There are tons of videos and tests out there that will tell you if you are genius or not. Look at these:
Are you a genius? by BrainFall.
Even TIME Magazine published such a test.
But a couple of tests can't define us, can they? In fact, I think that every single one of us is genius by default, regardless of what your score is. Yes, you are a genius. The reason is that you know exactly what you should do at any particular time.
You know that you should be focusing on your work instead of surfing the web.
You know you should wake up right now to start your day great instead of snoozing the alarm.
You know that you should be drinking water instead of Coke.
You know you should say "no" to your friends whom you meet every single day and work on your side projects instead.
You know you should talk to that girl you like instead of thinking too much about the consequences.
You know you should be reading a book instead of watching this movie that came out yesterday.
You know that you know. At least, subconsciously. And such examples are in abundance (You are thinking of a couple more right now, aren't you?). You make thousands of such small decisions every day. Ultimately, they add up. As a result, you become healthy, rich and happy, or you become poor, unhealthy and unhappy, or you get stuck somewhere in the middle which I find even worse than being poor and unhappy.
Well, it is relatively easy for us to know which way we should go. However, more often than not, temptation/lust/greediness/short-term pleasure takes over us and we constantly choose the wrong path day by day saying that "one time won't hurt". After a couple of years, we find that we did not improve our lives in any way and are very far away from the person we wanted to become.
Thus, every single day, try to win these small fights and you will find yourself victorious in the great war.
Okay, I hope by now all of us are on the same page. But how do we go against temptation, lust, greediness and short-term pleasure? I have recently come across this awesome technique called The 5 Second Rule invented by Mel Robbins and there is a whole book on the topic by Mel herself.
She says that if you don't choose the right thing in the first five seconds, you will most probably go the wrong way. For example, if you don't get up the first five seconds after you wake up, you are very likely to snooze the alarm and go back to sleeping "for only 5 more minutes". Having struggled with this problem herself, she came up with this technique. Basically, the moment you are faced with a choice, start counting down from 5 till 0. 5...4...3...2...1...0 and most importantly while you are counting down start making physical movement toward the thing you want to do. The idea is that when you count down, you make your brain busy and won't think about the negative things.
Let's take the same example. The moment you wake up, start counting down from 5 to 0 and move your body to get up while you are counting down. Voila! You are up! You started your day with a small victory. Do the same with every single decision you make today. You want to drink something? 5...4...grab the water...3...2...1...0. You should go to the gym now? 5...4..start packing..3...2...1. And you are on your way. You are tempted to watch a movie although you know it is useless and you are full of energy to do something useful? 5...4..close the player, grab the book...3...2...1...0. Congratulations! You just made 4 very good decisions Keep up the good work and become you 2.0.
Always remember these three things:
- You know what you should do.
- We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.
- Fight on!