The Genius Paradigm and PROTAG

The 6 Characteristics that Will Help You Live and Share Your Genius

I started this journey of looking at genius by researching what those that society has already recognize as geniuses say about it. I wanted to find out what characteristics they thought were important. I looked at quotes from Einstein, Edison, and Michelangelo. But that wasn’t enough.

Through my research, I kept thinking back to the original quote that is often attributed to Einstein:

“Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

One premise of the Genius Paradigm is that everyone has genius to share, so I decided that I needed to expand my search and look at people who had shared their genius with the world and what they thought.

I looked at a list of the top 100 people who changed the world. I looked up biographical info on them and quotes made by them. There was only one woman on the list (Marie Curie), so I expanded my list by the top 50 women that have changed the world. Some of the people had very little information about them or no appropriate quotes. Others were very well known. All of them had made a difference in the world as we know it today.

Through all of this, I started compiling a list of attributes that I felt were a part of living your genius.

One weekend when my adult kids were home, I printed out and cut apart all the attributes I had put down, and I asked them for help. I figured they had lived this journey with me for pretty much their whole lives, so who better to ask? We spread the words all over the table, and I asked them to sort them preferably into 4 to 6 piles (but they could go more if they felt they needed it). I didn’t give them any other parameters. The categories were up to them. And then I walked away.

When I came back, I was amazed! I knew there were a lot of synonyms there. I thought they would find one word and put it with others that meant the same. They did that, but they did much more. They helped me see a little bit more about genius.

They ended up coming up with six categories of characteristics. Characteristics that:

1. Impact your ability to learn

2. Move you to action

3. Impact your perspective on the world

4. Impact your ability to use personal resources

5. Impact the way you act

6. Show how your actions impact others

We discussed the order too. We decided that being able to learn needed to be first because, without it, you weren’t able to do anything else. Numbers 2 and 3 were pretty much tied. If you aren’t open to ideas, and if you have a negative perception of the world, you can get stuck, and it would be almost impossible to share your genius. Your personal resources (gifts, experience, knowledge, etc.) are likely to remain dormant if you don’t have the first three. The fifth category is all about the characteristics you need to take action, and the sixth is about being willing to take your genius and impact other people’s lives.

The next day I asked my oldest to help me try and come up with an acronym for these categories. We looked at DRIVEN, but that seemed overused and didn’t fit. PRIMED was another word that worked, but it seemed more mechanical and made me think of Amazon. CHOSEN and ARISEN sounded too religious. 

PROTAG was actually the first one we came up with. Short for “protagonist.” It is an acronym for Perspicacious, Resolute, Optimistic, Talented, Action-Oriented, and Generous. I thought it might work, but I was looking for a real word, so we kept on trying. But it won out in the end. A protagonist is basically the leading character in a story. Years ago, I read a book by Donald Miller called “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.” The main message I got out of it was to make your life the story you want to live. It also reminds me of the movie “The Holiday” (2006) when Iris (played by Kate Winslet) tells Arthur (played by Eli Wallach) about her problems with her love life, and Arthur (a retired screenwriter) tells her:

“In the movies, we have the leading ladies, and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason, you’re behaving like the best friend.”

Iris responds: “You are so right. You are supposed to be the leading lady of your own life, for God’s sake.”

A Genius Paradigm is about being willing to create the story that you want to live, and being the main character in it.  

The Urban Dictionary is the only place where I found a definition for “protag”: Someone who likes anime and dyes their hair unnatural colors such as blue, purple, or any other colors and ends up looking like an anime protagonist.

Since I don’t have any experience with anime, I asked my kids. They said that when you look at a lineup of anime characters, all of them are drawn without much color or characteristics except for the protagonist, who has more details and very colorful hair.  

I don’t envision everyone that is living their genius having colorful spikey hair, but I do see them as being willing to be different, so PROTAG works.

I have also found that Brandon Sanderson uses the term protag in his podcast “Writing Excuses.”  He uses it as a noun and a verb.  He uses it to describe characters and what they do when they are the main characters in a book.  I want you and your kids to be the main character in the story that you are writing with your life.  Be the spikey-haired person that is willing to stand out and share their story!

Would you like something to help you remember these characteristics? Here is a free poster you can download.