Defining Your Own Unique Genius Is Not a Self-Help Project

In our “self-help” world you might feel if you just read enough books, listen to enough audios, and watch enough Ted talks, you can “self-help” yourself out of almost anything.

As a faculty member, the concept of “self help” is amplified, as you are judged on your “own merit” – how much you can do on your own.

So it’s not surprising that you’ve likely tried to “do it yourself” in finding your unique genius.

You’ve read books, taken quizzes, hired coaches, even talked to therapists, yet rock solid crystal clarity on your unique genius is elusive.

I personally have a TON of self-help books on my bookshelves.  I’m never going to stop growing from what I learn in areas of self-help.

Trying to “self-help” yourself through defining your unique genius is excruciating because it’s impossible.

Trying to DIY it keeps you walking right past your unique genius, while at the same time….

• beating yourself up – on top of being beaten down by deadlines and workplace criticism, now you’re beating yourself up for not being able to figure out what your unique genius is.

• being tired, even exhausted – you leapfrog from one hopeful solution to the next. Maybe *this* book will help, or perhaps *this* Tedtalk, or *this* worksheet… you get your hopes up each time, perhaps get a spark of insight, then end up staying up late to read yet another article that ends in “Nope, still not clear. Darn it”.

• feeling like giving up – you’ve been trying to find it for so long by yourself that you start believing maybe it’s not possible.  You think – maybe it’s too hard to find, maybe I’ll just never find it, or maybe I don’t even have unique genius.

There are five massive distinctions:

1. Specific Rigorous Training – If you’re a brilliant family doctor, you still aren’t expected to know how to perform cardiac surgery.  Yes, most faculty members are used to finding patterns, but are not trained in specifically how to find unique genius.  So no wonder as a faculty member, trying to figure it out for yourself ends in frustration.

2. Perspective Required – A heart surgeon can’t peer down and see her own own heart while on the operating table.  And with unique genius, you cannot see the picture when you’re inside the frame. The vast majority of clues that point straight to your unique genius are in your blindspot. You literally can’t see them, until they are pointed out by someone who has the right perspective, and you almost fall out of your chair with how something so obvious could be in your blindspot.

2. Significant Consequence – If you perform surgery on yourself, the consequence is life or death.  For most tenured and tenure track faculty members the consequence of not nailing your unique genius may not be life or death, but, there are massive consequences.  Draining jobs, collaborators that aren’t a fit, lack of standing apart in tenure materials, holding yourself back because you’re not clear on your next big career move – can all lead to being drained by your work rather than fulfilled by it.  Rock solid clarity on your unique genius can be the difference between enjoying your job or wondering if you should be there.

4. Proven, Rigorous Methodology – You can’t become a Doctor without a methodical education process.  Likewise, you can’t find your unique genius from a series of separated actions, like reading an article here, a book there, talking to a friend about it, then filling out a worksheet online.  If you want to be rock solid in discovering, believing in and operationalizing your unique genius, it absolutely requires a proven, rigorous, methodical system with tenacious external support.

5. Urgency – Each day you feel like you’re spinning your wheels by trying to “self-help” yourself into discovering your unique genius, you are adding months or longer of draining work, projects that aren’t a fit, and collaborators you commit to that drain you.  The urgency is real.

NOW YOU:

If you have been trying to “self-help” your way to defining your unique genus, I encourage you to stop, take a breath and take a few moments to reflect….

How long have you been trying to “self-help” your way to defining your unique genius?
Are you beating yourself up, tired, and wondering if you’ll ever get crystal clear?

Take another pause, and acknowledge yourself for being focussed and unwilling to settle or give up.

Then, check in with your gut instinct – are you done with trying to do the impossible of seeing the picture when you’re inside the frame?

On this free call, we will get to the source of what is blocking you from clarity.  We will look at what you have been doing until now to get clear, and why it’s so important to you personally.  We’ll uncover all the areas where you want to use that clarity.  And, we’ll look and determine what’s possible, so the potential paths are clear, and you can decide for yourself the next best action for YOU to take.

But it’s not for everyone.

The call is for tenured or tenure-track Faculty Members who:

• want to focus your time to be aligned with what you’re good at, what your values are, and your authentic self
• want to clearly and powerfully articulate who you uniquely are, in a way that is a contribution and benefit to your department, university, and discipline.
• are tired of trying to “get clear” on your own, and you want this clarity now.
• are an action taker.  You push through and get the job done.