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?
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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:

• 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

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)

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)