Michael Ammar was named one of the most influential magicians of the twentieth century by Magic Magazine. I know I learned a lot from him when I was doing close-up magic and clowning. More, I learned a valuable principle from him – master one thing and it will take you far.
Watch Michael vanish his smart phone (at about 5:15 in the video) and you’ll see the effect of what he’s mastered.
I’ve seen him do this same effect standing up. He’s vanished golf balls, baseballs, card decks, coins, and more. All seem to disappear into thin air with a simple wave of his arms.
How did he do that? Well, as the old joke goes, very well.
You might have heard the same concept from Curly in City Slickers.
“Do you know what the secret of life is?” Curly asks.
He answers himself as he holds up one finger saying “This.”
Mitch asks him “Your finger?“
Curly replies “One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean s—.“
“But, what is the one thing?” asks Mitch.
Curly smiles as he answers “That’s what you have to find out.“
You can also think of this one thing as your core genius. Identify the one thing for you and stay focused on it. It will take you far.
“I believe you have inside you a core genius –
some one thing that you love to do and do so well
that you hardly feel like charging people for it”
– Jack Canfield
Principle #39 in Jack Canfield’s book “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” is Stay Focused on Your Core Genius. This is the first principle within the “Build Your Success Team” section.
Stay Focused by Delegating Completely
Jack mentions that successful people focus on their core genius and do their best to delegate everything else to other people on their team. He’s absolutely correct. However, it’s a lesson that I had trouble implementing.
At first, I fell into the habit of doing everything myself. I was fooling myself with thoughts like “It’s too time-consuming to explain it to someone” and “I can do it more quickly and better myself anyway.” In the long term, this simply isn’t true.
However after reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris, I realized the value of delegation.
It took a few attempts, but I ultimately found the perfect virtual assistant for me – Jaena Nerona. It did take time to explain different processes to her, but once I did, she took them over. Even better, she has shown some outstanding initiative and creativity adding overall value to the Get Certified Get Ahead brand.
Delegation doesn’t necessarily mean hiring a full-time virtual assistant to help you. You can also delegate minor tasks. For example, you can hire someone to take care of your lawn to free up an hour or two of your time. Similarly, you can hire someone to clean your home regularly to free up some of your time
My Core Genius
A core passion of mine is teaching. Also, I thoroughly enjoy learning about and working with computing technology. Combined, I’ve come to realize this is a core genius of mine – teaching complex computing topics to others.
By delegating so much to Jaena, I’ve been able to focus on this core genius and spend more of my time doing what I love.
As an example, I’m able to spend more time on creative endeavors. Two things that come to mind are:
- Posting more blogs. As an example, I enjoyed digging into downgrade attacks and updating my knowledge on ransomware in two blogs I posted in the past week.
- Creating more multiple-choice and performance-based questions for Security+ and other certifications. This month I’ve added a significant number of new Security+ questions to help people pass this certification.
Are You Focused on Your Core Genius?
Are you focused on your core genius?
Do you know what your passions are? If not, last week’s post might help.
Once you know your passions, ask yourself if you’re pursuing them.
If not, ask yourself if there are things you can delegate to give yourself more time to focus on your core genius.
“Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask yourself what makes you come alive
and then do that.
Because what the world needs
is people who have come alive.”
– Howard Thurman
About This Post
I’ve been learning from Jack Canfield (of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame) since 2008. I credit much of my success (including authoring or co-authoring more than 40 books) to applying principles in my life that he teaches. I’m currently going through his book “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be,” covering one principle a week.
Here’s a link to other musing’s on Jack Canfield’s Success Principles.
| You Can Do Anything | 7 Life Lessons Powerful Principles for Living a Fulfilled Life |
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