You are a hard working individual. As a result, you have stopped being merely competent, you have moved into the realm of excellence. Congratulations! No doubt you are receiving praise and accolades for your superior performances. In fact, people have come to count on such performances, and so have you.

Many people stop growing at this very level. They stop because it is comfortable. After all, once you achieve mastery you “get” everything that is going on at this plateau. It’s familiar and predictable.

But it is not the top. It is not even your top. So what is next after excellence?

Genius.

Hold on just a minute. Isn’t it a bit egotistical to assume that I am some kind of genius?

Not at all. This is not to say that you are a closeted nuclear physicist. That may not be your genius at all. (Although if it is, you had better get after it. The rest of us who don’t have that genius need you.) But there is something, some perfect thing that you exist to be. That is your realm of genius.

Do not worry that your genius is too unimportant to matter. Perhaps you bake the greatest biscuits ever. Then bake. Perhaps you do a mean oil change. Then change that oil. It all adds up in the mosaic of humanity.

Some of us have what from the outside might appear to be a bigger calling. You could only have such a bigger calling if you can do it. If you are Keanu Reeves, you had better get on the big screen. If you are Paulo Coelho, you had better write. The saddest thing in the world is a person destined for greatness who stays home, sits it out, or gives up.

Genius sounds pretty good. Who wouldn’t want to spend all their existence in the realm of genius? So why do so many people retract from their genius? Simply because of this: it is the Great Unknown. Excellence is predictable; genius is not. You have just got to the point of predictability and you along with everyone around you is thrilled about it. Why risk stepping out of that hard won predictability to do…who knows what? What if all you do is give up something that everybody agrees is excellent?

Yes, what if. That is the constant question. The problem with this question is it is unanswerable with any kind of certainty. Sure, you can discuss probabilities. But the real truth will be elusive until you actually do something.

You do not have to invent your genius. Don’t put that pressure on yourself. Your job is merely to uncover it. When you uncover it, you will recognize it on the deepest possible level. It will sing your song. It will resonate with a perfection that you immediately grasp. It will fill a longing that you may not have, until that moment, fully realized you have.

Your genius is a gift just waiting to be received. If you exist in human form, there is such a gift for you. It is the birthright of every single one of us. Do not dismiss that gift because it seems too insignificant or because it appears to be overwhelming. It is the perfect present, just right for you.

Don’t worry, your excellence won’t go away. But don’t rest on it, build on it. You have a place in the grand scheme of things. If you hang back, you are holding up the rest of us. That’s right, Keanu needs you to be you. So do the rest of the celebrities and the healers and the educators and the leaders. There is nothing more important than that perfection, the exact beingness that is you.

Your cat is already exhibiting perfect catness. So are your begonias and your sofa. These beautiful but lesser things do not buck their purpose. It is only we humans who have the temerity to fight our own very nature. You were not meant to be merely excellent. That would be setting the bar too low. You were meant to be the genius version of you.

What is your genius? Tell us about it by commenting below.