This morning I decided to revisit a lovely book called THE BIG LEAP by Gay Hendricks. Though this is a well-known and highly revered book in the business community, I was a bit underwhelmed the first time I read it. Shocking, I know.
I decided to flip through it again because a friend of mine mentioned to me again, and I also wanted to see if I could extract his actual step-by-step method for working in your Zone of Genius (I remember it being a bit trite the first read around).
CONFESSION: The REAL reason I revisited this book was because I looked at my To Do List for this week and immediately felt the excitement and passion and joy seep out of my body like a hole in a boat that you can’t plug. WTF. I actually had a great weekend full of creativity and fun and now that it’s Monday and I have to get back to “work”, all sense of motivation left me. BOO!
TIME TO GET MY MONDAY MINDSET RESET!
(and here’s how you can do it too!)
-
DELEGATE THE THINGS THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO DO.
Hendricks talks about 4 zones that you work in:
- The Zone of Incompetence— things you don’t do well
- The Zone of Competence— things you do well but others do them equally as well
- The Zone of Excellence— things you do extremely well
- The Zone of Genius— things you were born to do and uniquely suited to do
The Zone of Incompetence is comprised of all the activities you are not good at. I am personally good at doing anything that I set my mind to, so I like to look at this category as activities that don’t spark any joy for me. Things that feel like actual unfulfilling work. For me, that would be things like making spreadsheets and editorial calendars and scheduling posts. Anything routine makes me want to cry because I love to create and come up with new ideas.
Hendricks writes:
The best way to handle most things in your Zone of Incompetence is to avoid doing them all together. Delegate them to someone else, or find some other creative way to avoid doing them. (p.29)
Avoid doing things I don’t like to do? HELLS YEAH!! Well, if I am to be completely honest, I don’t like to avoid the problem. I like solutions. So I have two choices: DELEGATE or COME UP WITH A CREATIVE SOLUTION. I obviously can’t delegate my editorial calendar to someone else (because it is my blog after all), so I came up with a creative solution: I’m gonna write a blog post today when the inspiration hits me! And when I come up with another idea for a blog post, I’m gonna write down the outline of that right away before the inspiration leaves! And I’m gonna put all those new ideas and outlines into a separate documents titled “Blog Post Ideas”. That way I’ll already have content built up next time I need to write another blog post. Forget forcing myself to come up with content that fits into the editorial calendar I had originally created. Write what I am passionate about and share that. BOOM. Editorial calendar already being made without really having to make it! Feeling better and more rejuvenated already!
How to get out of your Zone of Incompetence
- Write down a list of all the things that you don’t like to do or things that you aren’t great at.
- Decide whether to DELEGATE it or COME UP WITH A CREATIVE SOLUTION. Write down that choice next to each item.
- For all the things you want to delegate, find people to delegate them to. Finding virtual assistants and other outsourcing on http://www.fiverr.com or http://www.odesk.com is easy and affordable. You can also ask your friends and co-workers as well!
- For all the things you want to come up with a creative solution for, ask yourself: what can I do to make this easier on myself? How can I work around this? Write down your solutions and implement them.
2. SPEND 10 MINUTES TODAY DOING SOMETHING IN YOUR ZONE OF GENIUS
In the Zone of Competence, Hendricks asks one of his clients this question:
If money or your job description were not an issue, what would you really like to be doing in the company?
Her response was: I wouldn’t be doing anything in the company. I’d be working on an environmental project I’m obsessed with. I think it would turn into something big.” (p.32)
I bolded the words “obsessed” and “something big” because this is how I want to feel when I’m working everyday. Don’t you?? I want to be OBSESSED with my projects and the things I want to spend my time doing.
In order to move into your Zone of Genius, start thinking about what you would be OBSESSED with working on. What would light your soul on fire? What would you jump out of bed to accomplish with fervor and excitement and passion? I often find that when I have a goal that I’m SUPER excited about, it’s so easy to have the motivation and focus and drive to get sh*t done and make that sh*t happen.
One of my dream goals is to write and produce my own film. So why haven’t I finished writing my script yet?! My goal today is to spend 10 minutes writing it. Good or bad. Whether I use the pages or not, I’m gonna write for 10 minutes because the picture I have in mind for my film really lights me up inside and makes my eyes sparkle with pure joy.
How to start living in your Zone of Genius:
- Ask yourself: If money or your job were not an issue, what would you really like to be doing? Write that down.
- Spend 10 minutes today doing that thing.
We all have 10 minutes that we can find in our super busy hectic schedules to do something that sparks joy and our inner genius. Elizabeth Gilbert talks about how she makes sure to write every single day because she loves to write. Stephen Pressfield writes in his book The War of Art how showing up everyday is how you defeat Resistance (aka fear).
10 minutes folks. I invite you to do something that lights you up inside for 10 minutes today. And then do 10 minutes tomorrow. What’s the worst that’s gonna happen? You lose those 10 minutes. You were going to do something you probably hated or didn’t feel happy about anyway, so why bring yourself 10 minutes of joy? At the very least, you did something different, and that alone can bring you one step closer to fulfilling your deepest dreams and desires!
Remember: YOU ARE POWERFUL. YOU ARE WORTHY. YOU ARE ENOUGH.
You deserve to live in your Zone of Genius where your life is filled with an abundance of love, joy, success, and wealth.
Comment below and tell me what you are gonna do for 10 minutes today in your Zone of Genius. I’d love to hear!
To help you step into your Zone of Genius, I created some worksheets for you. Go ahead and download them FOR FREE! We love free!
Success starts by saying YES to YOU. You deserve it.
Mad Love to you All,
Alicia