attending to the task at hand with a fierce love and attention.
20. ENERGY (physical / sensual / sexual) There is something about creative genius that seems to be filled with an abudance of physical, sensual and sexual energy. A quick scan of the biographies of geniuses throughout history will show their enormous appetite for sex (think of Bach with his, what was it, 18 kids?!). Napoleon Hill covers this in his Think and Grow Rich book, too, in the chapter on Sex Transmutation. You can learn to harness your powerful physical energies to empower your pursuit of your major chief aims in life. So, are you filled with this characteristic of a genius? Is there an over-abundance of lusty, passionate, sensual energy in you? If not, have you locked it away? Can you let it out? It's there to fuel your mind as much as anything!
A Failured GENIUS: James Sidis
William James Sidis is a Prodigy. William James Sidis is arguably the brightest human who ever existed on our planet Earth.
He was born of parents Boris and Sarah Sidis, emigrant Jews who escaped anti-Semitic Russian pogroms and came to America at the end of the 19th century. William James Sidis ('Billy') was born on April Fool's Day in 1898. He became a strange combination of an April Fool and a 20th century genius vastly beyond common sentient discernment.
Both Boris and Sarah became well educated. He with Ph.D's and M.D., and she with M.D. His first Ph.D. was basically settled upon him by Harvard to entice him to do their bidding. Boris and his family were so bright that they could learn and understand difficult, complex intellectual concepts at a rate greater than ten times as quickly as typical advanced academics. Boris claimed to have a technique which allowed him access to an energy source. He taught Sarah, then William how to access and manage this source of abundant energy.
Here is a partial list of William James Sidis’ extraordinary capabilities and accomplishments:
He was born of parents Boris and Sarah Sidis, emigrant Jews who escaped anti-Semitic Russian pogroms and came to America at the end of the 19th century. William James Sidis ('Billy') was born on April Fool's Day in 1898. He became a strange combination of an April Fool and a 20th century genius vastly beyond common sentient discernment.
Both Boris and Sarah became well educated. He with Ph.D's and M.D., and she with M.D. His first Ph.D. was basically settled upon him by Harvard to entice him to do their bidding. Boris and his family were so bright that they could learn and understand difficult, complex intellectual concepts at a rate greater than ten times as quickly as typical advanced academics. Boris claimed to have a technique which allowed him access to an energy source. He taught Sarah, then William how to access and manage this source of abundant energy.
Here is a partial list of William James Sidis’ extraordinary capabilities and accomplishments:
- Given IQ is a purely anthropocentric means of assessing intelligence, Sidis' IQ is crudely estimated at 250-300.
- Infant Billy listened to Greek myths read to him by Sarah as bedtime stories.
- Started feeding himself with a spoon at eight months (after two months of trial and error).
Cajoled by Boris, Billy learned to pronounce alphabetic syllables from blocks hanging in his crib. - At six months, Billy said, "Door." A couple months later he told Mom he liked things, doors and people, that move.
- At seven months he pointed to Earth's moon and called it, "moon." He wanted a 'moon' of his own.
- Mastered higher mathematics and planetary revolutions by age 11.
- Learned to spell efficiently by one year old.
- Started reading The New York Times at 18 months.
- Started typing at three. Used his high chair to reach a typewriter. First composed letter was an order for toys from Macy's.
- Read Caesar's Gallic Wars, in Latin (self-taught), as a birthday present to his Father in Billy's fourth year.
- Learned Greek alphabet and read Homer in Greek in his fourth year.
- Learned Aristotelian logic in his sixth year.
- At six, Billy learned Russian, French, German, and Hebrew, and soon after, Turkish and Armenian.
- Calculated mentally a day any date in history would fall at age six. Absolutely fascinated by calendars.
- Learned Gray's Anatomy at six. Could pass a student medical examination.
- Billy started grammar school at six, in 3 days 3rd grade, graduated grammar school in 7 months.
- At age 8, Billy surpassed his father (a genius) in mathematics.
- Corrected E. V. Huntington's mathematics text galleys at age of eight. Total recall of everything he read.
- Wrote four books between ages of four and eight. Two on anatomy and stronomy, lost.
- Passed Harvard Medical School anatomy exam at age seven.
- Passed MIT entrance exam at age eight.
- Intellect surpassed best secondary school teachers.
- At age 10, in one evening, corrected Harvard logic professor Josiah Royce's book manuscript: citing, "wrong paragraphs."
- Attempted to enroll in Harvard at nine.
- In 1909, became youngest student to ever enroll at Harvard at age 11.
- In 1910, at age 11, lectured Harvard Mathematical Club on 'Four-Dimensional Bodies.'
- Billy graduated from Harvard, cum laude, on June 24, 1914, at age 16.
- Billy entered Harvard Law School in 1916.
- Billy could learn a whole language in one day!
- Billy knew all the languages (approximately 200) of the world, and could translate among them instantly!
- More recently, in late 2005, we commence recognition of Billy's probable (perhaps only intuitive) adeptness in ancient Judaic Gematria and Hermetics. Doug - 8Dec2005. Again, refer Sam Rosenberg's conjectures. Perhaps there is even more than Sam decrypted. Billy: quanton(Hyde,Jekyll).
- Here is a partial list of William James Sidis' idiosyncratic and acultural behaviors:
- Utter disregard of sports and physical activities — learned from his father.
- Utter disregard of things monetary — learned from his father.
- Utter disregard for academia, academicians, academic bureaucracy and their 'titles.'
- Collected street car transfers. Knew most details of most routes in USA.
- Rabid atheist by age six. (His father, Boris, was too, but intensely studied great religious works.)
- His only fear was dogs.
- Learned to hate mathematics in grammar school; later at 7.5 years he started a life long love of math.
- Avid interest in politics.
- Dressed in Russian peasant clothes as a minor.
- On hearing a Bible read aloud, declared he didn't believe in that and didn't want to hear it.
- In school, only worked problems to which he didn't know answers.
- After 3 months in high school, parents withdrew him; teachers were relieved.
- Thinking was his chosen refuge from media antagonists.
- Essence of Billy Sidis: "I want to live the perfect life. The only way to live the perfect life is to live it in seclusion. I have always hated crowds."
- Celibate: Vowed never to marry. "Women do not appeal to me."
- Considered traditional classrooms, 'stifling.'
- Billy was a pacifist, anti-war, conscientious objector.
- He was a reformed communist/socialist — eventually found both intellectually disgusting.
Paradoxes were his logical specialty. - William James Sidis probably represents the apex of recorded human intellectual capabilities.
A Partial List of Boris Sidis' Books:
- A Study of Galvanometric Deflections
- An Experimental Study of Sleep
- Human Progress
- Multiple Personality, 1904, D. Appleton & Company
- Nervous Ills, Their Cause and Cure, 1922, J. J. Little & Ives Company
- Philistine and Genius, May 1911, Moffat, Yard & Co., NY
- Psychopathological Researches, Studies in Mental Dissociation, 1902, G. E. Stechert & Co.
- Symptomatology, Psychognosis, and Diagnosis of Psychopathic Diseases, 1914, Gorman Press
- The Causation and Treatment of Psychopathic Diseases, 1916, Gorman Press
- The Foundations of Normal and Abnormal Psychology
- The Nature and Causation of the Galvanic Phenomenon
- The Psychology of Suggestion
- The Psychology of Laughter
Saturday, January 12, 2008
PRACTICE LIKE A GENIUS
As we grow older and wiser,
we learn to recognize our strengths and weaknesses, and accept them. We work to align our lives with the gifts we were born with, and cultivate them. This is a process of finding our place within the world.
As we recognize and organize our strengths,
we discover and expose ourselves as to who we truly are. Our discovered place in the world becomes the opportunity for the expression of our genius: our special set of gift(s) that we can contribute. It lies within all of us.
Some may say that they have little to contribute.
However, if we contribute small things greatly, true to our purpose, we will exceed those people who do great things poorly. For the small thing done greatly can be picked up, and magnified by another, and so by another.
True prophets and leaders want us to work towards
an honest recognition and admission of who we are, to see the beauty and strength in each of us, as well as for each of us to see and admit the beauty of others. With this honest perception of the self, the exercise of genius takes one to a higher spiritual plane.
By its nature, genius pushes against the boundaries
of culture, religion, society, environment. Boundaries serve a purpose and should be honored for what they are: a context that tests.
A nation or people or society is only as strong
as its individuals are empowered to rise to the level of their individual genius. When prophets and leaders encourage us to follow them, they are asking us to hear their message and empower our lives.
As social animals,
our tendency is to institutionalizethe message and to build belief systems and rituals. However, we need to be alert to when our spirituality, and genius, is limited by these constraints and that context. It may be that what is built up after the prophet and leader is contrary to his or her message.
Genius recognizes that we must honestly recognize
and meet with humility, even confront, those conditions in which we are placed. We set aside distracting influences and things of our youth since they are not true to who we are. Should we succumb to weakness, that which we are not, we need to recognize the test for what it is: either a miscalculation of our power, or an inappropriate response to our environment. If we go astray, act contrary to our purpose (we are not perfect) we must learn the lesson provided.
We hold steady, we join hands with those walking with us
on our spiritual paths, learning that the genius of others will also guide us. Others will be there to lift us up. With them, our full genius takes us to the place where we can overcome digressions and transgressions. There is a super genius at work, that of we as people.
Don't restrict yourself to the standards!
Consider them standards and build on them. Practice the basics, then don't be afraid to move away from the normal and think outside of the box, or the textbook!" (Colin.C.Saxton)
Read widely and deeply.
In addition to being a statesman, diplomat, author of the Declaration of Independence and President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson was a notable agriculturalist, horticulturist, architect, etymologist, mathematician, cryptographer, surveyor, author, lawyer, inventor, paleontologist, and founder of the University of Virginia. As a 16-year-old college student, he studied 15 hours a day. His insatiable curiosity and disciplined study of a broad range of academic and practical disciplines were the basis for his exceptional accomplishments. President John F. Kennedy welcomed 49 Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962, saying, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." (Gavin Ehringer)
we learn to recognize our strengths and weaknesses, and accept them. We work to align our lives with the gifts we were born with, and cultivate them. This is a process of finding our place within the world.
As we recognize and organize our strengths,
we discover and expose ourselves as to who we truly are. Our discovered place in the world becomes the opportunity for the expression of our genius: our special set of gift(s) that we can contribute. It lies within all of us.
Some may say that they have little to contribute.
However, if we contribute small things greatly, true to our purpose, we will exceed those people who do great things poorly. For the small thing done greatly can be picked up, and magnified by another, and so by another.
True prophets and leaders want us to work towards
an honest recognition and admission of who we are, to see the beauty and strength in each of us, as well as for each of us to see and admit the beauty of others. With this honest perception of the self, the exercise of genius takes one to a higher spiritual plane.
By its nature, genius pushes against the boundaries
of culture, religion, society, environment. Boundaries serve a purpose and should be honored for what they are: a context that tests.
A nation or people or society is only as strong
as its individuals are empowered to rise to the level of their individual genius. When prophets and leaders encourage us to follow them, they are asking us to hear their message and empower our lives.
As social animals,
our tendency is to institutionalizethe message and to build belief systems and rituals. However, we need to be alert to when our spirituality, and genius, is limited by these constraints and that context. It may be that what is built up after the prophet and leader is contrary to his or her message.
Genius recognizes that we must honestly recognize
and meet with humility, even confront, those conditions in which we are placed. We set aside distracting influences and things of our youth since they are not true to who we are. Should we succumb to weakness, that which we are not, we need to recognize the test for what it is: either a miscalculation of our power, or an inappropriate response to our environment. If we go astray, act contrary to our purpose (we are not perfect) we must learn the lesson provided.
We hold steady, we join hands with those walking with us
on our spiritual paths, learning that the genius of others will also guide us. Others will be there to lift us up. With them, our full genius takes us to the place where we can overcome digressions and transgressions. There is a super genius at work, that of we as people.
Don't restrict yourself to the standards!
Consider them standards and build on them. Practice the basics, then don't be afraid to move away from the normal and think outside of the box, or the textbook!" (Colin.C.Saxton)
Read widely and deeply.
In addition to being a statesman, diplomat, author of the Declaration of Independence and President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson was a notable agriculturalist, horticulturist, architect, etymologist, mathematician, cryptographer, surveyor, author, lawyer, inventor, paleontologist, and founder of the University of Virginia. As a 16-year-old college student, he studied 15 hours a day. His insatiable curiosity and disciplined study of a broad range of academic and practical disciplines were the basis for his exceptional accomplishments. President John F. Kennedy welcomed 49 Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962, saying, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." (Gavin Ehringer)
THINKING LIKE A GENIUS
"Even if you're not a genius, you can use the same strategies as Aristotle and Einstein to harness the power of your creative mind and better manage your future."
The following eight strategies encourage you to think productively, rather than reproductively, in order to arrive at solutions to problems. "These strategies are common to the thinking styles of creative geniuses in science, art, and industry throughout history."
1. Look at problems in many different ways, and find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has publicized!)
Leonardo da Vinci believed that, to gain knowledge about the form of a problem, you begin by learning how to restructure it in many different ways. He felt that the first way he looked at a problem was too biased. Often, the problem itself is reconstructed and becomes a new one.
2. Visualize!
When Einstein thought through a problem, he always found it necessary to formulate his subject in as many different ways as possible, including using diagrams. He visualized solutions, and believed that words and numbers as such did not play a significant role in his thinking process.
3. Produce! A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity.
Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He guaranteed productivity by giving himself and his assistants idea quotas. In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced not only great works, but also many "bad" ones. They weren't afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at excellence.
4. Make novel combinations. Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.
The laws of heredity on which the modern science of genetics is based came from the Austrian monk Grego Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create a new science.
5. Form relationships; make connections between dissimilar subjects.
Da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell and a stone hitting water. This enabled him to make the connection that sound travels in waves. Samuel Morse invented relay stations for telegraphic signals when observing relay stations for horses.
6. Think in opposites.
Physicist Niels Bohr believed, that if you held opposites together, then you suspend your thought, and your mind moves to a new level. His ability to imagine light as both a particle and a wave led to his conception of the principle of complementarity. Suspending thought (logic) may allow your mind to create a new form.
7. Think metaphorically.
Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts.
8. Prepare yourself for chance.
Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle of creative accident. Failure can be productive only if we do not focus on it as an unproductive result. Instead: analyze the process, its components, and how you can change them, to arrive at other results. Do not ask the question "Why have I failed?", but rather "What have I done?"
(Michalko, Michael, Thinking Like a Genius: Eight strategies used by the super creative, from Aristotle and Leonardo to Einstein and Edison)
The following eight strategies encourage you to think productively, rather than reproductively, in order to arrive at solutions to problems. "These strategies are common to the thinking styles of creative geniuses in science, art, and industry throughout history."
1. Look at problems in many different ways, and find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has publicized!)
Leonardo da Vinci believed that, to gain knowledge about the form of a problem, you begin by learning how to restructure it in many different ways. He felt that the first way he looked at a problem was too biased. Often, the problem itself is reconstructed and becomes a new one.
2. Visualize!
When Einstein thought through a problem, he always found it necessary to formulate his subject in as many different ways as possible, including using diagrams. He visualized solutions, and believed that words and numbers as such did not play a significant role in his thinking process.
3. Produce! A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity.
Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He guaranteed productivity by giving himself and his assistants idea quotas. In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced not only great works, but also many "bad" ones. They weren't afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at excellence.
4. Make novel combinations. Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.
The laws of heredity on which the modern science of genetics is based came from the Austrian monk Grego Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create a new science.
5. Form relationships; make connections between dissimilar subjects.
Da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell and a stone hitting water. This enabled him to make the connection that sound travels in waves. Samuel Morse invented relay stations for telegraphic signals when observing relay stations for horses.
6. Think in opposites.
Physicist Niels Bohr believed, that if you held opposites together, then you suspend your thought, and your mind moves to a new level. His ability to imagine light as both a particle and a wave led to his conception of the principle of complementarity. Suspending thought (logic) may allow your mind to create a new form.
7. Think metaphorically.
Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts.
8. Prepare yourself for chance.
Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle of creative accident. Failure can be productive only if we do not focus on it as an unproductive result. Instead: analyze the process, its components, and how you can change them, to arrive at other results. Do not ask the question "Why have I failed?", but rather "What have I done?"
(Michalko, Michael, Thinking Like a Genius: Eight strategies used by the super creative, from Aristotle and Leonardo to Einstein and Edison)
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