113 of 115 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Going From Success to Genius..., January 8, 2010
This review is from: The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Hardcover)
...But first you have to be a success.
The Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks, is another personal learning book following an idea of coming to a fundamental realization that will help you better yourself. In this case, the central hidden realization we can come to is that when we begin to enjoy great success in some area of our lives, we tend to create problems in that or another area of our lives. We do this because we hit our "upper limit" of happiness, financial success, joy in a relationship, or any of a number of other things, and this upper limit causes us to unconsciously sabotage ourselves or even make ourselves ill. Dr. Hendricks explains that we may have one or more of four hidden barriers that activate our upper limit self-sabotage. The four hidden barriers are caused by: 1 - feeling fundamentally flawed, 2 - disloyalty and abandonment issues, 3 - believing that more success brings a bigger burden, and 4 - the perceived crime of outshining. When we learn to break through our barrier, we can move into the zone of genius (assuming that we've already been in the zone of excellence).
If you are a "Type A" personality, a perfectionist, or a workaholic, this book may be for you. As he is apparently all three of those, I can visualize all of this whole line of thought and the suggested action steps as being very plain to Dr. Hendricks, and can visualize him blissfully laying this all out in the course of writing this book. It's as if he's saying, "Come on - you can do this! It's easy. Look - I've worked it all out. Here are our issues, here is what we need to understand, and here's what we do about it." But much of it is basically a foreign language to people like me, as I am not a "Type A" personality, not a perfectionist, and definitely not a workaholic.
There's a certain intelligence required to succeed in the way that Dr. Hendricks measures success. It's not just about being bright enough to receive a certain level of education and being able to apply it - it's about having a knack for business and social interaction. Some have it and some just don't. Having that knack for business and social interaction involves knowing what people will go for and what they won't, capitalizing on that, and being well enough connected with the right people to turn it all into some kind of money generator, popular movement, or satisfying relationship. In addition to all of that, what is often required is having the energy and financial resources to fail lots of times and yet keep getting back up to try again. Yet none of these things are really even acknowledged in The Big Leap (except just faintly in the Appendix), nor is there any suggestion of how to succeed in spite of not having that inborn knack for Western greatness. (Or is that just my hidden barrier of feeling fundamentally flawed kicking in?)
This book is quite competently written - it's a fast read, and in the early parts, can be quite a page-turner. Hendricks' language flows and does not get in the way of rapid movement through the text, which I found was often happening as I was moving through looking for a key point to come out of his line of thought. So, The Big Leap is well written in that sense, though I ultimately found it somewhat lacking in substance.
The suggestions for "Building a New Home in Your Zone of Genius" really only scratch the surface, unless you're someone who frequently comes up with million dollar ideas over breakfast, perhaps. The Ultimate Success Mantra might help some to fine tune their already beaming selves... but again, this seems to assume a certain high level of being. I didn't really find that it grabbed me enough that I'd honestly want to make it my mantra, or that I could realistically expect to actually do this meditation regularly. Chapter Six, Living in Einstein Time, kind of assumes that the reader is so busy that "there's no time" for a lot of things. Again, this is "Type A" workaholic material that I found myself unable to relate to. It seems to me that success and having a life that works is more about your level and quality of personal energy, social connectivity, clarity of purpose and understanding, and the sheer will power to hammer it all out, and again, none of those things are really addressed in this book.
So in the end, The Big Leap is interesting for what it is, and it does shed important light on ways that we can unconsciously cause our own hurts, physical and otherwise, but you'll have to see for yourself if what's presented in it are ideas you can realistically apply in your own life.
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49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Getting out of your own way-, July 21, 2009
This review is from: The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Hardcover)
THE BIG LEAP revolves around the interesting proposition that while we all like to feel good, most of us have acquired a ceiling for our expectations in the course of growing up. The optimism and exuberance of childhood have given way to a darker view of how the world works and our place in it. We then make our reality conform to our expectations and engineer circumstances to bring us back to the "safe" upper limits our subconscious has imposed on us.
This has the effect of our putting on the brakes whenever we get out of our zone of comfort - what Hendricks calls our Zone of Competence or even of Excellence. But his mission is to get us to recognize our upper limit problem and break through it to living in our Zone of Genius. This is the sweet spot where we are doing work that nurtures our spirit and offers lasting contentment.
Hendricks has examined the human spirit and psyche for all of his working life. A PhD in Counseling Psychology from Stanford, and then a Professor at the University of Colorado for 21 years, he co-founded the Hendricks Institute with his wife Kathlyn to focus on conscious living and relationships. This book seems to be an exposition and distillation of some of the most important lessons for achieving our true potential. Through a series of questions for contemplation and other tools, he gently guides the reader to an understanding of how and where you have created limits, how to move beyond them to living in your zone of genius and succeeding in love, life and finances.
What I was most taken by was his "Ultimate Success Mantra." It is similar on the surface to many other affirmations you probably have read over the years, but I believe this one is profoundly different.
I would call it the Golden Rule for the Quantum Age, because while affirming that you expand in abundance, success and love every day, you do so by means of inspiring others to do the same. It reinforces the understanding of our interconnectedness and predicates your ultimate success on what you radiate back to others. This is the true Law of Attraction in action. Get the book and let its wisdom inspire your Genius.
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