This exercise is adapted from Dick Richards' Is Your Genius at Work? (publication by Davies-Black in November, 2005). There are 32 exercises in the book to help you answer four questions: What is your genius? Is your genius at work? What is your purpose? and Is your genius on purpose? Each exercise has proven to be helpful to some people, but no single exercise is helpful to everyone (thus the need for 32 of them). This one is a sample.

The primary method for recognizing your genius is discovering a name for it. The negative labels that people have used to describe you—your “disrepute”—often provide clues to the right name. Common examples of negative labels are bossy, loud, shy, waffling, flighty, intense, compulsive, stubborn, and so on. The most important negative labels to explore are those that hurt you and have stayed with you. You remember them because they wounded your spirit. In order to see the clues you must ask yourself what you were trying to accomplish that was perceived as annoying or inconvenient to the person who assigned the label to you.

Step 1: List below the negative labels that others have assigned to you.		Step 2: For each of the negative labels in Step 1, describe below what you were trying to accomplish that was perceived as annoying or inconvenient to the person who assigned the label to you?

Step 3: Examine the list in Step 2. Look for a common denominator: what “goes into” all of the items on the list. For example, the items on Neil’s list all had one thing in common—in each instance he was trying to explore a pathway and his exploration was not welcomed by those around him, who viewed him as indecisive, waffling, and unable to commit. He calls his genius Exploring Pathways.

Your name for your genius should contain a gerund (ends in -ing), and a noun. Examples are Making It Work, Straightening Up, Charting the Course, and Discovering Connections. The name is always positive. If it doesn't feel positive to you, it is not the right name.

Complete the sentence below by filling in the blank lines (use a gerund in the first blank line). The common denominator among the items listed in Step 2 is that I was...