I was at VeeCon, Gary Vee’s conference bringing together people from the Web 3.0 and NFT space together in Minnesota.
The energy was amazing and I meant some great people there who I will make it a priority to stay in touch with.
With lots of young entrepreneurs there, you know you're going to get a lot of recommendations of what to do, NFT to buy, books to read, and ways to hack healthy, happiness, and productivity.
For some reason, one book recommendation jumped out more than others, “The Big Leap.” My new buddy Sam recommended the book with a passion. He said this book changed his life. But ironically, that’s what everyone else said. Even more, ironically, Sam recommends two books that changed his life.
But completely unknown to me, as to why I wanted to read this book, I bought it on the spot.
Maybe it was the name. Maybe the mood I was in when I heard it. Maybe it was Sam and his passion for it. He didn't even describe the book much actually, but I was sold on this book.
The book, “The Big Leap” is about [spoiler alert] overcoming your Upper Limiting Problems and allowing yourself to live in your Zone of Genius.
The Upper Limit Problem is loosely defined as us getting in our own ways from our success. We have a limited tolerance for feeling good, loved, and successful and when life starts going well, we bring ourselves back down in other areas of life.
This seems strange to some at first, maybe those who are unfamiliar with how our subconscious works, but that’s the key right there… This happens in our subconscious. We all have programming, one that is established based on our DNA and our experience in life. Much of that programming is “installed” at a young age. If you grew up hearing, “Money doesn’t grow on trees” you might have a strong association between long hard working hours and money. And until you overcome this by learning new ways to think, feel and act, you will have a hard time making money residually in life.
Now, let’s move to the second part of the definition, the Zone of Genius. This is the last, the best zone. We have the
Zone of Incompetence
Zone of Competence
Zone of Excellence
Zone of Genius
What I took away from this part of the book are two main things: the first being that the Zone of Excellence is the scariest place to be and the second thing is that the Zone of Genius is where something that feels like work to others is fun for you.
Why is the Zone of Excellence scary? Okay, maybe this book is written for fortunate people, which I would consider myself thankfully, so we are not having to experience living in the lower zones, but the Zone of Excellence is a trap and this is why it is the scariest zone stook out to me.
Remember, this book is about taking The Big Leap. Getting yourself to a place where energy is completely liberated, time feels like it doesn’t exist, and all areas of your life are propelling forward.
This takes energy, commitment, and ambition. Someone who lives a pretty good life, might not feel the need to push themselves to this point.
If this is you, try to have a balanced mindset. You can (and should be) grateful for all you do have, while also maintaining a growth mindset. Look critically at your life and see where you can grow… just keep yourself grounded in gratitude.
Getting yourself to the Zone of Genius is now the next step! Gay Hendricks didn’t break it down like this, but to simplify it, he recommends people:
Gain clarity on what they need to work on in their live
Reprogramming your subconscious to believe you have love, abundance, and success
Finding the commitment and diligence to ensure you stick with it
This part of the book was abstract, more than tactical. Which I prefer. It leaves room for interpretation and speaks on a higher level than a “how-to” book.
In my opinion, reprogramming is the key. This requires awareness. Which comes from meditations. It is ironic, how almost every single self-help/growth book I read comes down to increasing awareness via meditation.
It is my big takeaway.
Yes, we all live subconsciously. Yes, we all “upper limit” ourselves and bring us out of the Zone of Genius. But, if we can just pay attention, really close attention, moment to moment. This becomes a very easy problem to overcome.
The fact that meditation was a key element to this book really solidified it for me because I was not expecting it to be a part of this at all.
Once you have reached this level of awareness, just ensure you have that clarification and your intentions are set.
The specific meditation this book discussed was morning, and evening, mantra meditations. The goal is to reprogram ourselves to subconsciously live in abundance, success, and love.
Go reprogram yourself. The brain is malleable. It's just like learning a new language. IT just takes practice.
Thanks for the new found energy Mr. Hendricks!