GENIUS ‘R US

When was the last time you thought of yourself as a “genius?” Audacious, right? Well, have you ever entertained such audacious thoughts? What would have to happen in order for you to begin to believe that you are a budding genius? In our culture, we simply do not easily or lightly use the term “genius,” especially for ourselves. On the other hand, we are a bit more comfortable with attributing genius to a specific idea or behavior. At times we say or accept the compliment about an action or idea, “That was a stroke of genius!”

Genius speaks about an attendant spirit of a person or place, a strong inclination, a marked capacity, and finally a high intelligence quotient (Webster). Genius speaks about being in an especially resourceful state, being completely engaged and present and with all of one’s resources full available. Psychologist Csikszentmihalyi has describe this as being in a flow state. That is a state where you become so completely engaged in an activity that you get lost in it.

Now, what if we could learn and habituate this engagement state of flow, genius, or being “in the zone” so that we could turn it on at will? Would you like that? What if there is a pathway to genius, to awakening and unleashing your own budding genius? What if there is a process for stepping in and out of a genius state so that when you are in that state you experience a laser- beam focus so much so that the world, time, others, and self go away? Would that enable you to do some things that could enrich the quality of your life and empower you for accessing your resources? Would that be a great Christmas gift to yourself?

I found the pathway to the genius state in 1994. Upon that discovery, I set out to apply it to myself to see if it would really work. My first choice was to set up a genius research and writing state. Since that day I have not experienced “writer’s block.” After years of misery with writer’s block, suddenly that interference was simply no longer there. Gone. And the result of that? Since then I have written 60 books, many of which are best sellers in the field of NLP. To this day I write 2 books a year and a 100 articles. And whereas once writing was “hard” and “a struggle,” now it is a source of play and fun. After that I established some genius states for reading, doing business, being with a client, being present to a loved one, training, etc.

So what is the big secret? Simple: discover how to use your mind-body states, run the movies in your mind, and handle the thoughts-and-emotions “in the back of your mind.” All of this is part of what we call in NLP state management skills—skills for managing your mental and emotional states. Actually, you already know and regularly experience flow states. From time to time when you are doing something valuable that you enjoy, you get lost in that experience. Perhaps you’re

watching a movie, talking with an intimate friend, engaged in a game, a sport, gardening, almost any enjoyable activity will do. Then suddenly you’re gone. Well, that’s how it appears on the outside.

On the inside you are so completely engaged in something and present to something that you are more fully you and completely un-self-conscious. To state that in the positive— you are absolutely engaged in one thing. And because you are out of the way, you are self-forgetful. You’re in the zone. Yet at that time you don’t notice. It is only later when you look back on it that you realize how you were “right on” and how enjoyable it was. Even things that might otherwise seem unpleasant become enjoyable and pleasurable when you were “in the zone.”

This explains, in part, the runner’s high, the mountaineer’s or rock climber’s thrill, the high performer who finishes an eighteen-hour sprint on some project and feels totally energized and thrilled. What’s going on in this? At the neurological level there are the endorphins and other neuro-transmittors conveying the buzz. Yet what activates that neurology?

Csikszentmihalyi said that to get into “the flow channel” you have to have a balance between two things: challenge and competency. Competency speaks about your abilities and skills. You have to have some basic skill to do something (cooking, gardening, cycling, etc.). If the activity is too demanding, you will go into the panic zone rather than the flow zone. This invites too much self- consciousness, fear, and other interfering states. Challenge speaks about meaning, purpose, vision, and value. You have to feel that the activity is meaningful, that it contributes to yourself or others, and that it is not too easy. If there’s no challenge, then you enter into the drone zone and fall asleep.

Competency without challenge, without feeling a call to tap into more resources, to learn more, to discover more, to become more, etc. creates a satisfaction so that you lose “the eye of the tiger.” It takes both a meaningful challenge to your inner capacities and competencies to step into a flow state of engagement. This is the state that geniuses and high performers live in and operate from.

Those who we think of as geniuses are typically those who find their talents and follow their passions creating new things, innovating new processes, producing the highest quality products, and achieve high performance in their area of expertise. Like world-class athletes, when they get into the zone, they are all there. They are extremely focused. Time, the world, others, even self disappears. They are alone with the engagement. And in this ecstatic state their competencies are challenged at an optimum level thereby unleashing more and more of their hidden potentials.

All of this describes what top performers naturally do. Somehow or in some way they have found a way to access their best states and to be fully present. This is what gives them their edge in business, wealth creation, entrepreneurship, relationship, health, sports, etc.

Now, what if this highly focused state where skills and meaning interface is precisely that which unleashes your potentials as it mobilizes your resources for becoming more of who you are and

contributing more of what you have to offer? What if this describes the innate transcendence that most of us long for as we move toward self-actualizing and truly making a difference? What if that’s why even our body with its neurological wiring is designed to massively reward us with inner pleasure when we experience these flow states (the endorphin rush)?

Wouldn’t you like to take charge of this process and put it at your command? That’s what Accessing Personal Genius or APG is all about. In three short but intense days, you learn the basic state and meta-state management skills to rise up in your mind-body system and from the executive level of our mind set the frames of mind that free you to access your genius states. You will learn how to create specific genius states for yourself, states that you can step in and out of so that even interruptions will not stop you.

Accessing personal genius is based on the cognitive-behavioral sciences, developmental psychology, and self-actualization psychology. The larger framework that holds all of this together into a practical system—Neuro-Semantics. This refers to how you translate great ideas, values, visions, and principles in your head (semantics, meaning) into your body so that your neuro-physiology can “know” it in your muscle memory thereby in-forming your everyday actions for higher quality performance.

Why do this beside having incredible focus, the foundation for high performance, and the neurological rush of massive pleasure? I’d recommend that you do it also to live more intentionally, to blow-out all excuses from selling yourself short, to become all that you can become, to facilitate your own self-actualization, to fulfill your life vision and specific goals, to enrich your relationships, to create wealth in your business, to enjoy your passions more fully, and to make a difference in the world.

In Neuro-Semantics, “Genius R Us.” Come and see. There are APG trainings run all around the world (see below). Here’s to your budding genius!