Inform Yourself

My good friend Jay Niblick, founder of Innermetrix International, recently completed a study called The Genius Project. His study became the basis for his latest book, What’s Your Genius?

The Quiet Path
With human nature being what it is, and the legacy of dependence being as prevalent as it is, people continue to struggle to know themselves and many times they sell themselves on what they think they should be, or what others tell them to be, or what the job says they need to be. This kind of path is what Jay calls a loud path. So many voices, so much pressure to go here, do this, or be this. Jay calls this the loud path because so many voices are telling you to follow it. The noise can become overwhelming and hard to ignore, and even prevent you from hearing any other voices telling you anything different. As well intentioned as most of this advice may be, the fact remains that the loud path is made up of other’s voices, and other’s opinions - not your own.

These voices know less about who you really are and what your real talents are for, and the path they champion is more often than not less authentic as a result. It is the path championed by your inner voices that is the wisest one for you to follow. Those voices are most familiar with who you are and in turn they are the ones that really know best which path you should take. Relative to the cacophony of voices that make up the loud path, your truest path is indeed very quiet, so Jay calls it the quiet path.

Ancient Chinese texts refer to the Tao (pronounced “dow”), which literally means “way” or “path”. In Taoist writings this term has a very comprehensive meaning, referring to a metaphysical principle that underlies all being; a vast Oneness that precedes the endlessly divers forms of the world. Ultimately, the Tao lies beyond the power of language to describe, but unknowable as it may be, you can still learn to sense its presence and movement in order to bring your own life and movement into harmony with it.

An important part of unleashing your inner genius by following your quite path is self-awareness. While it may not be possible to consciously and completely know all that is you, your true path exists beyond your conscious mind, so while you may not be able to grasp it, you can definitely sense it. Following your quite path means trusting the sense you feel, your gut, because your true way (Tao) is there – just very subtle or quiet. I think author Henry David Thoreau sums up the thoughts on listening to your inner-voice very well when he says, “We are constantly invited to be who we are. So accept these invitations instead of rejecting them.” Because of its relative quietness, compared to the noisy voices of the loud path, few people hear or follow it. As poet Robert Frost said, “Two roads diverged into a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by. And that made all the difference.” Learning to hear your inner voices, and to follow your quiet path, will make all the difference between your reaching your 5th level of performance or not.

While the quiet path can be hard to perceive, my five-year-old son Joseph provided me with a great example of something that is just as present but difficult to see. Light rays are something that is always there, but often difficult to actually see. We see the effects of their presence as they light our world, but perceiving the actual rays of light themselves can be very difficult. If you’ve ever seen rays of light streaming from behind a cloud, or shooting through a window into a dark room, you get the idea. But Joe gave me an example one night that I like best of all.