Genius: extraordinary ability to apply creativity and imaginative thinking to almost any situation.
Genius is also trained.
It is what happens when you practice focus, reflection, and repetition until your work improves under pressure.
How to Obtain Genius
1. Train your focus like a skill.
Miles Caton, who played Sammie in the “Sinners” movie, went to Philly every week for 3 months to take guitar lessons. Practiced 5 to 6 hours daily. The final result was an amazing performance.
Try this:
Choose one skill, set a 90-day window, and schedule three sessions each week.
2. Slow down, think fast.
Fast thinking runs on pattern and habit. Slow thinking runs on deliberate attention and checking. Take the time to digest and reflect on what you’re learning. This also helps with retention.
Try this:
After you read or learn, write five lines.
- What I learned.
- What surprised me.
- What I disagree with.
- Where I get stuck.
- One next action for tomorrow.
3. Mistakes are necessary.
Make them sooner rather than later because mistakes teach faster than planning. Aiming for perfection only delays feedback. Edison tested 1,600 materials just to determine the right filament for the electric light bulb.
Try this:
Set a “first draft” timer for 20 minutes. Ship a rough version to a trusted person, then ask one question: “What confuses you?”
4. Be a kid.
Charles Baudelaire, a French poet, said, “Genius is only childhood recovered at will.” He praised an artist’s way of seeing. Childlike perception stays close to sensation: curiosity, quick noticing, delight in detail. Adult capacity adds analysis: selection, order, structure, craft of expression. Baudelaire ties “genius” to the union of both, with choice and control, not accident.
Try this:
Write the problem on top of the page.
Ask “why” and answer in one line.
Ask “why” again, answer in one line.
Repeat five rounds.
Ask “why” again, answer in one line.
Repeat five rounds.
Then switch to grown-up hands.
Circle the deepest answer.
Write one next step you will do in the next 10 minutes.
Circle the deepest answer.
Write one next step you will do in the next 10 minutes.
