" If I cling to the notion that something's not possible, I'm arguing in favor of limitation. And if I argue for my limitations, I get to keep them." -Gay hendricks
The Big Leap is a great personal development book that outlines a philosophy of life aimed at maximizing your potential. It is written by Gay Hendricks, a Stanford psychologist, who has co-authored over 35 books with his wife and is famous for his work in relationships and mindfulness.
Four Main Operating Zones - The book portrays a new way to look at personal capabilities by describing four main zones that people operate from: Incompetence, Competence, Excellence and Genius:
Zone of incompetence:You are bogged down doing tasks that you are not good at, that others can do much better. The solution is to avoid doing them altogether.
Zone of competence: You are competent at doing the activities but others can do them equally well. Delegate and let others do those tasks and free up your time to do the things that make you unique.
Zone of excellence:You perform activities extremely well and make a great living, but you are capable of much more. You are quite comfortable and may be tempted to take it easy. But there is only one place that you will truly thrive and that’s in the next zone.
Zone of genius:This is the zone where you liberate your true genius and it puts you on the ultimate path of living a successful and satisfied life. According to Hendricks, with an investment of 10 minutes every day you can end up spending 70 percent or more of your time operating from your Zone of Genius.
Four genius questions to ask yourself
1. What do I most love to do?
2. What work do I do that doesn’t seem like work?
3. In my work, what produces the highest ratio of abundance
and satisfaction to the amount of time spent?
4. What is my unique ability?
Four hidden barriers that hold us back
The reason that most of us never reach our Zone of Genius lies in the Upper Limit Problem, which are actually four hidden barriers based on fear and false beliefs:
Hidden barrier one:Feeling Fundamentally Flawed – You feel that something is wrong with you. Perhaps you have feelings of unworthiness. So, you think it’s impossible for you to live a successful and fulfilled life. In the past, every time you experienced success, these thoughts infiltrated your mind and somehow you sabotaged yourself. When thoughts of being flawed or unworthy come into your mind, acknowledge the thought and recognize that you are facing an Upper Limit Problem. It’s decision time, you can go back to how things were, or you can let go of the limiting belief and move to a higher level.
Hidden barrier two:Disloyalty and Abandonment – You refuse to expand and embrace true success because you feel that if you do, you will have to leave your friends and family behind and you do not want to be alone, so you punish yourself by putting brakes on your success.
Hidden barrier three:Believing That More Success Brings a Bigger Burden – If you have feelings that somehow you are a burden to others, those feeling will immobilize you and prevent you from rising to your true potential. Whenever these feelings of guilt are triggered, recognize that it’s because of the Upper Limit Problem and realize that you have nothing to be guilty of, so release the guilt.
Hidden barrier four:The Crime of Outshining – You believe that if you become too successful you will make others look bad. It appears that Hidden Barrier Four is prevalent among gifted and talented children, and often continue to play out in their adult lives. Gifted children are often blamed for taking the spotlight off other family members. Look back to when you have experienced successful breakthroughs, were you gripped by fear? Were you afraid of outshining someone from your past? Did you feel that that person deserved the success more than you did?
The reason why I loved The Big Leap is that it shows you how to spot the Upper Limit Problems in your life so that you can breakthrough and live in your Genius Zone. The book provides many examples, to give you a sound understanding of what issues you may be facing. I highly recommend The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks for those who want to realize their full potential, rewrite their life story and create a new life based on true genius.