The reason you are not experiencing your greatness and genius in life is simple...

You trade great things for good things.

At any given moment, there is a multitude of things you could be doing. Many of which, good things. Seeing your family, calling a friend, enjoying a book, watching a show, talking to your spouse, going for a walk, dreaming up your future, eating a meal, listening to a song... The list goes on and on.

But the obstacle that prevents us from getting what we desire most in life, to achieve our own God designed version of greatness, is not doing bad things when we could be doing good things, it's doing good things when we could be doing great things.

The principle of true success is that one must sacrifice. You cannot do every good thing at once. You cannot do great things if you are busy doing good things. Should you never spend time with family, friends, or loved ones? Of course, you should spend time with them. But you cannot have everything all at once. You have to decide when you will sacrifice moments that are good moments in order to invest that time and energy into the genius you hope to bring into this world.

There is this myth out there that you should have a really well-balanced life. Here's the truth, you can have a balanced life and it will be perfectly plain. You can strive so hard to make everything balanced that you make your own desire completely imbalanced. The fastest way to lose your joy in life is to pursue total balance. What you should desire, rather than balance, is an edge. You should desire that your life rides the line where you are maximizing yourself and resting a day a week, rather than resting 3 days a week and struggling to get things done with a "busy schedule" of watching movies, seeing friends, and noodling around.

Instead, immerse yourself in greatness. Pursue what matters. Sacrifice what is good in pursuit of what is great. It will be different for every one of us and only you can truly know what sacrifices are required. But all you need to remember is that bad things are not what robs you of greatness, it's getting very busy doing good things.