Have you ever felt like you were going through the motions in your business? Doing things because you have to, or perhaps it’s expected, or simply there’s no one else to do them?

Are you familiar with the looming stagnation that hitchhikes on the back of overwhelm or disinterest, when you force yourself to complete tasks outside your genius zone?

The “genius zone“ describes the skills, passions, expertise, and joy that are entirely unique to you and your chart. Imagine the most successful person you can think of; their genius zone practically radiates off them! Oprah’s genius zone isn’t a successful talk show or magazine… those are creations born from her genius zone itself: the ability to hold space and make people feel truly seen. To start powerful conversations! In astrology, we consider those to be Air qualities. (It should come as no surprise that she is visionary Aquarius, an Air sign!)

Often times, life requires us to fill in the gaps and do work that doesn’t light us up. Taxes, emails, copywriting, you name it! In an age of instant gratification, we’re expected to be good at everything. Small business owners are applauded for wearing every hat, and hustle culture perpetuates the myth that success is worth any sacrifice.

I’ll let you in on a secret… operating outside of your genius zone for extended periods of time is what creates fatigue, confusion, and procrastination. 

Make no mistake, you can be successful while not in your genius zone. That’s what it looks like to be “crushing it” on the outside yet miserable behind closed doors. (I ended up on Forbes 30 Under 30 running a business that didn’t feel like me at all. It was maddening and unsustainable.)

That’s not the goal, is it?

The goal is to be successful thriving in your genius zone. Your birth chart illuminates where to lean in, and what to delegate. That is the work we can do together.

The sweet spot is whatever you enjoy doing, and are uniquely qualified for.

And when I say qualifications, I’m not just talking about your résumé. I speak of life experience, and you guessed it… Your chart. Many people have gone to school for a skill they didn’t love or end up using in the long run. It’s not enough to be good at something to qualify as your genius zone. Joy is an essential ingredient! I’m talking about that thing in your business or daily routine that makes you come alive. 

Your soul is existentially qualified for what it signed up to do in this lifetime, on or off paper.

Depending on left or right brain proclivity (typically water vs. earth dominance), your sweet spot in business could be designing creative content, writing copy, crunching numbers and updating your budget…

There are a few key identifiers in your cosmic blueprint that reveal where to go looking for your genius zone if you haven’t found it yet, or where to find deeper permission and comfortable certainty that you’re on the right track. 

Let’s start this series on the genius zone with the elements. You don’t even need to look at your chart to do an energetic inventory of where you stand with each element. Let your intuition guide you through the descriptions below. Here’s how the elements show up in business:

Genius zone in Earth: A left-brained approach with a knack for organization, detail, finances, coding, structure, grounded leadership, tastemaker, refinement, executive decision-making. 

Genius zone in Fire: Initiator, project-manager, gets the ball rolling, bursts of inspiration, motivating others, taking charge, having fun, inspiring your clients or team.

Genius zone in Air: Communication, building an audience, writing copy, creating digital content, social media prowess, blogging, marketing, PR, advertising, building narratives, multitasking.

Genius zone in Water: Creativity, intuitive-based decision making, works well alone or in quiet, artistic gifts, psychic or spiritual interests, a witchy approach to business, ability to imbue a mission or essence into the business. Adding soul to the practical realm.

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Your relationship to the elements will ebb and flow, especially if you’re missing one, meaning only one planet or none in a particular element. My mentor Debra Silverman wrote an entire book dedicated to this phenomenon, aptly named “The Missing Element,” available here.  

In my experience and with clients, a missing element are the qualities most likely to oscillate between excess and underwhelm, overdeveloped or totally absent. Even if you’re not missing an element, you may feel Earth stronger during Earth seasons; your chart interprets the collective transit energy as a conduit unique to you. 

Which isn’t to say that you won’t be able to effectively make a spreadsheet or do your taxes outside of Taurus season!

You wouldn’t expect a plant to stay alive if you stopped watering it. Your relationship to the elements operates the same, but good news! There are plenty of ways to stimulate and cultivate each element on a daily basis.

Low in water? When’s the last time you slowed down and had a self-care day? Took the time to meditate, focus on a creative pursuit? When’s the last time you allowed yourself to cry and feel emotional? 

In our personal lives, it is essential to have a balance of all four… However, business is another matter! There’s no need to hit your head against a wall over tasks that aren’t your genius zone (the elements that come naturally and joyfully to you).

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How do you know if it’s time to delegate a specific element? Symptoms of being low in each element:

Signs of Low Earth: You’re frequently disorganized, bad with money, have a hard time following through, backed-up inbox, falling behind on admin tasks, or accounting & bookkeeping is a mess.

Delegate Earth: If you’re able to outsource to a bookkeeper or virtual assistant, great! You can also implement tools that exist to streamline these functions, like QuickBooks or TurboTax. 

Ways to Cultivate Earth: Keep your workspace free of clutter and establish routines. Inbox-zero first thing in the morning! Or go for a walk at lunch! Keep a pending to-do list visible at all times, and write down every task or thought that occurs to you. Try not to rely solely on memory to circle back. Create a paper trail. The anxiety and stress of not having a framework in place is what sends earth into a tailspin. Consistency is everything for this element.

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Signs of Low Fire: Low energy or enthusiasm, difficulty starting new projects, loss of excitement for the work itself, trouble saying no, loss of your “big why” behind what you do, lackluster or stagnant, every day looks the same.

Side note: If you also have low libido and haven’t worked out in a while, your fire energy (a.k.a. life force) has burned out. Strip everything back to the essentials. Reframe what you love about the work. Focus exclusively on the parts of the business that bring you joy. Spend a week looking for joy in the business. If you come up empty-handed, then there needs to be a larger conversation around what you’re doing. This is a great time to book a reading or see a life coach to help jumpstart and reframe your big vision.

Delegate Fire: Have an accountability buddy or hype-person who reminds you of your bad-assery and holds your feet to the fire (pun intended) when you have a deadline or launch approaching. If resources allow, consider hiring a project manager or life coach.

Ways to Cultivate Fire: Focus on tasks you enjoy. Sweat it out. Work from a different space. Take an adventure “sick day.” Start your day with 10 minutes of dance. Fire rules passion, inspiration, motivation. Begin the workday with responsibilities that you look forward to, rather than what you think you “have to do“ first. Let yourself be driven by what inspires you, even if that means starting a new project before the last one is finished. You have permission to follow your whims! Do 30 jumping jacks after each meeting to shake up the energy.

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Signs of Low Air: It’s hard for you to delegate or speak up, you hate writing captions for Instagram, asking for help and communicating is a chore, you’d rather do it all yourself, it’s hard to see the big picture vision because the day-to-day tasks feel insurmountable. It feels like you can’t find the right words or mindset.

Delegate Air: Use a third-party platform like upwork.com to hire a freelancer to help write content, or schedule your social media posts so that you don’t have to brainstorm new content on the spot. Make a list of everything you need to do, and then pick three things that someone else could help you with. 

Ways to Cultivate Air: When’s the last time you reached out to someone for advice? Find a soundboard. Voice-dictate new project ideas into your memo app. Flow of new ideas and healthy communication is essential to air!

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Signs of Low Water: When you feel like the creative or design element of your business is a burden, when you feel disconnected from the mission or essence of your business, are emotionally bogged down and begin to resent or avoid your work, or you self-isolate and ignore your intuition. You might feel numb or indifferent towards tasks, projects, or people that used to light you up.

Delegate Water: Use a freelancer website to hire a designer. Get outside opinions on a project if you start to self-isolate. Try a midday meditation to reset. Work with a business coach to identify any feelings you’ve been avoiding about your work or team. What have you been internalizing or compartmentalizing to your own detriment? Don’t let it fester. Imagine your energy is like a stream and let the current sweep away whatever you can no longer carry. Envision that burden finding the support and resources it needs, downstream.

Ways to Cultivate Water: When’s the last time you felt creative without forcing yourself to monetize, market, or churn content? How are you practicing spiritual hygiene? If you have a stressful meeting, light some incense afterwards, get fresh air, drink water. Tend to your spirit body and make sure you are not absorbing energy that isn’t yours. Setting boundaries, saying no when your plate is already full, and having firm work hours that don’t bleed into your free time, are great ways to protect your physical and spiritual energy. Try a guided meditation on Spotify, take a bath after work, reset your space at the end of each day.

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Comment below your elemental genius zone, and the one you’re working on right now. Want a more personalized approach? Click here to book a session and we can find these answers, together.

To the moon and back (pun intended),
Ocean @witchykid