"“There’s only one way to get through the fog of fear, and that’s to transform it into the clarity of exhilaration.”"- The Big Leap, page 17
Want to know how we’re held back? Each of us possesses an inner thermostat setting that determines how much love, success and creativity we allow ourselves to enjoy. When we exceed this ceiling, we typically follow big leaps forward with equally big mess-ups.
Why does this happen? According to Hendricks, the false foundation beneath the Upper Limit Problem is a set of four hidden barriers based on fear. Though they appear true, they’re not real. Unconsciously believing them holds us back:
"“If you are keenly interested in taking your Big Leap, you will want to examine everything that brings you pain and suffering as a potential Upper Limit Problem.”"- The Big Leap, page 90
When we review these barriers in the light of day, they may seem rather kooky. Yet, if we’re not vigilant to spot them, they’ll stop us dead in our tracks. In turn, once we notice how our particular version of the Upper Limit Problem operates, we gain a navigational tool for life.
So, what are the common ways we crimp our flow of positive energy? They include: worry, criticism and blame, deflection, squabbling, getting sick or hurt, hiding significant feelings or not speaking important truths to relevant people plus not keeping agreements.
Number one is worry. Let’s examine it more closely. When things are going well, we start worrying about things going wrong, justifying further similar thoughts. Soon we’re busily devolving toward imminent doom. To countermand this tendency, here are some action steps we can take right away:
I let myself feel it deeply for as long as I can (to increase tolerance for feeling good).
"“The goal in life is not to attain some imaginary ideal; it is to find and fully use our own gifts.”"- The Big Leap, page 19
How about we now bump up things substantially? As Hendricks asserts, everything so far has been about hops. Our life’s Big Leap is discovering our Zone of Genius:
Here are some reflections to ignite you in committing to your Genius:
By age forty, many tune into the Call to Genius through loud, repeated alarms in the form of depression, illness and relationship conflict. Take Bill – a brilliant 43-year-old who longed to pursue a new project but whose company couldn’t “afford” to lose him for seven months. In his first session, he told Gay he would “try” to at least spend an hour a day on his idea, offering to schedule a second when “things slowed down a little”.
Admittedly, in a world fraught with hurtful adversity, choosing to feel good all the time is a genuinely radical act. Are you willing? I am. Let’s none of us become Bill, who died of a massive heart attack a few weeks after his first appointment.
Gay Hendricks has served for more than thirty years as one of the major contributors to the fields of relationship transformation and body-mind therapies. Throughout his career, Dr. Hendricks has coached more than eight hundred executives, including the top management at firms such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and KLM. Along with his wife, Dr. Kathlyn Hendricks, he has coauthored many books including Conscious Loving, The Corporate Mystic, and his latest, the New York Times bestseller Five Wishes, which has been translated into seventeen languages. Dr. Hendricks received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Stanford University. After a twenty-one-year career as a professor at the University of Colorado, he founded the Hendricks Institute, which offers seminars in North America, Asia, and Europe. He is also a founder of The Spiritual Cinema Circle. In recent years his passion has been writing a new series of mystery novels featuring the Tibetan Buddhist private detective, Tenzing Norbu. Ten’s first adventure was The First Rule Of Ten, followed by The Second Rule Of Ten and more to come.
