The Big Leap
Cover of The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks
Rating: 8️⃣
Gay Hendricks introduces new and interesting concepts in this book, from his elaborate explanation of "Einstein Time" to his concept of "Upper Limit Problem" that every, single person has. Some of these concepts are eye-opening and potentially life-changing.
I have approached self-help or personal development books with an err of caution recently, taking things with a pinch of salt. The Big Leap was a pleasant surprise and lived up to its promise of teaching you to take your life to the next level.
The new concepts are extremely philosophical and not to my personal taste. I tend to prefer actionable content with tasks or blueprints for action. I can appreciate the direction Gay Hendricks is coming from, trying to completely reframe mindsets and pihlosophies.
About Gay Hendricks
Dr Gay Hendricks is a psychologist, entrepreneur and avid writer. He obtained his Ph.D in psychology from Stanford University and has lectured at the University of Colorado for over 20 years. He has also authored over 40 books with at least three books being bestsellers, Five Wishes, The Big Leap and Conscious Loving (which was co-authored with his partner, Dr Kathlyn Hendricks).
Gay is also established his name company, Hendricks Institute with his wife, Katie Hendricks and they have ran it together for over 30 years. This is a bare summary of Gay Hendrick's monumental accomplishments. Other keynotes and seminars appearances for him include some from Oprah, CNN, CNBC, 48 HOURS and many more.
Summary
Our personal limits and ceilings are the main focus of The Big Leap, specifically the limits that we subconsciously impose onto ourselves. The philosophical nature of this self-help or personal development book is a new exposure for me but I do like the concepts that Gay Hendrick has introduced.
He takes a couple chapters to warm us up to the explanation of The Big Leap and the Upper Limit Problem that is preventing us from breaking our own ceilings of performance. Gay Hendricks doesn't address any specific field of work, any specific industry or any area of life that the book solely focuses on. He casts a wide net with this new mentality and believes that this mindset can be adopted and be put to use to everything.
Personally, I'm never a fan of over-generalisation but for this book, it was the case where it was a broad concept that encompasses literally everything. He wasn't talking about business or productivity or money-making; he was talking about mindset and taking a step back to have a look at a bigger picture. It is definitely necessary to establish a good mindset before hitting the road, even the first part of Jim Kwik's book, Limitless, focuses on Mindset.
The rest of the book has scattered focus on topics such as time management, personal relationships, productivity and creativity. One of the chapters, interestingly named Einstein Time, brings a new perspective to time management. Gay Hendricks talks about our misconception of time and who actually has control over our time and how we use it. (I'll explore more of this later on.)
The Zone of Genius is also a focus of the book, talking about the different modes of operations that all humans exist in. The four modes are:
The Zone of Incompetence
As the name suggests, this is where no work gets done. Ever been in the office or in a classroom when time just seems to slow down?
That's probably the best example of this and I'm sure you've felt and been in this state at some point in your life.
The Zone of Competence
Work actually gets done in this state. Albeit not the best. We associate this state with just getting by. Imagine being in a meeting and you're absorbing enough information to understand it but not enough attention to be leading it.
The Zone of Excellence
Here is where activities you take part in, you do very well. Don't be fooled though, it's still not the pinnacle of human performance.
You will be reliable and productive in this zone but it has a pull to stay.
The Zone of Genius
Your natural talents and love fuse here. You and only you can do activities in this manner and everyone has something to show for this.
This is when you lose track of time but still manage to hit all your targets and goals while doing a task.
This is not a brand new concept created by Gay Hendricks but he does build upon it extremely elaborately in two separate chapters. One focused on getting to the Zone of Genius and another chapter focused on staying in the Zone of Genius.
Top 5 Takeaways
We are the control tower for our own time. Not our jobs, our partners, friends and family and certainly not our bosses.
Einstein Time is a new concept to me. You create your own time and you allow for time to flow in and out of yourself with your priorities.
Gay Hendricks talks about Einstein Time in an extremely philosophical manner but ultimately, I personally think it comes down to prioritisation.
Everyone has an Upper Limit Problem that we all have to deal with, whether we feel unworthy or whether we are burdened with trauma from the past.
Humans are inherently flawed creatures in our civilised society, pulling along our biological baggage from years of evolution to optimise for survival. We all still carry along unnecessary emotional burden caused by evolutional instincts in us.
For example, the need to belong and stay in line. Both of these behaviours come from millenia ago where humans lived in small tribes and being left out meant dying.
There are four root false beliefs to our self-imposed ceiling of performance.
These false beliefs contain all forms of self doubt. They explain why you don't feel that you deserve success in life and ultimately end up sabotaging yourself.
The Zone of Genius is comparable to the Flow State as modes of operation.
This is the third time I've come across the Flow State in less than 10 books! The Zone of Genius is slightly different, specifically that it talks about the activities that can lead to your Flow State.
The last book I came across this was Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky!
Removing your Upper Limit Problem is a constant work-in-progress.
Life is a massive work in progress. Took me a long time to understand that, but there is no instant gratification for the important things in life. We are conditioned by social media and games and modern technology to seek instant gratification.
I talk a lot more about instant gratification in Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.
Favourite Quotes:
“You don’t solve your self-imposed limitations, you dissolve them. To do that you have to shine a laser-like beam of awareness on it.”
Your self-imposed limitations are biologically-ingrained traits you, as a Homo Sapien, have developed over your lifetime. It'd be foolish of you to remove them in a short span of time. The first step to improving your situation is recognising these Upper Limit Problems.
“The Upper Limit Problem can be active in many shapes and forms. Some in the form of self-sabotage, some in the form of procrastination and many more.”
I've come to understand that Upper Limit Problems stem from all sources, often biological reasons but also from childhood conditioning leftover from our younger days. You could be afraid of intimacy because of your parents or afraid to speak up because of your schooling environment.
“Work that comes as second nature, but doesn’t feel like work, that provides you with high levels of satisfaction is where you will operate in the Zone of Genius.”
The Zone of Genius is another allusive concept of human performance. But there are plenty of sources already out there paving the way to your Zone of Genius so you can operate in the Flow State.
““You are the source of your own time.””
Extremely philosophical, I know. You can create and manipulate your own time as you wish and that will always be true.