Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - Making Sense of THE BIG LEAP by Gay Hendricks - Episode 71

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Make Sense with Dr. J.C. Dornick podcast. This podcast covers topics that expand human consciousness and performance. On the Make Sense podcast, we acknowledge that it's who you are that determines how well what you do works, and that perception is a subjective and acquired taste. What we know is that when you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at begin to change. Welcome to the uprising of the sleepwalking masses. Welcome to the Make Sense with Dr. J.C. Dornick podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Make sense. Let's make sense of The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. Great morning world, great morning humans. My name is Dr. J.C. Dornick. And welcome to another episode of The Make Sense with Dr. J.C. podcast. We're taking one of the books that I've read, either one from the vault, one of my all-time favorites, or just one that I've just, recently read. I read about a book a week, thanks to my good friend Jim Quick. And thanks to what I learned from him and his systems, I read about a book a week. So that's almost 52 books, probably

Starting point is 00:01:12 five 40s, maybe even 50 books a year. What I love to do is I love to take those books and I love to write about them. In fact, a lot of stuff that comes out on this podcast as well as in my books comes from the books that I read, right? I always talk about the fact that there's nothing new out there. Today, we are going to actually go into the vault with a book that I've read, God, probably about six times. And it sits comfortably in the top five all-time most impactful books that I've ever read. So I'm really excited about presenting you with a short form summary of this particular book. That's changed my life dramatically. But just quickly, this is The Make Sense with Dr. J.C. podcast, and it's sponsored by the Make Sense Academy.

Starting point is 00:01:58 The Makes Sense Academy is kind of my passion project after 53 years of having my own personal experience and just insights and leveling up. I've learned a lot, a lot about the subjective nature of perception and this idea that you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. So the premise of the Make Sense Academy, which is a sponsor, keeps the lights on of this podcast. It's based on two primary foundational premises. One is that it's who you are. that determines how well what you do works. That's why we're going to work on the who here. So a lot of people are out there doing the do,

Starting point is 00:02:34 but they're not the who that is the right person for the job. And then the second premise is that if you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at change. Now, a lot of people will grasp those concepts but not know how to execute on either of them. The Make Sense Academy is a psychological safe haven and a community where I take everything that I've ever learned and create masterminds and discuss this stuff.

Starting point is 00:02:58 in a live format. So if anybody ever wanted to get coached or mentored by me, that's the place to do it, as well as taking any coursework that I've ever created or will create and placing it in this amazing platform that we call school. And it's fully accessible to everybody from Headspace stuff, personal growth, self-development, all of these insights, my interface response system all the way on up to actual business tools to help you execute, take your product and service and idea to market and learn how to monetize and create passive income and all of that stuff. So it's all there. Makes Sense Academy. Right now, we're almost finished taking on our first 50 ambassadors. And those are the people that are having one-on-one interaction with me outside.

Starting point is 00:03:45 And it's creating this incubator where we're creating this amazing thing that's going to facilitate growth for so many people. And one of the perks of being one of the first 50 is not only the extra attention that you get, but also the fact that it's only $48 a month. So come check out the Make Sense Academy, risk-free, money-back guarantee, and that's that. Let's make sense of the big leap by Gay Hendricks. And I call this How to Break Through Barriers and unlock your Zone of Genius, which comes from Gay Hendricks' book. Today, I'm going to bring you a synopsis of this book that, Like I said, it sits in the top five most impactful books that I've ever read. For me, this is almost like having Gay Hendricks here.

Starting point is 00:04:28 What's interesting about Gay Hendricks in this book, a little bit of history, is that another book that sits in probably my top 10 called The 15 Laws of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dehmer and his folks was motivated by Gay Hendricks' work with The Big Leap. So you're going to hear a synopsis on a book that not only changed my life, but that's changed the lives of millions of people and cascaded into other books. So this is almost like the Bible in certain ways. For those that are interested, it's a 224-page book of deliciousness. I carry a book list called My Book Trail, and I always provide that for people if they're

Starting point is 00:05:06 interested of every book that I've ever read that's impacted me. If you don't make the list, it's not that the book wasn't good. It just didn't stick. It didn't create a shift. So this one's in the top five of that. Just quickly about the author, Gay Hendricks is a psychologist, author, and teacher known for his pioneering and work in personal growth, relationship, transformation, and mind-body practices. God, that's all I needed to know about him.

Starting point is 00:05:31 He earned his PhD in counseling psychology from Stanford University, smart dude, and taught at the University of Colorado before founding what's called the Hendricks Institute with his lovely wife, Catherine Hendricks. A couple of key accomplishments. You're going to love this particular synopsis, but I like to let you know about other things that these people have done. Gay Hendricks is the author of almost 40 books, I think more than 40 books, including bestsellers that I want to point your attention to, other than the big leap. And one of those would be conscious living and five wishes. Those are two bestselling books that he's written. He's also the co-founder of the Foundation for Conscious Living. So if you're into consciousness, this dude's all about it.

Starting point is 00:06:14 And that focuses on creating healthy relationships and fostering personal transformation. Gay Hendricks is best known for integrating mindfulness and practical strategies. I love that. He takes the mindfulness and doesn't just send you out being more mindful. He combines it and we're going to do that today with his book with practical strategies to help you actually achieve success and fulfillment. I talk a lot about the jacuzzi experience. His most recent books since The Big Leap, and that was written in 2009,

Starting point is 00:06:43 the one we're going to do today. He's written several books including The Joy of Genius, and that's 2018. And that's really the sequel to this book, The Big Leap, which focuses on unleashing creative genius. Everybody has creative genius, but he talks about how to unleash it. A lot of people say that the most valuable piece of real estate in the world is a cemetery. It's where everybody dies with their songs still in them. Most recent one, I believe, was Conscious Look. I love that name. And that was 2020, where he explores how to create good fortune in your life. The basic premise of this book is that it uncovers how individuals can navigate and break through their internal barriers to achieve greater levels of success, love and fulfillment. He introduces concepts in this book,

Starting point is 00:07:29 and these are maybe things that you'd want to write down. You'll have the transcript of this. And if you are following me on Substack, I will actually put everything that you're hearing right there in that as a blog post. But he introduces new content. One of them is the upper limit problem, which is a self-imposed limit that holds people back from living in their zone of genius. I never heard anybody talk about an upper limit problem or zone of genius. I know what those are, but that's an example of what Gay Hendricks does, is he can take something that we kind of know and bring it into clarity, perhaps like the book The Secret took the law of attraction and did that for us. So the upper limit problem and then the zone of genius or state of maximum creativity and

Starting point is 00:08:14 fulfillment, the key distinction here is this. He references those things as self-imposed problems. You know, he refers to the upper limit problem as a self-imposed thing. Hendricks argues that by identifying and overcoming these limits, these self-imposed limits, anyone could make the big leap to lasting happiness and success. A lot of people don't understand. that that's what the name is about. The Big Leap, there it is. The Big Leap refers to that breakthrough and shift from ordinary, perhaps, to extraordinary. On a personal note, I love his methodology and strategy in this book, as it lends very, very well, and I'm not going to lie, I got a lot of stuff after I read this book to help me create what I call my own Interface

Starting point is 00:09:02 Response System, or IRS, which is basically a four-step process that begins with identifying our self-imposed limitations, thank you Gay-Hendricks, by way of how our brain has been persuaded and programmed by our mother-father, teacher, preacher, society, and evolution. So I reference the big leap quite often in my book. And I will say that things like the science of flow, examples of ways of human beings breaking into what Gay Hendricks calls their zone of genius or into the flow state, the interface response system that I created was something that I used to access what I think is probably helping people with a few missing pieces in those models that people typically get stuck with. So when you learn my interface response system, for those of you

Starting point is 00:09:50 that have, know that every time I read a book and I learn something amazing like this upper limit problem and tapping into your zone of genius, whenever I find something that will get people hung up, that's when I go into creative mode, but a lot of it comes from this amazing author. So in the Big Leap, Hendricks identifies four primary upper limit problems. As I get into these upper limit problems, which are basically psychological barriers, remember those words self-imposed, psychological barriers that cause people to self-sabotage their own success. So you didn't know that until you read this book, that there's things that you have in place to prevent you from moving forward. And until you uncover one of them and identify them, you don't even know that they're there

Starting point is 00:10:36 and you might be in this victim of circumstance status, this book is very, very much conducive with helping you become empowered to understand how much you actually control your outcome. That idea of these psychological barriers that cause people to sabotage their own success, that part of the book, and this is what this little summary is going to do, is going to allow the reader to identify which one of those four upper limit problems best resembles your current reality. You might see a little bit of all of them in there.

Starting point is 00:11:05 and therefore allow you, I call this drifting and shifting, because if you identify something that is holding you back, that's the space that gives you the ability to shift and move away from it. So therefore, it's going to help you learn how to break through it. And remember, Gay Hendricks talks about practical ways to do that. So I will actually share mine when we get to it, my upper limit problem. So let's go over those four upper limit problems and try to figure out which one is most conducive to you. Just a quick disclaimer, in no way, shape, or form is this new summary series that I'm doing, this makes sense of books series that I'm doing, something that should prevent you from wanting

Starting point is 00:11:45 to read the full book. There's no way that I can encapsulate everything that I got from this book in my summary. But if you're somebody that is looking for something to take you through the week and understand the basic concepts and takeaways and apply them in your life, you're going to love these Monday synopsis that I will do until I can't. So here are the four upper limit problems. So the first one is this, feeling fundamentally flawed. So someone that with this particular hidden barrier believes that they are undeserving of success, happiness because of their inherent flaws. So an example of how this barrier may show up would be you may be downplaying your achievements or maybe even avoiding pursuing goals

Starting point is 00:12:29 because you don't think that you deserve them. Now, where to do you. that come from? This idea of you thinking you don't deserve them or you're not worthy. This comes from, in my material, the programming that you had received as a child or through various events that took place in your life that eventually with repetition and you tethering to them convinced you that you were just not cut out for something like winning. Make sense? So that's the first upper limit problem. Feeling fundamentally flawed. Does that one vibe with you? You'll notice that they all vibe with you in a certain way, but one of them will lock in. Number two, upper limit problem. Disloyalty and abandonment. Someone with this hidden barrier has the perception that achieving success

Starting point is 00:13:12 will either leave your loved ones behind or perhaps betray your roots. This is about abandonment and disloyalty. As an example of how this barrier may show up, maybe you finding yourself dropping everything that you do that has to do with you contending for your own success to assist others. Now, a lot of people resonate with that. Why would you do that if you have this hidden barrier? If you've experienced abandonment, you know the feelings of being left behind or having someone not follow through. And you've decided to dedicate your entire life to making sure nobody else ever feels that pain, at least on your watch. F.YI, this is my hidden barrier. This is the dragon's hidden barrier.

Starting point is 00:13:58 I have experienced on many, many levels in different ways, whether it's somebody dying or my parents getting divorced or just being left behind, I've experienced abandonment. So what I identified before I read this book is that I kept on getting close to success, but then backing away from it before I actually got far enough. So I used to think I just didn't follow through. When I identified that it was an abandonment and disloyalty, I was able to recognize that and start breaking through, I was actually holding myself back. So that's the second one.

Starting point is 00:14:30 Does that one resonate with you? A lot of people resonate with that one. Here's number three upper limit problems. Believing success comes at the expense of being a burden. This is a very popular one these days. Someone with this hidden barrier, they fear success. You've heard about people fearing failure, but there's an even bigger thing called fear of success.

Starting point is 00:14:49 This is it. Success as they perceive it will make them feel perhaps overwhelmed. and they won't be able to handle that success. That's what the fear of success is. An example of how this barrier may show up in your life would be you avoiding leadership roles and responsibilities because you believe that they will bring undue stress. This barrier often masks itself as anxiety and overwhelm

Starting point is 00:15:14 and you may find yourself turning down great opportunities with the excuse that there's just too much going on right now. Do you find yourself using that? excuse all the time justifiably that there's too much going on right now or the ever popular now's just not a good time if that is something that you can catch yourself saying quite often there's a good chance that number three believing success brings a greater burden could be your hidden barrier so the final one the fourth upper limit problem is the fear of outshining others now this one is going to have a lot of people with their thumb and their

Starting point is 00:15:55 mouth about their parents. Someone with this hidden barrier may have feelings of guilt around breaking through and excelling. They may even have this feeling of worry that their success will make others feel inadequate. That's what outshining means. Now, why would we feel that way? Once again, this is a symptom and a side effect, most likely, and a result of the programming and hardwiring that our brains have received from throughout our life, from our mother, father, teacher, preacher, society, and evolution, and life experiences. If you're feeling this way and you're feeling justified that you should not succeed because it will make others look worse, there's a good chance that you've received that

Starting point is 00:16:39 from your programmers. And we all have to a certain extent. So an example of how this barrier may show up in your life would be noticing that you suppress your talents or avoid showcasing your abilities in order to keep others comfortable. Oh no, no, no, no, don't give me that award or don't give me that opportunity, give it to somebody else. Or it could show up, like I said, in you knowing that you're really good at something, but not applying yourself in it and keeping yourself safe, but also away from making others look bad. So you may also notice that you turn down compliments or words of encouragement and protect it with this idea that

Starting point is 00:17:16 you're just this humble servant and prefer these opportunities and comments and compliments go to someone else more deserving. So those are the four upper limit problems. And I'll just review the names, feeling fundamentally flawed, disloyalty and abandonment, believing success brings a greater burden. And then the fourth, the fear of outshining others. Which one best vibrates with you? Now, here are my major lessons and takeaways from this book. He talks about this idea of living in the zone of genius. And here are my thoughts on that. Everyone, you included, me included, has a zone of genius, a superpower perhaps, where they excel naturally and feel fulfilled. Everyone, you might not think it, but everyone has a zone of genius. Identify what it is that you love and do exceptionally

Starting point is 00:18:03 well. There's got to be something. You might not think it's important, but there's something that you love and do exceptionally well. Then prioritize living and working in that zone, exploiting it, perhaps. A reflection of one of the primary core tenants of what we call the Make Sense Academy, and that's my passion project, our private community, one of our primary core tenants there is that it's who you are that determines how well what you do works. So by identifying your zone of genius and exploiting your efforts within it, which would be the most effective high leverage use of your time, you'll find that the results that you see start flowing to you as if you were some sort of irresistible magnet with the absolute power to attract everything that you desire. It's one of my

Starting point is 00:18:47 daily affirmations that I say every day. So here's my second takeaway. Identifying the upper limit problem itself. Self-sabotage occurs when we unconsciously limit our success to stay in our comfort zone. This is where the whole idea of being in your own way emerges. Self-sabotage occurs when we unconsciously limit our success to stay in our comfort zone, not our zone of genius. And we say things like, I know, I just got to get out of my own way. That's a choice to be in your own way. You're in your way for a reason. By learning how to identify your patterns of self-sabotage, such as procrastination,

Starting point is 00:19:26 conflict, or fear, you can position yourself to consciously shift and learn to navigate through them. I often remind people how the universe has mysteriously placed everything. that we desire inconveniently on the other side of a big pile of shit. So it's only when you learn to identify the shit. You have to see that it's there that you can actually break through it to the other side. If you don't know that there's a barrier limiting you, then how would you ever know how to break through it? Any doors fans out there pick that up, break on through to the other side? Another interesting correlation here is the Buddhist concept that I learned called the gateless gate.

Starting point is 00:20:07 And this brings to light that there's this self-sabotized, but also self-fabrication of imaginary barriers that you use as the reason that you won't move forward. So a lot of times you'll notice, and this is highly conscious thought, that these barriers that you identify, you've actually placed them there to hold you back. And that's typically correlated with that one of the success being at the expense of being a burden. So this reminds us that self-sabotage is often self-fabrication. Meaning, barriers often don't in fact exist outside of our perception and imagination that they do. So number three, replacing fear with curiosity. This is a big one, and we do this a lot in our Make Sense Academy. Fear often underlies upper limit problems.

Starting point is 00:20:54 So behind the upper limit problem is fear. Hendricks suggests that if we replace fear with curiosity and openness, instead of avoiding discomfort, explore what it actually reveals about our goal. growth opportunities. This is the obstacle is the way. So many things connected to this takeaway help me create the Make Sense Academy and the interface response system. To name a few things that you probably are aware of that come from this or that are connected to this, like I said before, having a different relationship with challenges. We teach in the Make Sense Academy this idea of flipping a switch from becoming a participant to just an observer. We like to look at this idea of just

Starting point is 00:21:35 changing your strategy to simply observing these things that are happening rather than participating in them. It's kind of like being in a movie, watching a movie with popcorn in your hand. You're just observing you're not buying into anything. Or perhaps you could look at adversities and challenges that come in your life, the likes of watching clouds passing by in the field of view in the sky. So replacing fear, worry, and concern with curiosity allows us to approach all things with wonder and question what they actually mean for us. So we teach a very, very simple strategy and approach to this in Make Sense Academy, and now you guys kind of know where some of it came from.

Starting point is 00:22:16 The key to being curious and questioning these things would be your ability to have a answer that gives you some space between what your knee-jerk reflex would be. So we just teach people to just say, hmm, which by the way, stands for haven't made up my mind yet. So that would be a practice of cognitive distancing, but also a practice of allowing yourself to remain open and curious by not making your mind up so fast about things. This is an interesting concept that I got from Gay Hendricks is that our biggest problem, typical, is this idea that we make up our minds about things too fast. How can you make up your mind about something without looking at it from multiple vantage points? Well, that would be how you protect this programming that you have, and that's the ego. So here's another one.

Starting point is 00:23:02 experiencing success. To move beyond limits, you must allow yourself to feel deserving of success and happiness. That's the first step. Practice self-affirmations and gratitude for your achievements. A lot of people are wishy-washy about affirmations, but why wouldn't you? Is it going to harm you? No. Reenforcing that you are worthy of more. Hendricks has a wonderful analogy here that encourages us to give ourselves a raise. That's how he talks about when you get to that upper limit problem. practice allowing yourself to move a little further beyond it each time when it arises. So the idea is not to just break through it and go up into space, but give yourself a little bit of a raise before you retreat. I love that. That was a big takeaway. Harness the power of

Starting point is 00:23:48 commitment. Bold commitments to your zone of genius can shift your entire trajectory. Decide to focus your time and energy on activities that bring you joy and purpose. So this is the strategy behind my teachings of the power hour and this idea of time blocking and really getting fully, fully engaged in short periods of time and making them high leverage so that you have some free time. This is reflected in another spectacular book. I'll put all the links for these books in the description called The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Lohr and Tony Schwartz, where they use examples like elite athletes like Usain Bolt that demonstrate what's possible if you harness all of your efforts in your zone of genius into high leverage activities in short periods of time. So that would be

Starting point is 00:24:35 something the likes of identifying your superpower. So my last takeaway is the importance of integrity. This is how I succeed at my goals. I put my integrity on the line. Integrity or aligning your thoughts, actions, and values is essential for sustained success. Regularly reflect on whether your actions align with your deepest values and adjust as needed. We teach in our Make Sense Academy. We teach in our Make Sense Academy, members, this concept of going three for three. This is the practice of making a self-assessment of our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and disputing whether or not they are in alignment during any given reality with our goals and our dreams and our highest values. So if you're going three for three, not only are you going to succeed more, but you're going to be successful and succeeding with a high

Starting point is 00:25:23 degree of integrity. A couple of practical applications. Number one, recognize and overcome your upper limit problem. Reflect on which problems resonates with you most. Journal about that specific one and the instances where you held yourself back and strategize how to approach these differently. Cultivate awareness about your zone of genius. Become more conscious and aware of it. Identify tasks and activities where you feel most alive and impactful. This is kind of that flow state thing, learning what you're great at and what brings you the most joy. Dedicate more time to those activities, even if it means delegating or eliminating less fulfilling tasks. That's where minimalism comes from. You might have to get rid of some good for the great. Third, practice

Starting point is 00:26:10 daily affirmations. Once again, I'm a big fan of daily affirmations. It works for me. Repeat affirmations such as I am deserving of love, success and happiness. Why wouldn't you do that? I am an irresistible magnet with the absolute power to attract everything that I desire. Use gratitude, exercise. sizes to appreciate current success and build momentum. Refram fear as growth. The next time that you feel fear, ask this, what opportunity for growth is this fear pointing me towards? Or how is this happening for me rather than to me?

Starting point is 00:26:46 Number five, set bold goals. Write down a big leap goal that challenges your limits, perhaps, and aligns with your zone of genius. Make sure that it aligns with your zone of genius. If you create a big leap goal that is not an alignment with your zone of genius, you're going to be working really hard and getting nowhere slowly. Break it into smaller actionable steps to build confidence and momentum and watch what happens when you are in your zone of genius. So my leftovers. Leftovers are what we end up at the end of a night of eating.

Starting point is 00:27:18 So this is my leftovers of what I ended up with, my insights. The big leap teaches us that breaking through limits is not just about achieving. success. It's very limited. It's about fully embracing joy, creativity, and purpose in your life, which I assume makes the success that we all claim we're seeking conduce into us living an extraordinary life rather than just being successful in the eyes of society. Catch yourself trying to be successful in the eyes of society rather than in your zone of genius. By addressing your upper limit problem and tapping into and committing to your newly discovered zone of genius, you can unlock a life filled with limitless possibilities and potential. Hendricks reminds us that the big leap is both an

Starting point is 00:28:08 internal and external game and journey where living in alignment with your genius is the ultimate path to fulfillment. That is my synopsis on the big leap. If you learn something today, give it away. That's how it's going to stay. I love and appreciate you. Have an amazing day. Bye-bye now. Makes sense.

Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - Making Sense of THE BIG LEAP by Gay Hendricks - Episode 71

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