40 - Activating your genius (and using it to help you leap)
[00:00:00] Welcome to Life Leaps Podcast, here inspiring stories of ordinary people who made extraordinary life changes. What drove them, what almost held them back, insights for the rest of us considering life leaps, big or small, because hearing someone else do it reminds us that we can too.
Life Leaps Podcast: Happy Wednesday, everyone today I'm flying solo because I've got to share some takeaways from a book I recently read, which really impacted the way I evaluate my time, my energy and any future life changes. And the closer I look, I see how many of the dozens of guests I've interviewed about their own life changes. Uh, people of all ages, backgrounds, living all over the world, making life leaps.
How many of them have been doing this all along? It's identifying and moving towards your own personal zone of genius. And today I want to share what that is, what it's not and why it [00:01:00] matters when you're making life changes.
So today we're back in aha. Moment territory. I did this back in episode 34, when I talked about what characteristics separates, those who leap from those who don't. But before we dive in, I do want to shout out a listener. Her reached out after last week's episode with Laurie. Lori shared her decision to become a single mom by choice in her late thirties.
And this listener said, I also struggled with the decision to become a parent. And then with fertility, once I got there, My leap into parenthood. Didn't look quite like Lori's, but like her. I discovered the importance of finding a village of people who are, where you are in that moment, who get it.
So you don't feel so alone. For me, it meant the difference between surviving my leap and not so. Thank you, Laurie. For letting us into your own vulnerable change-making space and to this listener. And so many others who reach out with guest ideas or to say how an episode touch them on their own journey. Now [00:02:00] back to you and yours and why we're all geniuses deep down.
We just need to figure out where that is. Okay. So I recently read Rachel Rogers, his book. We should all be millionaires, which is surprise, surprise, geared toward people who want to make more money. I'm among them. You probably are too. And I loved it for that. But what surprised me was how much, what she really talked about. Was a mindset shift. And how we view ourselves our capabilities. And the drains on our time and energy. She talks about how often we get wrapped up and have it in our own limiting beliefs about ourselves.
And we make without realizing it, she calls them. Broke ass decisions, ones that drain our time and energy with little reward at the expense of million dollar decisions,
the ones that create capacity in our lives to allow us to maximize and leverage our talents, the stuff we're good at and love that will actually bring us yes.
Maybe money, but also closer to the lives we want to live overall. And [00:03:00] a big part of moving from that broke ass life depleting decision space into the million dollar capacity and talent magnifying. One is figuring out how you're spending your time now. Which zones you're operating in. Roger's bars these zones, by the way, from another book, the big leap by gay Hendricks, which you better believe.
I'm also reading. Now I'll report back. But there are four of them. Your zone of incompetence, your zone of competence, your zone of excellence and your zone of genius. Life leaps are at their core, all about moving or trying to from one of those first three zones in competence, competence, even excellence. Into that genius space, so, okay.
Let's break it down. Your zone of incompetence is where you'd put the stuff you're not so good at. And probably don't enjoy either. The stuff where it's pretty inefficient for you to be swimming around in there for Rodgers who went from totally broke to self-made millionaire and [00:04:00] can speak on a stage any day of the week. Her zone of incompetence is like behind the scenes stuff, website, design execution on bullet points, whatever. For a huge introvert, maybe it's networking or selling to a large room of people. For me it's I don't know, setting up resetting or anything to do with my home internet. It's just going to take me a lot of time and energy.
And even then I'm not that good at it. So your zone of competence, then. Is where you can be functional and efficient, fine and dandy, but so could almost anyone else like running a cash register at a small store or Rogers gives the example of a lawyer charging 500 bucks a pop for uncontested divorces. You can do it, but it's not exactly lighting you or probably your wallet up in non-job world.
It's maybe like the necessary evils of your day. If you're me, that's cooking or making your kids lunch or finding matching socks in the laundry, particularly when those socks are like the length of my index finger, but I digress. That's [00:05:00] your zone of competence. The zone of excellence. She says, this is where things get tricky. Because this is probably where most of our listeners are right now.
Job-wise. You're mid-career, you're doing something you've trained in practice for or established over time. And the world may even praise you or pay you pretty well for doing this thing. You're a professional. You went to school for this thing. Maybe you paid good money or clocked a lot of time already doing this thing.
You are totally good. Maybe even great or excellent. At doing this thing. But the thing is you don't really want to do this damn thing. Maybe you once did, maybe you never did, but bottom line here, you are still doing it. And all you can think of are the reasons for why you shouldn't stop doing it. Why you should be grateful.
You get to do it. You'd be giving up a lot. If you stopped doing it or. At least you put in a lot to get there. And sometimes we confuse the two, what we've already [00:06:00] put in that feeling of loss. With what we actually lose moving forward. But the thing is either way. You're kind of longing to do something else.
Maybe, you know exactly what it is. Maybe you don't, but you want to feel a bit more alive, inside, more courageous in your life and your choices. But you're afraid. You feel locked in or you have as Rogers calls them the golden handcuffs. Where your life is good enough that you become sort of numbed out to it all. But if you listen, as Rogers puts it, your heart keeps whispering.
This isn't quite it. So. That's where the zone of genius comes in. This is the space where we're using our innate not necessarily our learned skills. And in it, we're in flow with what we're doing. It's the space that uses not only our natural abilities. But also brings us joy and fulfillment. In short, it's the intersection of both your talent and [00:07:00] your enthusiasm. And I haven't spoken to someone taking a life leap.
Who's not trying to move closer to that genius space. Maybe you already know what your zone of genius is, again, that space, that's the intersection of both your talent and your enthusiasm. And so your task is figuring out how to activate more of that in your life. Or maybe you don't yet know what that zone is, or you have several ideas and you don't even know where to start.
Well, the good news is you're not the first person to tread these waters. Rogers and the original author of these zones, gay Hendricks, write all about it. And I'll link to those books. Plus some strength assessment resources in the show notes here. But I also had a very insightful conversation here on this podcast, which I'll also link. Last year with Yale professor Austria.
Baumgardner. Austrade made her own midlife leap and now helps others figure out how to make theirs. She's a career coach professor. She's given a Ted talk on it, all that to say she can help us do. Austria [00:08:00] said you should start with writing down things in your own life that, you know, make you feel in flow. That give you that feeling where you're focusing only on that thing. The other noise quiets down, you're enjoying it.
And if you're honest, you think you're actually kind of damn good at it. Or someone else has told you that you are. PS. The stuff you enjoy, but are no good at can still be valuable if it's for learning sake. But if this is for money or part of a life design strategy, you should also look at your talents.
The stuff you're good at because that plus enjoyment makes this way more likely to stick. So. After you've identified the spaces where you're in flow and have that kind of as your baseline
And by the way, if you can't find it in your daily life, I think back to your childhood. Think back before the kids, the responsibilities, the job, the money, whatever started weighing on you. Use that. Either way, tap into some flow space in your life. Use that as your baseline, and then notice where you're spending your time and energy each day of [00:09:00] your life.
Now.
Which parts of it drain you, energize you, which parts are you quicker than the average bear at and which ones? Not so much. Start thinking about your time and energy in terms of these four zones. Find your intersections of talent and enthusiasm, and then find ways to do more of those things.
Less of the other stuff. Whether it's in your work. Roger says that's where the real money-making is, because if you're good and you love it, there's way less competition at the top than there are in the spaces of mediocrity. Just because people typically don't dare to shoot higher than that.
Or work aside. If you're finding other ways to redesign your life, just to light up those parts of you again. Like my husband and I literally moved across the world with our toddler and pets last year, partly so we could redesign our lives to work less hours still live.
Okay. And have more time for other things that we just couldn't do when paying for rent and childcare with our full-time jobs in our Washington DC apartment. So bottom line, figure out where [00:10:00] your genius lies. And make sure that any life change you're looking to make. Moves you closer to that or gives you more capacity to figure out whatever that is.
Rogers is a big fan of delegation, wherever you can. Like if it's in your zone of incompetence delegate, if it's in your zone of competence and you can do it. Delegate, obviously the zone of excellence is the tricky sticky. A lot of times where emotional stuff. But that's a lot of times where the big benefits lie, but start with the low hanging fruit. Small changes can turn into really big ones.
So poke around, stay curious, pay attention to yourself and where you're spending your time and energy. And let me know how it goes. See you next week.
Thank you all for being here. We're a brand new podcast, so if you enjoyed it, go ahead and follow, rate, and review us in your podcast app so that we can know what you liked and others can find us. It would mean a lot. Last, but [00:11:00] not least, we'll keep you posted on brand new episodes each week when you follow us on Facebook or Instagram at, you guessed it, Life Leaps Podcast.
Till next time.
