EP 150 | Finding Your Zone of Genius: How to Build Confidence in the Things You’re Good At

In this week’s episode, join our host  Lisa Tarkington as she explores the Zone of Genius  - a concept that helps you identify your area of expertise. Reflecting on her own journey, Lisa shares moments that helped her find her zone of genius and provides her tips to help find your genuine passion and area where you truly shine! Tune into this empowering episode that will help you embrace confidence in your unique skills and abilities.

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Intro
• 04:01 - Being in Your Zone of Genius
• 07:37 - Research Behind the Zone of Genius
• 08:30 - The Four Zones of Genius
• 27:17 - Key Takeaways & Outro

Transcript

Lisa Tarkington: 0:00

Confidence is really about your belief in your skills and your abilities, believing in your talents, knowing your strengths and then utilizing them. You know I teach in all of the programs that I work in, as well as my coaching, is that a lot of times, what we do is we focus on our weaknesses instead of our strengths. So 80% of the time, we are always focusing on how to get better at our weaknesses and we only spend 20% of the time focused on our strengths. And I always share with everybody, and I'll share with all of you, is that. Imagine if we flip that right. Imagine if we said to ourselves actually, I'm going to focus 80% of the time on my strengths, only 20% of the time on our weaknesses. Imagine what that would do for the organizations that we work for. Maybe you work for yourself and our friends and our family.

Lisa Tarkington: 1:12

Hey everybody, welcome back for another episode of the Confidence Podcast. I am your host,Lisa Tarkington, and as always, I love being in the seat talking about all the things confidence, all the things that just kind of come up in my life or people's lives that I want to share with you guys To really help you on your confidence journey. You know I share a lot in this podcast, a lot of vulnerable and personal stories, and I promise you those will continue. This episode today is actually all about some of the experiences that I've had recently, but also years of experiencing this, but more so just having the realization of the self-awareness in this past year of how to incorporate different things into my life. So today's discussion is all going to be around utilizing our zone of genius. I'm going to dive into all of those pieces, but first we're all going to take a deep breath. It has been an amazing, incredible response already to people sharing about the change of our name.

Lisa Tarkington: 2:09

I shared on this on the past episode about how my nonprofit was changing the name from self-love beauty to lead. We were evolving as an organization and I think the bags under my eyes are starting to go away just a little bit, because I will tell you the things that cut me up was really just making sure it went off really well, knowing that we had to build a website, we had to do this branding, we had to do a ton of marketing and then the evolution of it changing over the next couple of months, especially as we change over our marketing content and more. And one of the things I really had to allow myself to do is feel the feels with those emotions, feel the feels of what do I need to do to take care of myself through this transition, because, while I'm so excited, I know this was the best move for our organization. I built this from the ground up and now I have an amazing team, but at one point it was just me, and so it really was an evolution that I'm really honored to be part of and to see where we go, and it's like kind of like your baby growing up to be like an adult, kind of like a teenager. I feel like that's kind of where it's at right now, and so for me, letting go, trusting and letting evolve is important.

Lisa Tarkington: 3:22

I think the other thing that I've learned through this change in transformation is that actually two things. The first one is that a lot of people don't always know why you're doing what you're doing and what are all the reasons behind it. But when you know it and you trust yourself, I just want to tell everybody to trust your instinct and your gut. Everybody's always going to have an opinion, everybody's going to have advice for you, but I'm really glad and proud of my organization and everybody that was involved for really truly embodying what we want to become, knowing that this is just an evolution of who we were to, where we want to be, and really knowing that we're making the right decision. And it's been so amazing to hear from people who have been part of our journey since the beginning, literally since 2012. And just their stories that they've shared about how Self Love, beauty now lead has changed their lives, and so if you sent me those messages, I just want to say thank you for that. I heard them, I felt them and I received them.

Lisa Tarkington: 4:20

The other thing that I learned through this process, which I think that is important to know, is I just shared that you know we had to do the website, we had to do the branding, we didn't have an outside firm take over everything right, and so it was a lot of sleepless nights building these things out as a team, googling things, trying to figure things out and just being honest and open with ourselves about that journey and what that looked like. I think we all learned some very great skills. We also which is funny, that we're going to be talking about Zone of Genius today we also learned about the things that we don't always like to do but sometimes have to do in order to kind of get things over the finish line. So just wanted to say thank you to everybody that has been part of this journey, and we're going to keep evolving and helping people and make an impact on confidence and well-being for all. So today's topic, like I said, is all about being in your zone of genius, and so, you know, this podcast really focuses on confidence, well-being, leadership and confidence is really about your belief in your skills and your abilities, believing in your talents, knowing your strengths and then utilizing them. You know I teach in all of the programs that I work in, as well as my coaching is that A lot of times, what we do is we focus on our weaknesses instead of our strengths, so 80% of the time, we are always focusing on how to get better at our weaknesses and we only spend 20% of the time focused on our strengths.

Lisa Tarkington: 5:49

And I always share with everybody and I'll share with all of you is that? Imagine if we flip that right. Imagine if we said to ourselves actually, I'm going to focus 80% of the time on my strengths, only 20% of the time on our weaknesses. Imagine what that would do for the organizations that we work for maybe you work for yourself and our friends and our family.

Lisa Tarkington: 6:09

I know in my household, even when I bring my strengths to the table, we're always focusing on my weaknesses how that evolves into my family as well, and so it's very easy sometimes, when we're going down this path, to not really understand or have that self-awareness of well, of course, I have to grow my weaknesses. Here's all the things that I need to evolve on to and I'm not saying that I don't want you to evolve, of course, but I think it's sometimes important to notice like our strengths are so awesome. We were provided these skills and these abilities for a reason or we work towards them, and so continuously growing in those are so important for us, always focusing on our weaknesses and truly, guys, it's just not okay. If I'm being honest, it's not okay that we put our strengths to the side to sometimes to only focus on all of the areas that we need to grow. You know, it's very easy when you think of a lack of self-worth or self-esteem or lack of confidence. It's because sometimes we're focusing on the things that don't always matter.

Lisa Tarkington: 7:09

Now, don't get me wrong. When I've gotten feedback from leaders on things that I need to grow into in order to get to the next level, that's different, right. I don't even look at that as really a weakness. It's just saying like, hey, here's some improvement areas that I would recommend. It's also really great when we get improvements on our strengths of like, I really see the strength to get to the next level here, some things that I want you to work on, and so the more that we can understand what our strengths are, how are we utilizing them it will be a game changer for us. And so you know when I was really thinking about. What do I wanted to talk to you guys about today.

Lisa Tarkington: 7:44

In the last couple of weeks, one of the things I've really noticed actually not even the last couple of weeks, probably for the last couple of years is when I am utilizing my strengths, when I'm utilizing my talents and my skills, and I'm really driving into that how my confidence is up, how I'm in a much better state because of my confidence and because I'm utilizing my skills. And so over the last couple of months I would say specifically the last two weeks all I wanted to do is be in my zone of genius, and we'll dive into what that here, what it is, in a second. But it's really an opportunity to notice what am I good at? Where do I want to focus my time? And all of the different attributes of being in your zone of genius. And so I was doing some research on it because I'm like, okay, like there's so many different zones and things that I teach my staff about strengths, about okay, like, maybe we're not always good here, but we have to work on those projects. And I would love to take credit for the name of zone of genius.

Lisa Tarkington: 8:44

But there was an amazing man named Gay Hendricks who actually created the four zones, and so it is four different zones that allow you to see where your strengths are, where you should be focusing your time and just honestly having more of a self-awareness and understanding of where you are with certain aspects of your life. And so he has this book called Big Leap the Big Leap. I'm going to start reading it here very soon because I follow everything that he's been teaching, but I haven't read his book yet. So if you're looking for a book recommendation, I will give you some follow-up on it. So far, even just anything that I've done research on and how I incorporate the zone of genius into my life highly recommend his work. And so he suggests that we gain more fulfillment and happiness when we spend time in our zone of genius. But we have to. In order to get to our zone of genius, we have to understand our other zones of our lives, and so that one takes us to the first zone. So verse.

Lisa Tarkington: 9:42

The first zone is zone of incompetence, and these are things that you're probably not great at but you're doing. These are things that you probably shouldn't be spending too much time on. Maybe they bore you. They also could be things that are draining you and unproductive, and so those are important for us to start making those lists, like, what are the things that make me sleepy, what are the things that don't make me productive and understanding, like, okay, how do I, if you can delegate that to someone that that might be a strength of theirs Also, being able to notice like, okay, how do I put that to the side for right now? Or find someone that I can work with to help me with that?

Lisa Tarkington: 10:26

Now, as someone who runs a nonprofit, I don't have a staff of 20 people where I can just delegate things off. But I will say it is very good for me to understand what are these areas that I'm just gonna be the least productive in, and understanding how that fits in my priorities for the day. Or is there someone that has a strength there that I can work with to understand it, to get to the next level? So we really don't wanna spend a lot of time in the zone of incompetence because it drains us completely. I don't know if you've ever got done with a day I've had this with zone of genus two, where you're just drained from excitement and all the good feels. But this draining, I feel like, is where you're just like drained from doing everything that just didn't light you up and get you fired up for the day, and so what we don't wanna do is spend a lot of time there, because that's not where we're gonna get most fulfilled, the most happy.

Lisa Tarkington: 11:20

So the second one is zone of competence. So this is that you have skills in here, you're decent at it, but it's not your strongest suit. So you can really perform these tasks and you can do a great job. You can check that off and you can say look at all the things I did, but it didn't bring you fulfillment. You also might be spending too much time there. That could prevent you from doing something else that probably aligns better to your strengths.

Lisa Tarkington: 11:46

So, for example, for me, we do a lot around data with my organization understanding data for growth, for people, tracking different things with the different groups that we're working with and data takes me a long time. Excels everything I do isn't excels, but when it comes to data it's. You know I can do it, I'm good at it, but it is very time consuming. Same thing with marketing. Marketing has been something that I used to do for my career and now I've just noticed like, yeah, well, I can do it, I'm confident at it, but it does still take me a little bit longer time. That could also go into the next zone, which we'll be talking about here in a second, but I share that to say that what we've even incorporated into our workplace is if it's gonna take me four hours versus someone else two hours, how do I delegate to someone else that can do this a lot faster than me, because that's just not where I should be spending my time. Now I can do it right and I'm good at it and I can perform the job, but if it's gonna take me double the time, why wouldn't I look at someone on my team and say, hey, this is a strength and a skill of yours. Vice versa, right. Like how do I take something off their plate where it's gonna take me two hours versus them four? And how do we work together to make sure that we're utilizing our strengths?

Lisa Tarkington: 13:08

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Lisa Tarkington: 14:34

As a host of this podcast, I wear many other hats, including an ACC coach, which stands for Associate Certified Coach, through the International Coaching Federation. I have gone through extensive learning and have been coaching individuals for years. I have had a front row seat at watching people transform, grow in their careers, take control of their careers and become intentional, gain confidence and more. I believe in the transformative power of self-discovery and personal and professional growth. If you are ready to grow either in your personal or professional life, break through limiting beliefs and step into a life of confidence, I would love to support you. As a certified coach through ICF, I have the knowledge and expertise to coach you and help guide you on your journey. To work directly with me, visit lisa-tarkingtoncom slash coaching Again, that is lisa-tarkingtoncom slash coaching to sign up for your free consultation. I can not wait to help you become a better version of yourself.

Lisa Tarkington: 15:36

The next one is called the zone of genius. So this is really where you can excel. You can outperform a majority of people, but you're just not fulfilled, you're just not satisfied. This is one that's probably where you're comfortable with, but you're probably not fully tapped into your unique talents and passions. So you might be listening to this in the car, maybe at work, and I just want you to think about well, what is that for you? What is something that you kind of just get handed a lot at work because they're like oh my gosh, he or she just does such a great job at doing that, but you get it and you're like, yeah, I'm good at it, but I don't enjoy it.

Lisa Tarkington: 16:15

I have been there so many times and, especially as an entrepreneur, you are handed all these things and you're trying to perform, and there are some tasks that I've just been able to do very easily. But I will tell you that just because I can do them and I can perform well does not mean that I enjoy them all the time. And so, but when you can understand, like I'm really good at this, but I don't always want to be there, that's great to know too, because you know, as I've grown as a leader, as I've grown in my skills, I have noticed the things that I really excel at. But when I look at, like, does that fulfill me, does that make me happy? It doesn't. I just happen to have that strength and that skill and I have confidence in myself in that area as well, and so those are really important to understand.

Lisa Tarkington: 17:03

And then the last ones we did zone of incompetence, we did zone of competency, and then we did zone of excellence, and now my favorite zone, which is zone of genius. It is the zone that helps you kind of very much reach your full potential. It helps you kind of be in the sense of flow and fulfillment. It helps you kind of ignite those skills and those talents that you have and it gets you out of that comfortable place that that zone of excellence gets you and really pushes you to go into your unique talents and experiences. And so when you are fully in the zone of genius, I will tell you, it flows. It flows so well for you. It can lead to great success, satisfaction, overall well-being and just overall confidence.

Lisa Tarkington: 17:55

And so, as someone who has really found her zone of genius, I think I've always known some of the areas that I wanted to have my zone of genius. But I had to grow in different areas and so I share all of that. Because what I want for you today is to know those four zones, be able to notice things in your life that fit into those zones and then really find that time to focus on that zone of genius. Because zone of genius is really the area that I want to focus a lot of time on, and it's because this is an area of my life that I've just continued, continued to really redefine my life, to really focus my time here. And that actually meant for me is hiring people that are in the areas that I am incompetent on or I might just be able to excel at, but that is their zone of genius. I have a couple of employees, but it's so fun to watch them soar. It's also really cool. I'm married to an engineer, and watching him be in his zone of genius, or even hearing when he has to do things that isn't his zone of genius, that's been intriguing to watch as well, as well as our friends and our family.

Lisa Tarkington: 19:06

I think last year I got this itch, probably last March, and I've shared a lot about that on the podcast, but I didn't really call it my zone of genius, where I was like there's something itching in me that I need to be doing more of, and so as I started to go back to school for a few things, as I started to flow into my coaching and my speaking more, it just lights me up, right Like that's my flow. So when I'm building curriculum, when I'm talking to people to help them with different tools and resources, when I'm on this podcast, these are things that light me up that I could spend so much time on, because how it makes me feel and how it affects my life in a positive way is so outstanding. Now, don't get me wrong, I still have to do things in my career. That isn't always the fun A lot of administrative things, heck. I just changed our name and of our organization and I had to do a lot of tasks that weren't my favorite. But the difference now in my life versus then is that I know now that I'm gonna get back to those things that bring me alive, and I also know that this is just kind of a cycle of life. But the more that I can start adding into my flow of genius, the better. And so this was.

Lisa Tarkington: 20:18

You know, I had this conversation with a leader the other day. I was really itching, I was having to do some things that I didn't love and I said I just wanna be in my zone of genius. And it was so nice to say that out loud Because I know that I have these conversations with myself a lot. My husband has to hear them all the time. At home I have a few friends that are in this space that I talk to a lot about it. But when you can finally admit out loud like these are my strengths, I do not want to be in this space anymore. That brings me into my zone of incompetency, it brings me into the areas that I'm not really good at, and then you can shift that. That is number one, saying it out. Well, actually, that's number two. The first step is actually I'm knowing these things. Second step for me was saying them out loud, and that's really where I started to vocalize a little bit more to myself and to other people of I'm just not doing my zone of genius today.

Lisa Tarkington: 21:10

I need that more, and the reason why is because, once I figured it out, I wanted more. I wanted more, and when we think about different zones of genius or different things that kind of encompass it, it's about our talents, like what are the talents that I possess that I should be utilizing more Skills? How am I using my strengths and my skills and my abilities and my passion? I have such a passion for what I do and it comes out when I'm talking about things or when I'm doing things because of my skills and my abilities around different things. And so, when you can identify what are my talents, what is my passion, what are my skills and how do they all flow together, this is going to be a game changer. So, when you operate in your zone of genius, work feels effortlessly I really mean that and you are more likely to experience flow, which is the state of fully immersing and focusing on what you're doing. And I have noticed that when I am fully engaged in my zone of genius, it just flows. It's fun, it's exciting, it brings me alive and that's what I want for all of you guys.

Lisa Tarkington: 22:23

When we talk about confidence, when we talk about all of these things that we talk about on the podcast, the more that you can be in your zone of genius, the more your confidence is going to just continuously grow. So, by understanding your zone of genius and your strengths, it is so important to then follow up with having those activities in your life and having those rules that allow you to strive and to create that impact that you want to make. I am living proof of that as someone who was doing things for a long time that maybe wasn't my zone of genius. I was good at it. It was my zone of excellence. Finding your zone of genius is like the coolest thing ever and people see it right. Like think about the people that you see in your life and you're like, wow, they light up when they talk about that. Or you hear the people that are like I just got lost in the last couple of hours just working on this project because I'm so excited for it. Those are flows, those are things that come effortlessly, and so it's been so cool to see my life evolve in that and really understand what I need to do to take care of myself in those ways.

Lisa Tarkington: 23:29

So when you think about yourself, when you think about what is your zone and how do you figure those things out, there's some questions that you can ask yourself, and I did not come up with some of these questions. These are from the book the Big Leap as well. But asking yourself, what do I love to do the most? What could I do for long periods of time without getting bored? Or here's something that gets me excited. Another question to ask yourself is what work do I do? That doesn't seem like work. It's just kind of like I get to do this all day. This is my career, thinking about those types of things, or thinking about in my work what produces the highest ratio of abundance and satisfaction in the time spent.

Lisa Tarkington: 24:16

So when I'm focusing on something, am I really happy that that's where I've been spending my time? And then the other question is what is your unique ability? One of the things I love about self-confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, self-compassion all of those is the word self is in front of all of those words, and it's really cool to think about how we get to choose those things. It's also really cool to think that each person is uniquely them. Every person listening to this podcast right now or watching this video knows that we all have these abilities and these strengths and these talents that sure, other people might be good at X, y, z too, but you bring this unique look and feel to it. So what can I do that others aren't likely to be on that level? Like, what's my zone of genius? What do I bring here? And so all of this is really boils down to one of the topics that I teach all of the time, which is self-awareness. The more that we are self-aware of understanding like, okay, this takes me to just too much time, I need to delegate it. Or I'm pretty good at this, but I need to hand it off to someone that's better. Or wow, I'm really good at this, but it doesn't fulfill me. And then the last one of I am so fulfilled and I love everything that I do, and when I'm in this flow of this genius, everything just kind of like comes together and we've probably all. When you're positioning it this way and you're thinking about all of these things, you're probably starting to notice like, yep, know this piece. Yes, know that piece. But if you don't know it, that's okay too.

Lisa Tarkington: 25:50

It took me a very long time to get to a certain point, because my zone of excellence is what people were cheering me on for, right. Those were the certain things in my life that I just happened to be really good at. But when I got into my zone of genius, something shifted for me. Something started to be like huh, this is where I wanna spend all of my time, and while reality is is I don't get to spend all my time there. Yet the goal is that one day is that I am working towards that, because I know what lights me up, and, as someone who gets to be around people that aren't lit, not per always in a negative space, sometimes I see how, if they were in their zone of genius and working on that, how they light up.

Lisa Tarkington: 26:34

I've also seen on the flip side, when people are in their zone of genius and when they're living out their passions, how their well-being is there, how they're living out a purpose, how their confidence is growing, but, more importantly, how they take care of themselves and they take care of those around them, and so flow is good. Flow is so good. You know, I don't think I understood how great it was until I started to go down this journey even more. You know you've heard me on this podcast for years have the ups and downs of confidence. I've cried, I've laughed, I've felt all the feels. But I will tell you, one of the things that I'm really proud of is noticing my zone of genius more than ever before, and so my hope for you leaving today is understanding those four aspects of the different zones of our lives, checking that book out, but then finding time to focus on your zone of genius, and for sure I want to hear about it from everybody. I want to hear your zone of genius. So be sure to comment on this video, comment on the podcast, email me, tell me how you are doing this and if you're looking for like okay, lisa, you've told me all of these things.

Lisa Tarkington: 27:41

I need a tool. I'm gonna give you a tool right now, because I find that tools are so important. So what I want you to do is grab a blank sheet of paper. I want you to write down the four different zones and I want you to write different tasks in your life that fit in those zones and set a timer. Write, set the timer for three to five minutes and just write those things down and maybe in a month pull it back out and then maybe add some feelings to it. So it's always important to understand the task, but then understanding the feelings that come with it. But more importantly then, once you sit on it, you understand it. Then the action needs to come into place.

Lisa Tarkington: 28:19

So for me, I have been working towards spending more time in my zone of genius over the last couple of years. But I had to figure it out. It wasn't like it just came overnight. I was like, wow, I'm really good at this. But it's like is that where I want to spend all of my time? And over the course of my life that's kind of changed too, but I finally feel, at the age that I'm at, that I'm finding it more and more of that's where I want to spend my time. I learned so many skills. I grew in my strengths. I understood some of my weaknesses I grew in some. I'm just like you know what Delegate that off.

Lisa Tarkington: 28:53

But it's really important to understand these different zones, to really grow as a person, grow in your confidence, and I cannot wait to hear how all of you guys are spending your time in what your zone of genius is.

Lisa Tarkington: 29:05

So, like I always say at the end of these podcasts, continue to spread love and kindness to everybody that you meet, and don't forget to email me at lisa at lisaTarkingtoncom if you are interested in getting any coaching, if you want to share your zone of genius with me which I would love to hear about and just checking in with all of you. So let me know how I can support you, just as you support me, and let's go change the world together. Thank you for tuning into the Confident Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, follow the Confident Podcast on Instagram and TikTok and share it with those who might benefit. Also, if you are looking to work one-on-one with me, message and follow me on Instagram at lisaTarkington official. Stay confident, stay inspired and, until next time, keep striving to be the best version of yourself. Take care. Music.