SOG is my KPI

How I'm measuring success these days

My grandma’s SOG was play.

This is not an accounting newsletter, but weirdly, my brain got mathy this week.

It dawned on me that since leaving my 18-year corporate role, there’s been a steady, measurable increase in time spent in what I call my SOG: Space of Genius (which is definitely not mathing).

In my 18-year corporate journey, I was probably operating in SOG just 10% of the time. I was spending 10 hours of every day doing stuff that I wasn’t all that great at, didn’t feel that impactful doing, and mostly didn’t really enjoy. There were bright spots, but mostly I was just doing what other people expected of me.

That first year after getting laid off? I was in nonstop learning mode, and my time spent in my SOG bumped up to 50%. The more I curate my life, the higher that percentage goes each year. I hit about 80% this year. Could there possibly be a more valuable KPI?

The second half of life is prime time for increasing our time spent in our SOG. Not because everything gets easier, but because we finally have the experience to understand our genius, the courage to protect it, and the clarity to build our lives around it.

Many of us spent decades checking boxes and playing roles that were handed to us. We became competent at many things, excellent at some, and perhaps brilliant at a few. But we spent most of our time outside our SOG, doing what was expected rather than what we were uniquely made for.

If you’re asking yourself what your SOG is, you’re not alone. Your SOG is that particular intersection where your natural gifts meet your greatest satisfaction, in a way that has a positive impact on others.

You probably already know what yours is, even if you’ve been dismissing it as “not that important/interesting”. It’s the thing that flows from you, almost effortlessly, while others marvel at what seems difficult or complex to them. It’s the work that energizes rather than depletes you.

Maybe you’ve spent years being the responsible one, the practical one, the one who did what needed to be done. That was important. That mattered. But here’s your permission slip (not that you need it, but maybe we all do sometimes): the second half of life is when you get to choose where you put your energy.

Living in our SOG doesn’t mean we never do mundane tasks or that we’re immediately at 100%. It means we’re strategic about where we invest our prime energy. It means moving from 10% to 50% to 70% to 80%.

It means saying no to opportunities that would have thrilled your younger self but don’t align with who you actually are. It means saying yes to projects, relationships, and commitments that let you contribute your highest value.

So here’s your invitation: calculate your own percentage. How much of your time are you spending in your space of genius right now? 10%? 30%? 50%?

Then ask yourself: what would it take to increase that by even 5%?

Not all at once. Not perfectly. Just more than you do now.

What strategic “no” do you need to say? What door that’s closing might actually be your next opening? What do you already know about yourself that you’ve been afraid to fully honor?

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Not sure what your SOG is? Check out our weekly reflection prompts for the questions I use to help my clients find theirs.