Book Review of “The Big Leap” by Gay Hendricks
July 15th, 2011 by Diane Conklin under Diane's Book Reviews. 6 Comments.
This is a book a few friends and business colleagues had told me about and recently one of my mentors and coaches also recommended so I put it in my briefcase on a recent trip, and am I glad I did. 
There are basically 2 big premises in The Big Leap that I want to discuss here. The first is really the main idea of the book and it’s that we all have a place inside of us that is sort of a set point or a thermostat, that Hendricks calls the Upper Limit. When things are going too well for us, for too long, we bump up against this and find ways to bring ourselves back down to the level we think we deserve. This could be in the form of money and finances, relationships, health, feeling positive, or just about anything else in our lives or business. Many of us only allow ourselves to be so happy, creative, successful, etc.
When we bump up against our Upper Limit, we do something that brings us back down into our comfort zone, back to where we’re used to being. To get through this we need to reprogram our thermostat and the bulk of the book talks about ways to do that and deals with the issues and reasons we might currently be sabotaging ourselves.
The other really big concept in The Big Leap is what Gay Hendricks refers to as your Zone of Competence, Zone of Excellence, or Zone of Genius. Most of us spend too much time doing things we’re competent and excellent at and not enough time in our areas of genius. Again, we stay in our areas of competence and excellence because we don’t have to bump up against our Upper Limits there like we do if we’re working in our Genius Zone.
The reason it’s so important to be able to get past your Upper Limit and be in your Zone of Genius as much of the time as possible is because it’s the only place you can fully celebrate and express the wonderful gifts you have been given.
By the way, I’ve also heard the Zone of Genius called your Unique Ability, you Brilliance and some other things, but hopefully you get the picture. Essentially, you know you’re in your Genius or Unique Ability when you find something you could and would do all day long (everyday), for no pay, and you’d be energized at the end of the day and probably would have lost all track of time because you were enjoying what you were doing so much.
To get a deeper understanding of these concepts you definitely want to read this book.
I’d like to leave you with one thought and it’s this…
Your comfort zone is no place for a person like you to be stuck in. Your true home is in your place of or Zone of Genius. I hope you’ll do everything you can to spend more time there.
Things I’m Doing Since Reading The Book:
We’re working diligently to hire more staff to work in their Zones of Genius, which are different than ours, so we can spend more time in ours. What I now realize is that everyone is happier when they are working in the areas they are best at. And, from a business perspective, we’re able to be more productive, help more people and make more money when we’re working in our Zone of Genius.
Here is a short list of the things that are in my Zone of Genius:
Speaking
Teaching
Coaching
I’d love to hear some of yours…….
Check this book out by Clicking Here: The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level
Karen Graves on July 16th, 2011
Diane you give the best reviews. Thank you for the resources and your perspective. Happy to see we share the same Zones of Genius. I continue to strive to put everything in place to ‘play in my genius’ consistently. I have been finding people struggle with owning or even identifying their genius. They often need help to get moving. Once they find out what their true genius is then they can make plans to let it in.