GeniusBane

We are often serenaded by tales of great strength and exceptionality. However, it isn't news that throughout history, every genius or exceptional figure seems to possess an Achilles’ heel—a vulnerability that serves as a reminder of their humanity despite their brilliance.

It reveals the complex interplay of strength and weakness, genius and vulnerability, godlikeness and cowardice. It is the evidence that despite the level of godlike complexity they embody, there are kryptonites that would bring them to their knees.

Takes us to the biblical story of Samson whose Achilles’ heel was his hair —the secret to his great strength and the key to his downfall.

In vampire stories like "The Vampire Diaries," the simple thing that could alter a vampire’s whole form, ultimately making them vulnerable to the possibility of death, was exposure to sunlight or a wooden stake through the heart. And regardless of their strength, age, or originality, the impact was disastrous. In "Teen Wolf,” it was wolfsbane—a seemingly innocuous herb that had the power to weaken and harm even the most powerful werewolves.

This elucidates the common phrase in Africa, “one thing must kill a man”.

In the case of the genius, it isn’t about literal death or an actual herb or stake that they grapple with. Rather, it is the complexity of personality, strength, weakness and everything inbetween that can influence the pure expression of genius.

This is what I’ve referred to as ‘geniusbane’—a force that tempers their prowess and humbles their might, arresting the full expression of genius.

Geniusbane is anything that can mar, truncate or limit full genius expression. Whether internal or external, fluid or concrete, psychological or physical.

The geniusbane is usually a shadow or an actor in the scene of the genius’ expression. Where they choose to shy away from a strength or weakness, to hide behind facades that may look like religion, misappropriated philosophies and endangering views to support the limitation of their genius expression.

As an actor; the geniusbane takes center stage—actively partnering with the genius to sabotage and to orchestrate its own limitation, shielding him from possibility and leading him into mediocrity.

Whether as an actor or shadow, the geniusbane must be identified and exploited towards genius-level expression.

The genius must be keen to see the borderline intelligently created to prevent him from expansion as well as the labels limiting him from expression.

Interestingly, this would vary from person to person.

It is said in Nigeria that “another man poison na another man meat”

Loosely translated as, what would be meat to one man, would be poison to another.

In this context, every genius has its bane. The bane of one could be the strength of another. Hence, the criticality of mastery and awareness. To know the bandwidth of your person and to understand your personal difference.

This is why you must confront the identities you’ve accorded the various faces/avatars you have and ensure that at core, there is evident understanding to these avatars. Too many people talk about their strengths and weaknesses with so much authority and finality whereas, the identities they’ve captured as either strength or weakness is simply without concrete evidence and wisdom.

A person who is yet to explore the boundaries of their potential within a certain context would think it’s a matter of strength or weakness when it isn’t. The identity accorded to an avatar as strength or weakness must consistently pass the test of form and evidence. You cannot call it a weakness if you’ve got nothing to support its ability to disrespect your godlike genius.

It’s also critical to establish that a toxic relationship with a thing or ability may suggest a strength of weakness. Ability is not strength and fear is not weakness. That is, what you are able to do isn’t same as what you are strengthened to do. And, what you fear doesn’t make it a weakness.

I’m a Shania Twain in my bathroom, or maybe a Celine dion? I am able to sing when I’m alone and sometimes in public, I could hit a few notes but singing is definitely not a strength I have.

Or my introversion? It’s on a whole level and even though I can function extremely well in public spaces and you’d never notice me having social anxiety, extraversion is not a strength I have. It’s something I’m able to do, an avatar I’m able to wear.

A guy who fears speaking in public for fear of being laughed at doesn’t necessarily mean public speaking is his weakness. Labeling this as a weakness is giving an identity to an un-investigated response.

My consistent politics of self-curiosity is a necessity for understanding genius, genius bane, genius expression and genius expansion. It stands supreme to any form of education; self-education. In our perpetual quest for mastery, one thing is principal—mastery of self.

Geniusbane are the limiters of genius expression.

Here is how they may show up in your life;

Selective Sight:

We view the world as we are and not as it is. The working of a geniusbane is designed to lead you into prejudices—unjustifiable conclusions with intelligent report. Think about this as the ability to see really far, capture possibilities but never to the degree of your overall potential.

Because of the nature of the genius mind, this can be taught by the genius yet a major contention that could be unknown. They would be celebrated as exceptional but constantly falling short of the actual degree of their radical exceptionality.

In fact, they may believe themselves to be paragons of objectivity and rationality, priding themselves in their ability to see beyond the superficial and discern hidden truths, yet remain blind to the deeper currents of their own biases and prejudices.

Hence, even when they see—they choose what they see and what is captured. Their lenses becomes skewed to the cubicle they’ve built for their genius masqueraded as authenticity whereas, has become a bane to genius.

It is at this point, I recall the words of my father—“remain small in your own eyes”.

Legendary papa, if I must say.

The Illusion of Control:

You see, the genius is a god and so would always seek to create their own narrative and exert control, clinging to the illusion of certainty and predictability because they are governed by their exceptionality. They become entrenched in rigid patterns of thinking and behavior, unwilling to embrace the uncertainty and chaos of life. Failing to recognize the polarity of existence and the necessity of presence.

With this illusion, they surrender their freedom and creativity, shackled by the chains of their own making. They arrogantly believe they know exactly what they desire whereas all they do is stifle the expression of their genius with intelligent explanations to back their foolishness.

They are unable to embrace the ebbs and flows of life, to master seasons and to fully submit to process—understanding it’s nuances, not to be controlled but to control. For, the paradox of life is to marry opposites—to give in to control to be in control.

This illusion would create complacency, mediocrity and unused potential. They become critical and skeptical; unable to make any move for fear of loosing autonomy and control.

Again, for the genius—potential may not be explored due to their easy exceptionality and visible genius. However, it’s essential to always pay attention and to know when you truly are operating less than you are capable of rather than more than the rest of the world is.

Perpetual Indecision:

When overanalysis takes center stage of your life, it’s not being mindful—it’s being foolish. The consistency of indecision is a plague to the genius. It’s the singular reason they may appear as to good to be true but no workings for context. They are fueled by a relentless quest for perfection and a fear of failure (call it: pride), they become trapped in a cycle of analysis paralysis, unable to make decisive action or pursue their goals with clarity and conviction.

Every decision becomes fraught with uncertainty, every choice weighed down by the burden of potential consequences. As they drown in the quagmire of overanalysis, their genius lies dormant, suffocated by the weight of their own doubts and insecurities.

Oh and sometimes masqueraded as identity and knowing their worth, they cower in the face of practicality fearful of being seen as less than they are.

If you find yourself sitting at the seat of indecision for too long almost every time, it’s a bane to be dissolved—as quickly as possible.

The Tyranny of Excellence:

While mediocrity refers to below overall potential for the genius, they are also faced with the tyranny of excellence. The tyranny of excellence manifests as a relentless quest for flawlessness, where any deviation from perfection is seen as failure.

It’s often seen as noble and worthwhile yet limiting in form. Where the genius is keen on a certain form thus dictating every aspect of their lives.

While this may seem noble and genius, it’s usually a defense mechanism to circumvent necessary work and decisive action. There’s always something more needed (as there would always be), preventing them from expression and action.

Don’t get it twisted: this is with a caveat—there is foundation to expression and there is excuse to expression. This speaks to excuse. Where you look to where you’ve not attained to build from rather than where you are.

Here is the litmus test: if your pursuit for excellence is consistently about benchmarking yourself against others, it’s tyrannical and lacking essence.

Low Genius Anchoring:

There is the illusion of mastery where, geniuses would rather go on a quest to excel in areas that lie outside the core spectrum of their innate genius. Where, you prioritize becoming proficient in perceived weaknesses rather than fully embracing and anchoring in the breadth of your true genius.

The challenge with this is; even if a lion is taught to swim—it lacks the ability to function at the complacent level of the fish. Similarly, the inability to anchor on your genius would mean expending resources and time to be a shadow of yourself.

Low genius anchoring is the inability to dial into your natural wiring often out of lust of another’s genius expression, or just sheer foolishness. The challenge with is the dissonance and dissatisfaction, the looming sense of inauthenticity, the struggle to reconcile aspirations to true capabilities and the deprivation of your true genius.

Mis-read Cues:

I used to have a toxic relationship with pain such that I desired it as proof of work and effort. As I saw the patterns, it became necessary to pay attention to the cues which I read as weakness. The challenge with reading wrong is you would fight to exacerbate that which you consider a weakness. Until I realized that it wasn’t about pain, it was about my perspective of pain. I shifted from trying to feel enough pain to feel like I’ve worked to simply exploring the boundaries of my current potential.

Similar yet distinct.

It’s essential to read cues correctly and ensure you aren’t mislabeling yourself or your relationship with your strength/weakness.

It isn’t hard to find that even though we may be critical of every other thing, we aren’t critical of ourselves enough to the point of understanding and self-compassion. Writing that together seems like such an oxymoron but don’t just read the words, think the words.

You can mis-read the cues for anything. Your exceptionality may have you thinking you are immutable in every aspect of your life. Your wisdom may have you believing you are incapable of foolishness at any point in time. Thus, in given circumstances everyone is the problem but you and, you are constantly armed with perspective to back your arrogance.

You’ve got to be willing to step back and away from your preconceptions and perspectives as well as your sense of self and watch the cues carefully to correctly weave them for good.

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For the sake of my goal for each essay—to help you think and do. It’s essential to note that geniusbane is a term from my orbit and thus, you’d need to sit with yourself more intently to identify the limiters to your genius expression.

Examine yourself critically.

Be as honest.

Draw a graph.

Then, alter its form.

Till I write again,

Remember, in a world where you can be anything—BE GENIUS.

–Faith Ohio

PS: I host #GeniusWebinars monthly where I teach and share my thoughts on relevant and pragmatic philosophies for genius expression. Register here to join the next one.