5 tools to help you find your Zone of Genius ✨

In my post I shared about the Zone of Genius, a theory developed by Gay Hendricks, a psychologist, writer and teacher. If you haven’t got the chance to read it yet, I’d recommend reading it first. You can find it over here.

In short, there are four different zones of function: the zone of incompetence, the zone of competence, the zone of excellence and the zone of genius. The zone of genius is the area where we’re our most powerful self. It’s where we can find and connect with our brilliance, our gifts, our spark, our passion. It’s the thing that we cannot not do.

It’s what comes most naturally to us, but we’ll still need (and want!) to develop and sharpen it. It’s where we shine and our soul soars. It’s where we experience awe, grace, a sense of ‘inner wow’ and ‘flow’.

Our area of genius is not a job title or an occupation. It is a precision, distillation and formulation of what brings us meaning, our personal "why" and can be manifested in different areas of our lives in different ways throughout our lives.

It’s the intersection between our gifts/abilities + our spark/passion/joy + our contribution.

So how do we start exploring our zone of genius?

In Hendricks' book, he asks you to consider the following questions:

"What work do you do that doesn't seem like work?"
"In your work, what produces the highest ratio of abundance and satisfaction to the amount of time spent?"
"What is your unique ability?"

I’m adding a few more questions of my own:

What's easy for you but hard for others? (your 'piece of cake')
What are the places where you can't not butt in?
When are you most in flow? When are you so absorbed in a task that you lose track of time?

Who are you jealous of?

Jealousy is often an emotion we tend to repress, to push away, because we feel ashamed of experiencing it. But like all emotions, jealousy has a function, too. It points us towards a direction. It holds information about what we want and what we’re capable of doing. We do not envy anyone who is more beautiful, more successful, smarter or richer than us. Our objects of jealousy trigger the feeling in us of "I want this too" or "this is something I could have done too". And so, in fact, they tell us about our zone of genius. When we see something we admire in someone else, it’s because it’s a reflection of our own truth. It shows us what’s inherent in us but is currently unexpressed. When we acknowledge and accept our feelings of jealousy towards others, it can turn into inspiration, and those people become our role models or even mentors. When I realised that I was jealous of people who do what lights them up from inside and do it in their own way, I knew that starting my own business as a coach was my way to go.

What’s most burning for you to learn and develop in yourself? What did you overcome/survive?

People who’ve been through something, learned a heck of a lot along the way, often find themselves on fire to share what they’ve learned. Maybe, like best-selling author Kris Carr, who lived through cancer and wrote books and created documentaries about her path to health, you’ve overcome a hardship and feel called to share about it with others? Sometimes what’s most important for us to learn personally is exactly the thing that’s burning in us to teach others. My experience over the last decade was an uncompromising desire to find my path, my truth, and how to express it in my life. It’s a topic that fascinates me and an ongoing research I can’t get enough of, and it’s what I guide and support my clients to do, too. What are the moments in life when you felt fully ALIVE, when you experienced a sense of ‘inner-wow?

Think about moments in your life when you had a thrilling, powerful, graceful, magical, full of awe, inner experience. A moment when you felt like things couldn’t get better. Moments in which you felt an inner sense of pride and satisfaction, that had nothing to do with external validation or praise (even if there was such cognition, it’s important to separate the pleasure that comes from external approval and the pleasure that comes from the doing). Through coaching others to connect with their own brilliance, to find their zone, I’ve observed that there’s always a pattern, a thread that connects these peak moments. Some soar when they connect with people, helping them feel better. Others find they are great at managing crises. There are those who’re surprised to find that their "thing" involves making knowledge accessible to others and their ability to explain complex ideas, and there are people who shine when they’re making something with their hands. What is your recurring pattern? The thread that connects all these moments together Finally, however you decide to explore this, the most essential, important tool is your own body. Using your body as a compass to feel into what lights you up and ignites your spark, and what turns you off and sucks the life out of you. I’ve written a little more about it on this Instagram post. If you feel called to go on this journey of self discovery, of igniting your spark, distilling your brilliance and discovering your magic trifecta (abilities + passion + contribution), and discovering how to implement it in real life, I’m here to guide you to find your “thing”. It’s a journey. An inner journey that requires both listening and unlearning. In this journey I take you through exercises, visualisations and practices that are designed to awaken what has been lying dormant. I reflect back to you and help you see what you might not be able to see for yourself. I help you remove your blocks and move past your limiting beliefs and empower you to trust yourself. If your heart feels pulled to do this work, fill out this application form and we’ll schedule a discovery session to find out if we’re a good fit. Love,