Season 2: Ep.11 - On the ‘Zone of Genius’
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Hello, and welcome back to Graceful Rulebreakers. I'm your host, Kirsten Lee Hill, and today I want to talk about my, your, our zone of genius, geniuses, mine, yours. So, this week on social media, I announced something that I was kind of stressed about, just because I wasn't sure how it would be received. And I was making up all these stories in my head about what people might think, here's what it was; I announced that I wasn't going to be offering mentoring anymore. And I've done some version of coaching, mentoring around self-care, business, creating change in the world, for a really long time since like 2016, I've had some sort of offering around that. And it was up on my new website as something that, you know, people could still contact me to do, and I decided this week that I wanted to take it down, and it came on the heels of just feeling so overwhelmed on social media, by how many people are coaching and mentoring. And on the one hand, I'm like, Yes, like this is the new, like, what they say gig economy, and people are becoming coaches and doing what they love and helping other people, and that's great. If everyone wants to be a coach, they want to be great, because we need people to do other things too. But if people want to be a coach or a mentor, then good for them. But it's like every day I open up Instagram because that's my like social media of choice, other than TikTok, which I just love for entertainment, but I'll be on Instagram for business and I get ad after ad, like, money mindset coach, business coach, abundance coach, like, confidence coach, all these different kinds of coaches and mentors, and it was just really starting to grate on me. And in some cases, it bugged me because I would dig into these people and their credentials and be like, how is this person a business coach, when they've never run a business, they don't have a background in business, other than launching their business as a business coach. And for me, that's something that just doesn't quite sit right.
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Like, if you studied business and had a lot of experiences and, you know, the corporate world or whatever, and then decided to be a business coach, it's like, okay, well, you have the experience to be a business coach, right? So, that makes sense to me, and for some people, that's totally the case. And for other people, I just find myself wanting to know more about what gives them the experience to essentially be an authority and expert and advise other people in these spaces. And so that brought me to this following idea, which is; what is it to be an expert? And for me, I think that there are four things that you need in order to be considered an expert. One is depth of knowledge, like, you have to know a lot about the subject. Yes, personal experience, personal experience is so great and important. But I think there's also something to being well read in the area, like, you know, what's up, you know what other people have done in this space, you're familiar with what works, what doesn't, you're familiar with the research, it's not just your point of view, right? We live in such a complex, diverse, incredible world. Don't teach, like, just from your point of view, right? Be able to understand and speak to all the points of views out there, right? And to me, this doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have a degree or a certificate. Sometimes this depth of knowledge can be self-taught, right? Through reading books, or, you know, taking free courses online or you know, YouTube videos, whatever it is, but you get this really deep, deep content, knowledge, expertise. I think you need that to be an expert.
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Hours. Let's, I mean, honestly, you know, you read the books - I wish I could come up with one off the top of my head, but there are books about how many hours you have to spend in order to be an expert on something. And I think there really is something to this putting in the time and the practice. Like, this isn't your first rodeo. You've done hours and hours of this work, right? Like you've practiced, and I think that's something for me, like, in an expert, I want someone who's done this and I totally get everyone has to start somewhere, like, at some point, people were hiring me and I didn't have a tonne of hours. But I had a tonne of training hours and depth of knowledge, so I could, like, offset that a little bit. But I think that time is a really important factor. Thirdly, results. I honestly always look for people to show numbers or examples that build trust and credibility. This goes back to the example I just gave of, you know, I came across a person who's, you know, being a business coach, and their background isn't in business. And the only business they've ever run is this one, they started to be a business coach, and to me, if that's going to be you, like, show me the results, show me some numbers that demonstrate: hey, even though this is the first business I've ever run, and I'm not classically trained in business, look at these results I get, right? Because then that's more compelling. I still think the depth of knowledge and hours is important. But you can start to build a case with results. I think, at some point, you don't just want to say yes, I'm well read, yes, I know my stuff, yes, I've spent all this time, you could have all of those things and still really suck at something right? Like, you want to be able to point to some results that you're actually able to create positive changes.
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And lastly, this is what I want to spend this episode talking about. The fourth thing I look for is this person's zone of genius. I don't want to learn from anyone who is doing something that is not their thing, I don't care how great they are at it. If it is not the one thing that lights them up, that they are truly amazing, put here on this earth to do - they are not the expert for me, they are not the teacher for me. I want someone who is operating in their zone of genius, and that's what I'm super excited to dig into today. Because that's the reason I took mentoring off my website. I tell you all what, I'm okay at mentoring. I enjoy mentoring to an extent. But I am not the best at mentoring. Same with self-care, like, I have spent a lot of time teaching myself about self-care, I have multiple yoga certifications, like, I have experienced in that space. But it's not my thing, at least right now, right? This could grow and change, I could become more of an expert in that space. But it is not my zone of genius to be a mentor, and therefore in my opinion, I have no business selling people mentorships, that is not my zone of genius, I need to, like, get out of that business, and by getting out of that business, I can step into what I truly was put here to do.
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So, let's talk about these zones. Let's talk about where this comes from. This all comes from a book called The Big Leap by Gay Henderson. And I first read The Big Leap, no joke, I went on Amazon to verify that this was true; I first read The Big Leap in 2015, and I have read The Big Leap at least once a year, or listened to an audible to be specific, ever since then. And I'm re-reading it right now, I just gifted it to someone the other week, I think this book is incredible. I love it. If you read the big leap, you will learn about these zones that we operate in. So, there are four zones. One of them is the zone of genius. But I want to go through the other ones first, because we tend to be in the other ones, not the zone of genius. So first up, we have the zone of incompetence. And to put that simply, the zone of incompetence is things you're not good at, like, other people can do those things better. You should not waste your time on those things. And I always think about this, like, if I don't like I dropped my iPhone and cracked it the other day, and like trying to repair a cracked iPhone is a zone of incompetence for me, I have no idea how to repair the glass, on the back, I don't, like, I could watch YouTube, but there are literally YouTube videos about how to do it yourself, I could watch them and do it yourself. But it's my zone of incompetence, it is not the best use of my time, it will take me 10 plus times longer than it would take an expert. That is the thing that I am not good at.
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Then we have the zone of competence. And the zone of competence is something like you're competent at it, like, you can do it, you know how to do it, you're able to do it. But other things can do them just as well as you, and that's also probably, like, not the best use of your time and for zone of competence, for me, I think about like math, which is so basic in general, but to put it a little more advanced, I think about in my field, you know, I'm a researcher, data analysis, I am competent at data analysis, I learned how to do it, I can do it, I can do the coding, I can, you know, run regressions, I can interpret the results. But other people can do it just as well as me. And then there are people who are like, phenomenal at it, right? Like, that is my zone, it's a zone of competence, maybe some types of stats, that's excellence. But I, you know, I'm gonna say competence, right? You know, I can do it, other people can do just as well, possibly even better.
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Then we have the zone of excellence. And this is where many of us operate, the zone of excellence, consists of all the activities that you do extremely well, these are things that can make you a very good living, they can bring you fame, they can make you quote, unquote, accessible, so accessible, oh my gosh, they can make you successful. Like, these are things like gold star, it's even, like, beyond gold star, like, you are really excellent at these things, right? People might seek you out to be able to do this. And so I think a lot of us, and other people think this too, which is why people write books on it, get stuck in this zone of excellence. And it's comfortable here, because we're really good at whatever it is that we're doing. And other people are affirming that we're really good at it. So for me in my life, an example of me being in my zone of excellence is like, I love this example, because this happens to my sister too, is like project management. Whenever I'm on a team and working on a team, I make the agendas, I send the recap notes, I make the PowerPoint deck presentations, and I will say, I am excellent at all of that. It's very organised, it's accessible. It looks good, it's aesthetically pleasing. Like, I am excellent at all those things. And people love that I do them, right? And people, like, oh my gosh, she's the best, I'm probably not the best see zone of genius. None of those things are my zone of genius. But I'm excellent at them. And if we want to go to, like, a more advanced level, I would even think about, like, running traditional research studies or doing traditional research, I would say that's something that I do extremely well, and people seek me out for it, and I enjoy it to some extent. But none of those things are my zone of genius, right? Excellence and genius are not the same thing. And here's the difference. Your zone of genius is something that is unique to you, like, your special gifts, your special strengths. Me creating like a super cool agenda and PowerPoint, that's not my special gift and strength, and it's not because I've seen some PowerPoints that are way better than what I've created. But it also doesn't light me up, right? And I think the thing about the zone of genius and zone of excellence, and unpacking where you're living and why you're there in that zone, is it's not necessarily a judgement on the activities, right? It's like everyone has their own thing that they're good at. It's a judgement about how you feel, doing the activities? And like, is this something that only you can do? As a small business owner, I think about this a lot. Is this something only I can do? Or could I hire someone else to do it just as well as me?
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And the zone of excellence, the question is a little bit different because you're doing it, excellent. So, maybe you can't find someone right now, who would do it just as well as you. But could you find someone else who could do it and it wouldn't really make a difference? Like, does it have to be you? The zone of genius the idea is, that has to be you, like, you are so unique, so special, so talented in that space, that is the thing you should be doing. And when you do it, you lose all track of time and you're just like so engaged, and so in it. You're in flow, right? Like, that is the zone of genius. You're in alignment with your values. You're excellent at it. But you're also, you're special, right? Like, you're unique in your approach to it. And some people, myself included, like, might think - so why aren't we all living in our zone of genius? For me, I come at this from the lens of graceful rule breaking, right? Zone of excellence is very comfortable. I'm doing very traditional jobs, traditional tasks, I'm not really like pushing any controversial boundaries, like doing what I was taught to do. I'm doing a great job, I'm like, stepping into my perfectionist self a little bit. But too much probably, like I'm being excellent. Whereas this zone of genius, to move into that requires this book and calls it like The Big Leap, right? Like this leap of faith, this belief that, like, actually, I can do this thing that I really love, and I'm good at. And like, it's unique and it's special, and like, I can do that thing and live a great life and that, I don't have to just stick to what I, what I've always known, or what I excel at, in the more traditional sense. And in The Big Leap, one of the reasons that Gay Hendricks talks about that holds us back from getting to the zone of genius is the idea of upper limiting. And that's when we believe that things can only be so good, and so when things start to feel too good to us, like, this feels too good to be true, this feels too good to be true. We start to sabotage ourselves, like we get in fights, or we get sick, or you know, we break something, like, things happen to, like, bring us back down to that upper limit of happiness, of wealth, of success, of feeling good, we get that upper limit. So we, like, bring us back down to the level that we're comfortable with. And a lot of that book and a lot of the work that I'm doing now in my life, is to get more comfortable allowing more goodness into my life, right? Like, raising, being able to transcend past the upper limit.
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And when I think about stepping into my zone of genius, some of the things I'm wrestling with right now, that I remember wrestling with every time I read this, is figuring out exactly what it is that only I can do. And to be totally transparent with you all, again, I've read this book since 2015. And I'm still not entirely certain what my zone of genius is, I think I get closer every time I read the book, which is good. So maybe this time around, I will have more clarity. But I really truthfully struggle with it, because I'm so used to doing things that are more so that zone of excellence, like, things that I am very good at, I'm highly skilled, they're pretty easy to me, because I'm highly skilled, but I don't love them. They don't light me up, like, maybe they're like, hey, like, I like doing it. But there's just this piece missing. And the piece that's missing is like this idea of working in the flow, and once you find something that you do, and you're just really in the flow and totally immersed. Suddenly, you just have this moment of click, I think where it's like, oh, wow, I've been operating in my zone of excellence, and this happens to me every time, I have the opportunity to review someone's surveys or like, critique and offer feedback on papers and analysis plans, and reports on instruments. I always have this moment of like, wow, I am so good at this. Like, I look like I'm so good at this. I love doing it. It's so fun, and I just get totally lost. Like, I love just immersing myself in, like, revising surveys and research, and putting in feedback and ideas. And I love being in meetings like that. I love doing it like pen to paper. I love doing it. You know, in Google Docs, it's just something that, that probably is my zone of genius.
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And I always just think in the back of my head though, but like, who, like, what I'm gonna have a business where I'm just like, hey, like I critique your stuff, I critique your stuff and make it better. And you know, maybe that's what I ought to do. But that just seems so non-traditional, and typically the pushback that I get is people want to hire for data analysis. They want a dashboard, they want data analysis, they want someone to like run the whole thing for them and not take their input and all these pieces, and I would be excellent at all of those things. But that's not really my zone of genius. Like, it wouldn't completely light me up to do that, because that's not actually how I know in a values aligned way, would approach that work. And that's okay, do I still do projects like that? Yes, because I still operate in my zone of excellence a lot of the time, but I hope to move more into my zone of genius. And it's funny because as I was saying that I was like, man, I really, really don't know, and I feel like I've written down so many times when I'm reading this book, that zone of genius is like critiquing. And I'm like, gosh, how do I make that more palatable, because that just seems like, like poking holes in other people's ideas and arguments. Like, gosh, that seems like such a drag of a zone of genius. So, that's me being judgmental about myself in real time, transparency, but I'm going to keep digging into this, I'm going to keep wrestling with this, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to not wrestle with it, I'm gonna try to let it go, and just see what happens. And the message here, similar to many of the messages on this podcast are, you know, follow what feels good, and try to do more of what feels good. And just be aware of the things that light you up, and that are so easy for you, that come so naturally to you, and be open to having more of that in your life, we do not have to struggle. And I think, at least the way I grew up is like climb the ladder, sometimes, most of the time, you have to do things that suck and that you don't like, and that aren't you and that's okay, because then one day, you'll be at the top of the ladder, and you can do whatever you want. And I think this is like an old, outdated way of thinking and we can operate in our zone of genius. It takes a leap of faith. It takes, you know, continuing to work and get clarity, and trust and I'm in it right now, so we will see how it continues to evolve.
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But, I was excited to share this today. Hopefully some of this resonated with you. Thank you for listening. I really appreciate y'all and just you know, be open to discovering your zone of genius and see what stepping into that, see what changes that brings about in your life.