“Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by his ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” ~ Albert Einstein
Are you holding on to a self-destructive mental attitude because you failed at something?
Everyone fails, even at things we are great at. Babe Ruth is one of the best home run hitters in history, but did you know he had almost twice as many strikeouts in his career as home runs? The author of this very quote, Albert Einstein, did not speak a word until he was four-years old and did not read until he was seven. One of his early teachers described him as “mentally slow”. Eventually, young Albert did learn to talk and read. He even learned a little bit of math.
Dr. Howard Gardner of Harvard founded the concept of multiple intelligences. He says humans possess ten different intelligences. Unfortunately schools only use two intelligence metrics; verbal and mathematical. But you could be a genius in visual-spatial intelligence (art, design), entrepreneurial intelligence (business start-ups), kinesthetic intelligence (sports), musical intelligence (playing and writing music), interpersonal intelligence (social), intrapersonal intelligence (deep understanding of self), intuitive intelligence (sensing the right response), artistic intelligence (creating art), or abstract intelligence (physics or science).
I believe every human being ever created is capable of achieving excellence in some area. You have within you at this very moment, the ability to function at an exceptional (genius) level in at least one and possibly many different areas. Your job is to determine which one or ones.
The first step in finding your inner genius is to cast off those self-limiting doubts you have because once upon a time you were a fish that failed at climbing a tree. God doesn’t make junk. You were engineered for greatness and designed for success. You are capable of so many things that you have never even realized you possess an aptitude for.
No one would ever make the mistake of calling me a painter. Anytime I ever tried to paint a wall or door trim, I ended up with more paint on me than on the wall. Nor am I an artist. If I were to try to draw a picture of someone, you would think it was done by an eight year old. But many years ago, when I was stationed at Guantanamo Bay, one of the most boring places on earth, I took up painting ceramics and discovered I was exceptionally talented at painting very tiny details. Who’d a thunk it?
Whatever your thoughts are on your own abilities, those are beliefs you have acquired. They were learned. You did not come into this world with those beliefs. The good news is, anything learned can also be unlearned. Some of the things you have learned in your life have been untrue. When you discover your perceived knowledge to be inaccurate, you easily replace it with knowledge you know to be accurate. For example, you may have believed your entire life that elephants could not swim. Then one day you saw elephants swimming. You would replace your old limiting belief with absolutely knowledge that what you once believed simply wasn’t true.
It’s up to you to make a decision and to challenge and reject any self-limiting beliefs you have that are holding you back from achieving what you want. Closely examine the areas of your life and question where you have doubts about your abilities.
What if you had the ability to be extraordinarily successful in an area where you currently doubt yourself? Perhaps you believe you can never get your financial life in order. Maybe you were told early on in life that you would never amount to much and you bought into that self-limiting and destructive belief. What if it were totally false? What if you have within you right now, the ability to pay off all your debt and accumulate wealth? What if you discovered you really have a “golden touch” when it comes to your money? If you believed this with absolute certainty, what would you do differently from you are doing today?
As Napoleon Hill said, “Whatever you can conceive and believe, you can achieve”. Don’t let self-limiting beliefs hold you back.
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Monty Rainey is a District Manager working in the self storage industry since 1996 and currently overseeing 21 stores in the Austin & San Antonio, TX area. He is also a leadership coach and public speaker. For a free consultation, please contact Monty at 830-743-2139 or visit his website at http://www.montyrainey.com .
Related articles
- Intelligent The Child Can Not Multiplication 100 (socyberty.com)
- Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (psychology.about.com)
- How to Use Multiple Intelligences (socyberty.com)
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