Inform Yourself

More discoveries from Mr.Jay Niblick's Genius Project.

When you openly and honestly acknowledge that God didn’t screw up and the only mistake has been in how you apply what was given to you; when you stop neglecting your inner-self; once you have dropped that rock from your shoulders and once you have become truly authentic you will find there is an almost mystical aspect to the performance you will achieve. Basil King said, “Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.” I think those mighty forces he talks about have been inside of you all along. They were just hidden in untapped potential. They weren’t allowed out. When you become authentic, though, and once you let those talents out, it is as if you are suddenly plugged into some invisible energy that powers your performance and the results you get often elicit a feeling of “How did I do that? It didn’t seem that hard.”

When this happens you are in what I call the flow. Abraham Maslow talks about Peak Experiences noting these are times where people are in the flow. He describes people in peak experiences as being one with what they do. The two are not separate. The person is not “thinking” about doing it, they are just doing it. Athletes and artist commonly get in the flow, and the professional athletes we’ve worked with tell me that if they have to think about it, it’s too late. In business, author Marcus Buckingham describes this moment by saying, “your whole brain seems to light up as if a whole bank of switches were suddenly flicked on.”

When people try to over ride their natural talents, they feel broken, not whole and unfulfilled. When, however, they let nature take its course and they allow who they are to come to the surface they feel complete, whole and fulfilled. In the flow they perform much better and often they are a little mystified with the results. They don’t feel as if they had to put in as much effort as one might expect they had to in order to achieve such stellar results. But they get them none-the-less.

There is one final benefit from being authentic. When you are authentic not only do you find amazement in it but also those around you are equally as inspired. They bring about peacefulness and wonder in everyone who comes into contact with them. It is truly fun and captivating watching someone who is completely authentic. It should come as no surprise that these people are extremely successful at what they do, when they do it in this fashion.

Others may be technically very good at what they do, but if they are inauthentic then they sabotage their ultimate success and they do not inspire those around them nearly as much. Only part of their attention can be applied to their actual work – the other part has to be given to themselves, as what they are doing is not natural and thus it requires that they slow down to think about it more cautiously or intently. They are spending some of their effort on thinking about how to be something instead of just being it.

Inspiring others is a wonderful side-effect of being authentic.

I continue to reveal the findings from my good friend Mr. Jay Niblick's The Genius Project

In my prior post I revealed what it menas to be authentic to oneself. In essesnce it is how well you utilize and rely upon the natural talents your creator has given you for your success.

One of the reasons being authentic feels so right is because it automatically taps your passion. In one way, learning your talents and being true to them is the same as learning what your passions are and being true to them. When you are being true to your genius, you are being true to your passions. When you are doing what you love to do, and naturally do well, you are drawn to doing it. Passion is the force that drives all successful people and actions, and being authentic is being passionate. In The Eighth Habit author Stephen Covey talks about the importance that passion plays in performance. “The key to creating passion in your life is to find your unique talents and your special role and purpose in the world”, says Covey.

Geniuses are passionate about their roles. Their roles are well aligned with who they are. They don’t consider it work. They love what they do and they would still do it even if they didn’t have to. When you are engaged in work that taps into your talents and is fueled by your passion, therein lays your calling, your Genius. Covey goes on to say that, “There is a deep, innate, almost inexpressible yearning within each one of us to find our voice in life.” That voice he is talking about is your genius!

Our passions are also tied to our sense of purpose. In the book Blueprint for Success, author Tim Kelly ties passion to purpose in the following way, “Each of us has a unique life purpose – some reason why we were born – someone we are meant to be, and something we are meant to do. Not everyone believes this, but the people who do believe it often get an itch, a feeling, or a calling. They have a sense that there is something they are supposed to be doing, and until they are doing it they don’t feel completely fulfilled in their lives. It’s a question that each of us needs to answer, because we’ll be happier, more successful and more fulfilled when we do.” In Tim’s use of “purpose” I don’t think he is talking about specific jobs or duties as much as he is the way in which you do these things. Your purpose is not a title or what you do, rather who you are and how you are. In many ways, being true to your genius is analogous to being true to your purpose.

Mourning the loss of my oldest dog Jazz. She was a 14 yr old Chow Chow who we had to put to sleep today after she suffered a stroke this morning. She was a great dog! I am going to miss her terribly.

If you’ve been reading my last few articles then you know about the Genius Project which was conducted by my good friend Mr. Jay Niblick. You’ll also recall that your ability to achieve 5th Level of performance (Genius Level) you must rely on your natural talents and be authentic to yourself. This post addresses the thought processes on how geniuses view themselves and their abilities.

Here’s another way to look at it. To assume that you – at your very core - need to fix yourself requires the presupposition that you must be broken, and that implies that God screwed up. I mean feel free to substitute whatever spiritual belief you have, but it likely doesn’t change the concept. Think about it. If you believe that at your very core that the way you were made is insufficient to achieve success, then you have to admit that you view yourself as flawed, or at best incomplete. Now I’m not talking here about developing new acquired talents, rather a belief that “I need fixing”. Acquiring new knowledge and experience is great. That’s a prerequisite for anyone’s success and something all 5th level performers (Geniuses) constantly do by the way. But when you attempt to fix who you are instead of fixing how you are, then you must first think who you are is insufficient. And if you think that then you can’t avoid the question, “Who screwed up?”

~ If you need to fix anything, it is the way you apply you – not you! ~

In reality it’s not what you are at your very core that needs work, but how you apply yourself that needs fixing. God created you for a purpose and you have a completely unique and incredibly powerful set of natural talents for that purpose, so it’s not what raw materials you have to work with that you should be concerned with – because the geniuses we studied aren’t. What you should be focused on is how you apply those raw materials.

Geniuses understand this. They don’t view their set of talents as flawed; rather any flaws they see come in how they apply those talents. Because of this radically different perspective on themselves, when they focus on correcting flaws, those flaws are in their application of themselves, not themselves. In other words, they achieve tremendous leaps in performance by adjusting their environment (what they do or how they do it) not themselves. They don’t change their talents; they change how those talents are applied.

Give yourself up to your inner genius and allow that which is you – as you were created – to do what it does best. Remember, regardless of whatever higher power you believe in, if you believe that such a higher power is infinitely more powerful and knowing then you, you have to ask yourself, “did that power know what it was doing when it created me?”

If you answer yes, then you can’t blame your God for making you incorrectly? If you still agree with me then any mistakes in your life are not, cannot be, in you, but in the application of you. In other words, God made you, but you decide what to do with yourself. If a problem exists it’s not with the thing God created, but how you apply it.

I say all of this because there is a huge difference between thinking you are broken and realizing that you are just not well aligned. The former is a racecar with a blown engine that must be completely rebuilt (broken). The latter is a perfectly good Ferrari trying to race in an off-road rally (not well aligned).

~ Success in not about developing talent – it’s about aligning it ~

If you’ve been reading my posts then you know about the Genius Project which was conducted by my good friend Mr. Jay Niblick. You’ll also recall that your ability to achieve Genius Level (5th Level) of Performance one must rely on their natural talents and be authentic to oneself. This post reveals some of the side effects of being inauthentic to oneself.

The effects of being inauthentic reach far beyond simple performance issues. The more disconcerting aspects of being inauthentic are what it does to you emotionally and even physically.

Being inauthentic is stressful, and I don’t mean healthy stress (eustress) I mean harmful stress (distress). Being inauthentic in the first place is stressful enough, but the lack of performance that usually results adds even more stress on top of that, and when you look at what modern medicine is just now learning about the impact of stress on the human body (let alone psyche), the effects are startling.

According to Dr. Leon Pomeroy, who was the founding President of the International Academy of Preventive Medicine, psychological and emotional stress can gravely affect the human body in many negative ways. There are a lot of things that cause stress and a lot of factors that determine our ability to handle it, but we do know that being inauthentic, and having to work in an uncomfortable job, having to modify your behavior all day long, constantly having to apply a non-talent – is definitely stressful. If your job requires this of you full time, then the stress this causes you is chronic.

Such stress triggers an overdose of hormones like epinephrine and cortisol that, over time, can become toxic to the human body. Chronic stress negatively affects your body’s ability to regulate it’s own processes (homeostasis). Your ability to absorb nutrients, lose weight and even fight off infections are negatively affected. Even the chemistry of sleep is also disrupted by chronic stress, and sleep deprivation itself only aggravates the symptoms even more. Some common side effects of chronic stress on the physical body are:

• The immune system. Under stress, the body becomes more vulnerable to illnesses, from colds and minor infections to major diseases. If you have a chronic illness stress can make the symptoms even worse
• Cardiovascular disease. Stress is linked to high blood pressure, abnormal heartbeat (arrhythmia), problems with blood clotting, and hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). It is also linked to coronary artery disease, heart attack, and heart failure
• Muscle pain. People who are stressed often have neck, shoulder, and low back pain. This may be caused by constant tension in the muscle because of stress. Stress also affects rheumatoid arthritis
• Stomach and intestinal problems. Recent research indicates that stress plays a significant role in gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD), peptic ulcer disease, and irritable bowel syndrome

Chronic stress can negatively affect your thoughts and decisions as well. Psychological
signs and symptoms usually associated with stress can be:
• Increased irritability or sensitivity to minor disturbances
• Feeling jumpy or exhausted all the time
• Difficulty concentrating
• Worrying about insignificant things
• Frustration and a feeling of something being wrong somewhere, but not sure where

According to Elissa Epel, PhD and an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, “The problem lies within our neuroendocrine system -- a brain-to-body connection that harkens back to evolutionary times and which helped our distant ancestors to survive. Though today the sources of stress are more likely to be an unpaid bill than a saber-toothed tiger, this system still activates a series of hormones whenever we feel stressed.”
"These hormones give us the biochemical strength we need to fight or flee our stressors," says Epel. “While this system works fine when our stress comes in the form of physical danger -- when we really need to "fight or flee", and then replenish -- it doesn't serve the same purpose for today's garden-variety stressors.”

According to Shawn Talbott, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of Utah, our response to stress today doesn’t involve burning any of these extra hormones that we create in anticipation of having to fight or flee. These extra hormones are created but not used up and this build up adds to the detrimental effects of chronic stress.

Granted being inauthentic is not the only cause of stress in our lives, but being inauthentic definitely adds to our level of stress. And the more inauthentic you are, the more frustrated you get with your results, the less fulfilled you feel in your work, and the less success you achieve – the more stress you will suffer. And that’s bad news for your physical health and wellbeing.

Take a moment now and look at yourself. What side effects of being inauthentic do you notice about you? Please post your thoughts, comments, and findings. You are not alone!