Relax.
Your brilliance is only partly yours.
It’s not your IQ. It’s not your productivity.
Rather, there’s a spark inside you.
It’s inescapable.
It’s that same force that beats your heart and grows your fingernails.
It’s utterly mysterious and utterly familiar.
It’s creative beyond measure. It’s completely unique.
And like a flower compelled to bloom, it will move through you without effort—if you let it.
If you’re like me, you grew up thinking of “genius” as someone especially gifted and smart.
Albert Einstein. Leonardo da Vinci. Maya Angelou. Steve Jobs. Marie Curie. Mozart. Yo Yo Ma. Beyonce.
The ones whose names we memorize in school. Whose work changes everything.
That type of genius seems SO unreachable.
“Not me,” says the Inner Critic, as we nod along emphatically.
(Confession: In my early 20s, my greatest dream was to become a “world genius.” I don’t know what that means. Nevertheless, I long[ed] for it.)
But what if “genius” isn’t something only a few extraordinary people have?
What if it’s something life itself does—through each of us, in its own wildly specific way?
[mic drop.]
This idea dates back a looooong time.
I first heard of it from Elizabeth Gilbert, in her 2009 TED Talk.
As she explains, the ancient Romans thought of a person’s genius as their guiding spirit; a force that accompanies them from birth to death.
Every person, place, and craft has its own genius—a living spark of creative intelligence ready to express in that particular way.
It’s like a friendly ghost looking over your shoulder, wooshing through and giving you incredible ideas.
You don’t have to grip, prove, or perform. You just meet the mystery halfway.
In other words: Genius isn’t something you are, but something that works through you.
When I first heard that, something inside me exhaled.
But I didn’t know how to live it yet.
Years later, when I met the work of the Conscious Leadership Group (CLG) and read Gay Hendricks’ “The Big Leap,” I started to take the whole thing a little more seriously.
Hendricks famously teaches about the Zone of Genius—the arena where your natural gifts and your deep joy overlap.
Contrast it with the zones we often occupy instead:
- our Zone of Competence (things we can do but others could just as easily)
- our Zone of Excellence (things we do very well but that slowly drain our aliveness)
The Zone of Genius is different.
Hanging in this zone feels like breathing. Like being lived by something larger than you.
It’s the collaboration between your body and your soul.
When you’re in it, time bends, effort dissolves, and creation feels inevitable.
It’s often hard to identify, because it feels so easy and natural you don’t realize there’s anything special about it.
That.
CLG and Gay Hendricks didn’t just teach me about this zone.
They make an invitation: To live more and more of your life there. (I said yes.)
And they make a case: That this devotion isn’t a luxury; it’s a sacred responsibility.
Because when you operate from your Zone of Genius, everyone around you benefits from your aliveness. You enjoy this lifetime to the fullest. AND you make your greatest contribution.
As Howard Thurman wrote, “Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.”
Of course, the moment people hear about the Zone of Genius, their minds leap to the question: “But how do I know what mine is?”
I’ve been there too.
As CLG teaches, “The first question of living in your genius isn’t, ‘What is my genius?’ It’s, ‘Am I willing to find out?’”
That willingness is everything.
Because Genius can be scary.
We all have stories of why it’s impractical to let it move us, impossible to be that happy and alive, dangerous to commit.
But is it?
For the last decade or so, I’ve been experimenting with what living from genius really means—to orient not around obligation, fear, or competence, but around aliveness, contribution, and joy.
Genius can ask a lot, it turns out.
Fear or practicality would often have me settle elsewhere.
But some core questions guided me:
- What am I going to do with my one wild and precious life?
- What am I willing to risk for my full aliveness?
- Can I be more interested in learning than in being right?
- What’s here if there’s no problem to solve?
And the devotion to listen for what wants to move through me has changed everything.
It’s what inspired me to let go of the reins of a successful copywriting business, to trade the familiar comfort of expertise for the wild uncertainty of following my soul’s call.
It’s what led me to Big Leap Coach training with Gay and Katie Hendricks, so I could deepen my practice and help others find theirs.
So if this idea of Genius as a thing to be in relationship with is intriguing to you, you’re in the right place.
Next week, I’ll share more about the other half of my business name: Wild. (The natural partner to Genius.)
And in the meantime…
If you’d like some space to explore these ideas and reconnect with your own aliveness, join me for Flowing Business Office Hours—free drop-in coaching sessions happening each of the next four weeks.
Come get live coaching support with whatever’s feeling stuck: “wtf am I doing?”, business roadblocks, desire wobbles, relationship issues.
- Fri 11/14 @ 12–1pm MT (that’s really soon!!)
- Tue 11/18 @ 2–3pm MT
- Wed 11/26 @ 11am–12pm MT
- Mon 12/1 @ 11:30am–12:30pm MT
With warmth and wonder,
Rachel ✨
PS — Still wondering if you have a Zone of Genius? You do. And it’s closer than you think. Drop in with me to get still, get curious, and feel it for yourself. Bring whatever feels stuck or wobbly, and we’ll listen together for what life is trying to create through you.
PPS – For those of you in the Boulder, CO area, I’m also hosting a free Women’s Clothing Swap + Whole Body Yes Practice on 11/15. We’ll start with a short guided practice to drop into your body’s wisdom, then play with embodied decision-making as you refresh your wardrobe. Bring gently loved clothes to share—or just come to receive. 👉 Registration required: https://luma.com/edrfxa00
