How to Live in Your Genius Zone for More Happiness, Success, and Love
Key Points from The Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks
What is it that keeps us stuck where we are in life? What prevents us from making the leap into a bigger, bolder, better life?
In his book, The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks shares his answer to this question. More importantly, he shares tips and tricks for how to successfully make that leap.
I’ve already talked about how to identify and eliminate your limiting beliefs when you find them. I also covered his belief in Einstein Time, and how to create more time to do what you want. This article will talk about the remaining part of his book, where he discusses zones of genius.
There are four zones covering everything you do
Every activity you do falls somewhere within four large zones. These zones are:
- The zone of incompetence
- The zone of competence
- The zone of excellence
- The zone of genius
The zone of incompetence is easy to define. It’s things you don’t know how to do or can’t do well.
The zone of competence is things that you can do, but don’t like to do or don’t do well.
Successful people tend to have careers that focus on their zone of excellence. Things in this zone are ones that people will pay you quite a bit of money for. They can also be ones for which you receive significant recognition. You’re much better than average at them.
Finally, there’s the zone of genius. This is a very focused subset of what you are excellent at. There’s something that only you can do, in the particular way you do it. You love it, and time seems to stand still when you’re doing it.
What to do with zone of incompetence activities
There are two different types of incompetence. The first is something you don’t know how to do and have no interest in learning. The second is something you don’t currently know how to do but think might be fun to learn.
An example of this first type is my husband’s complete inability to assemble kit furniture. The instructions make no sense to him. He can spend hours on a task that most people could complete in under half an hour.
When wrestling with one of these tasks, he is generally angry, frustrated, and critical. The time spent seems like wasted time, and subjectively feels longer than normal. If he never needed to assemble another piece of kit furniture in his life, he’d be thrilled.
An example of the second type is my recent launch of this blog on Medium. I knew nothing about the protocols for writing on Medium. What makes for a good headline? How does one choose topics? Is there a particular length or style for posts?
I had a goal of becoming a professional blogger. Mastering my chosen platform was a necessary first step. So I eagerly learned everything I could about my incompetency.
I read how-to articles. I took online courses about the subject. And of course, I practiced. The time was an investment in growing my skills. I was interested in and excited by what I was learning, and the time seemed to fly past. The zone of incompetence was a short stop on the road to my zone of genius.
You handle the two types of zone of incompetence activities differently.
For the first type, where you’re no good at it and have no interest in getting better, avoid the activity. Hire someone, if you can. Trade favors with someone to do something they hate if they’ll do the thing you hate.
For the second type, give the activity your full attention. That lets you move to the zone of competence as quickly as possible. Find coaches, classes, or mentors. Above all, practice deliberately. That’s the fastest way to progress in any field.
What to do with zone of competence activities
Activities in the zone of competence are those things that you can do, but so can many others. Often these are things you used to do in a previous role, or that you did once because someone needed to do it. Somehow, you’re still stuck with them.
People often incorrectly analyze these activities. They weigh the time it would take them to do it, versus the time it would take for them to train someone else to do it. Instead, consider how many times you will continue to do the activity. Weigh that against the time it would take to train someone.
There’s an additional, hidden cost of these low-level tasks. You often store resentment and anger about having to do them in your body.
Hendricks has found this with both Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. Symptoms can radically improve when people get rid of zone of competence activities.
This refers to activities that you’ve outgrown or that you never should have taken on in the first place. If you’re moving through this zone to reach the zones of excellence or genius, that’s different. It’s being stuck with tasks in this zone that causes long term health issues.
Symptoms can radically improve when people get rid of zone of competence activities.
I worked with someone who had this issue. She tried her best to offload her old workload onto the people who had been hired to fill her old job. Somehow, they always quit or had a disaster of some sort right when the hardest part of the job needed to be done.
Month after month, she was called back to help “just this once”. She developed hives. If she scratched them, she got long, raised welts where she’d scratched. She looked like she’d been mauled by a lion.
She took a position with another company. As expected, her old company called to find out if she’d come back as a consultant, “just this once”. She looked at the red marks already forming on her arms and politely declined. The hives melted away and never returned.
Make the investment in yourself. Train someone else to do your zone of competence activities. Ideally, find someone who wants to expand their position and develop new skills. They may look at the tasks as something that is helping them to advance.
If you’re doing the activities outside of work, stop, and hire someone else to do them. If money is tight, trade activities with someone. Or be willing to let the tasks go undone.
What to do with zone of excellence activities
The activities in your zone of excellence are the ones that you’re recognized as being expert in. You’re not the best of the best, but you’re pretty darn good.
Think of your favorite sports team. Someone on that team probably has name recognition. Even people who are only marginally interested in the sport know the name. There’s an entire team behind that person who are known by the fans, but not the general public.
Doing activities in your zone of excellence is like being a member of the team. You’re good enough to make it to a professional level, which only a small percentage of people can do. The people in your industry or at your company know who you are. But you’re never going to be the one with the marquee name.
These activities are the hardest to give up. You’re probably being paid well for them. You and your family depend on your income. Your company may depend upon your efforts for their profitability. Worst of all, you’ve most likely tied your self-identity to your success in this field.
Giving it up to work in your zone of genius takes courage. What if you fail? What if no one wants to pay you for your genius?
Fortunately, that’s just your fear talking. You rarely need to get rid of everything you do in your zone of excellence all at once.
The reason you’re so successful in your zone of excellence is usually that it touches upon your zone of genius. What you want to do is pare back all the things that aren’t in your zone of genius. Then you can spend most of your time in your zone of genius.
You don’t have to get rid of all of them. But as you move into your zone of genius, you will get rid of more and more.
Every hour spent in your zone of excellence is an hour you aren’t able to spend in your zone of genius. Eventually, there will be very little left in your zone of excellence.
Finding your zone of genius activities
Your zone of genius is likely to be extremely narrow. It’s the one thing that sets you apart from everyone else you know. You’ve likely done it in one form or another since you were a child.
It’s also likely to be something that is natural to you. It is so innate in how you view the world, that you’re completely missing it.
Start by asking yourself, “When am I at my best?”
You’re looking for some general activity that is something you love to do. You’re a natural at it, and people tell you how good you are at it.
When I did this exercise, I thought teaching or storytelling might be where I was at my best. I love doing both, and people always tell me how good I am at them.
Then, dive a little deeper. When you’re doing that activity, what is the one exact thing that you do?
For me, the one thing that I’m doing is reading the reactions of the person or audience I’m speaking to. I adjust what I say until I can feel that I’m connecting with them. I can tell when we’re in tune and they get what I’m saying.
Finally, what gives you the ability to do that one thing?
When you figure that out, it will be like a giant blinking neon sign lighting up above your head. The heavens will open, and angelic choirs will sing hallelujahs.
That’s what it felt like for me, anyway. I was like, no, it can’t possibly be that simple. That is my zone of genius?
Because it turns out that my zone of genius is being able to spin an idea forty ways from Sunday. Depending on a person’s motivation and background, I can explain so it’s easy for them to understand.
I’ll sit through meetings where people are trying to explain something for half an hour. I interrupt and say, “Excuse me, but am I right in thinking you’re saying x?”
They’ll nod, and be like, “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Meanwhile, the person they’ve been yammering at for half an hour suddenly goes, “Oh. X! Why didn’t you say so?”
Once you see your zone of genius, you’ll see how you’ve been using it your whole life. Most likely, it was a skill you developed in early childhood.
I was in three different schools by the time I was 5 years old. Three very different schools — one religious, one private, and one public. I needed to understand how to connect with these new sets of children and teachers. And I needed to change my behavior and way of communicating to reach them.
The other thing you’ll notice about your zone of genius, is that it is something that helps other people. And if you’re better than anyone else at helping people in some way? You can be certain you’ll be able to make a living doing it.
The Ultimate Success Mantra
The lower zones of activity are like boxes. They constrain you to perform within their limits.
But your zone of genius is like an ever-expanding spiral. No matter how far you go on it, there will always be something more to learn, develop, or enhance.
So how do you know when you’re on the path, if it’s always changing? The answer is the Ultimate Success Mantra. Hendricks created this mantra after helping thousands of people discover their genius.
It’s like a meditation mantra, that helps you stay focused. You can keep returning to it every time your attention or activity wanders.
“I expand in abundance, success, and love every day, as I inspire those around me to do the same.”
How to meditate on the Ultimate Success Mantra
You can meditate upon this mantra to really let it sink in.
Find someplace quiet where you won’t be disturbed for a while. Softly say the mantra, then let your mind be open to whatever thoughts come up for the time it takes to have two deep breaths.
Repeat saying the mantra and being open to a response for five or ten minutes. Then take a final minute or two to let the experience take root before you get back to whatever you were doing.
You may think the mantra is ridiculous, outrageous, idiotic, or foolish. If you’re super lucky, you’ll get a somewhat wistful response of how nice it would be if such a thing really was true.
These responses are a feedback mechanism from your ego. You know, the part of your brain that is filled with little voices telling you what you should or shouldn’t do. It also tells you all the terrible things likely to happen to you if you don’t listen to it.
If you’re living from your zone of genius, you won’t need to listen to your ego. It’ll be out of a job. And it doesn’t like that idea one bit, so it will do or say anything it can think of to stop you.
Your ego doesn’t care if you’re happy and fulfilled. It only cares that you’re doing what it tells you to do.
As you repeat this meditation, the feedback will lessen, until you can repeat the mantra and feel the truth of it.
How to use the mantra as a guideline
You can write the mantra on pieces of paper that you put where you can see them. You can even slip a card with the mantra on it into your wallet. (Use the windowed section intended for your driver’s license, so you see it every time you open your wallet. Anyone you show your license to will want you to take it out of your wallet anyway.)
Whenever you’re asked to do something, consider the mantra.
Will this activity help you to expand in love, success, or abundance? Will it inspire others to do the same? Most of all, will it do so by using your zone of genius?
If the answer is no, your answer should also be no.
Conclusion
The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks summarizes his program to achieve your true potential. The key to it is to find your zone of genius and operate from there.
Your activities fall into four different zones:
- The zone of incompetence
- The zone of competence
- The zone of excellence
- The zone of genius
Drop all activities from the zone of incompetence, unless they are things that you are learning to do. In that case, use deliberate practice to allow you to get to the zone of competence as quickly as possible.
Train other people (or hire them) to take over the activities from your zone of competence.
Resist the urge to cling to the money and prestige you get from activities in your zone of excellence. You’ll get more of both when you’re acting from your zone of genius.
You can expand into your zone of genius as slowly as you need to — as long as you do expand, and don’t just plan to expand … someday.
Your zone of genius is a small nugget of ability that you developed in your childhood. It’s your superpower. You can find it by asking a series of ever more specific questions.
Finally, to really thrive in your zone of genius, you can use the Ultimate Success Mantra. This mantra helps you talk down your ego when it wants you to give up on your genius.
It also gives you a guideline for choosing future activities. Say no to things that are not in your zone of genius.
Ready to have a better tomorrow?
I’ve created a cheat sheet to help you gain control of your life, increase your confidence, and become optimistic about the future. If you follow this daily, you will change your life very quickly!
