What This Book Does Best
This book has some big ideas that may sound crazy at first, but if you are open, I believe this book can be truly transformative. I really enjoyed reading it, and felt I found it at the right time. If I read this book 5 years ago, I may not have been open enough to receive it in quite the same way. The core idea is that we are the ones who limit ourselves. Whether that’s in work, love, finances, or any other area of our life. If you’ve ever had that feeling that something bad is bound to follow a good thing, this book explains why. It completely unlocked that feeling for me, and helped me let go of that limiting belief. From “Einstein time” to operating in your “genius zone”, the ideas are bold but clearly explained, without being repetitive.
The Short:
Life changing concepts that can change the way you see yourself.
The Long:
The first major concept this book brings us is the idea of the upper limit problem. The upper limit problem is when we limit our amount of success in work, money, or love once we’ve reached our own capacity. Once we hit it, we are the ones that then subconsciously sabotage ourselves and start to make things go wrong. For example, if a business man becomes very wealthy and successful, he might start to have problems in his relationship because of an inner subconscious belief that he doesn’t deserve to have all these good things. His tolerance for good things has hit a limit, and he ends up sabotaging one area of his life, his relationship. I resonated with this concept because as a kid, I’ve always felt like when a good thing happened to me, I feared around the corner would be a bad thing. After reading this book, I now realize that’s not true, that’s my upper limit problem. A self imposed limit I put on myself because I don’t believe that I deserve too much good. This blew my mind.
Hendricks didn’t stop here though he also describes how living in your zone of genius can radically change the way you work, how much you get done, and how many people you can positively affect. He states that a lot of people will do things they are not good at, or have a job that doesn’t allow them to work with their unique gift. But if you can find work where you can use that gift at, you can make a much greater impact. Operating in this genius zone will allow you to feel as if you are accomplishing what you are meant to. I have definitely worked many jobs in the past where I was forced to operate in a way that was not natural to me, and I could feel the resistance. Working in your zone of genius removes a lot of that friction.
Lastly, the idea of Einstein time, in which you take full responsibility for your own time. Saying you don’t have enough time is really what brings that lack of time to you. This idea was really strange at first, but after getting more into the chapter, I began to really challenge the way I thought about time. I started to see that we really are responsible for our own time, and if we start to take ownership for it, we don’t have to feel like it’s slipping away from us. A lot of times “I’m busy” is really just something we say as an excuse for something we don’t want to do.
This was a quick read and to me this book was life changing. One of those important books you read that really offers you a different perspective on how you are living your life. I’m definitely adding some more Gay Hendricks books to my to read list and will probably read this one again in the future.
Who needs to read this now?
If you are someone who is looking to work through some of your old habits to achieve the things that you want in your life, this book can really help to unblock some deep seeded limiting beliefs. I would recommend it to anyone looking for self improvement.