- “The theme was “If it weren’t for _______________, I could be doing what I really want to do.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks)- Page 117
- “What was especially striking to me was that the professors envied the private-practice people, who in turn were envious of the professors. From the professors’ viewpoint, the private-practice people had it made, with their big salaries, plush offices, and absence of faculty meetings. To the private-practice crowd, though, the professors were the ones with the cushy jobs. They got a steady paycheck, free office space, short hours, and plenty of time to write. As the evening wore on, I listened to one tale of thwarted hopes after another. Finally I was jolted by an insight: none of these complaints were actually caused by pigheaded bureaucrats, lack of parking spaces, ungrateful clients, or anything of the sort. In other words, none of these brilliant, well-meaning people were upset for the reasons they thought they were. Their complaints were all symptoms of not taking the Big Leap! From this perspective, every story took on a different meaning,” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks)- Highlight on Page 117
- “Most people have a carefully crafted, well-justified story about why they can’t take their Big Leap. For one person it was about the family: “I can’t possibly take the time to write [“make a video,” etc.] because my family needs me.” For another person it was about stress: “I tried getting up at 5 a.m. for a while to work on my book, but I couldn’t do that and do a good job with my 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. therapy clients.” For others it was purely about the money: “I can’t do what I really want to do because I might not make as much money doing it.” As I listened to these stories, I would sometimes hear the real fears emerge. There is a huge fear underneath every complaint: If I took the Big Leap into my Zone of Genius, I might fail. What if I really opened up to my true genius and found that my genius wasn’t good enough? Better to keep the genie in the bottle and coast along in the Zone of Excellence. That way I don’t have to risk taking a Big Leap and finding it isn’t good enough. That way I don’t have to risk discovering the ugly possibility that I don’t have a Zone of Genius.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks)- Highlight on Page 119
- “I don’t have time to do that right now. Like many of us, you probably use it often. Based on what you’ve learned in this chapter, you can probably now see that it’s a lie. It’s a lie for two reasons: First, time is not something you have or don’t have. You’re the source of it, and you make as much of it as you want. Second, when you say, “I don’t have time to do that right now,” you’re telling a polite lie to avoid saying, “I don’t want to do that right now.” By placing the blame on time, you avoid confronting the blunt truth of the matter.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks)- Highlight on Page 180
- “Imagine that you have an eight-year-old child who comes in while you’re working on something and says, “Will you play catch with me?” You reply, “I don’t have time to do that right now.” Imagine, though, that the child comes in and says, “I just stepped on a nail and my foot is bleeding. Can you help me?” You probably wouldn’t say, “I don’t have time to do that right now.” In actuality, you have exactly the same amount of time as when you used the excuse of lack of time to avoid playing catch. The truth of the matter is that you didn’t want to play catch and you do want to stop the bleeding. By using time as the culprit, you place yourself in the victim position once again. You did it to be polite. (By the way, I’m not advocating that you be blunt with anyone, especially eight-year-old children. I’m advocating that you stop using time or lack of time as an excuse. It’s just as polite to say to your child, “I want to finish what I’m working on before I play catch,” rather than claiming to be the victim of time.)” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks)- Highlight on Page 180
- “Keep your mind positive by accepting complete responsibility for yourself and for everything that happens to you. Refuse to criticize others, complain, or blame others for anything. Resolve to make progress rather than excuses. Keep your thoughts and your energy focused forward, on what you can do right now to improve your life, and let the rest go.” Eat That Frog, Brian Tracy, Page 88
- “Most people have a carefully crafted, well-justified story about why they can’t take their Big Leap. For one person it was about the family: “I can’t possibly take the time to write [“make a video,” etc.] because my family needs me.” For another person it was about stress: “I tried getting up at 5 a.m. for a while to work on my book, but I couldn’t do that and do a good job with my 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. therapy clients.” For others it was purely about the money: “I can’t do what I really want to do because I might not make as much money doing it.” As I listened to these stories, I would sometimes hear the real fears emerge. There is a huge fear underneath every complaint: If I took the Big Leap into my Zone of Genius, I might fail. What if I really opened up to my true genius and found that my genius wasn’t good enough? Better to keep the genie in the bottle and coast along in the Zone of Excellence. That way I don’t have to risk taking a Big Leap and finding it isn’t good enough. That way I don’t have to risk discovering the ugly possibility that I don’t have a Zone of Genius.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 119
- “Her reply was the key to resolving the whole issue. She said, “But I can’t sit down to write unless I’ve got a clean house and things are taken care of.” “Sure, you can,” I said. “You just think you have to get that other stuff done first. Where did you get an idea like that?” She said, “But what if my husband came back from work and found a dirty house and me sitting up there writing?” “He’d find a wife who put a higher priority on her creative expression than she did on keeping the house clean. Do you think he’d be upset about that?” “Not really,” she said. “I think he’d actually like it.” As our conversation developed, it became clear that she was holding herself hostage to housework for Upper Limit reasons. Nancy’s unconscious mind had constructed a doom scenario of what would occur if she went all the way into her Zone of Genius. In her imagination, if she put her full attention into her writing, she’d neglect her family, and they would languish in the absence of her attention. Nancy began to see the absurdity of that way of thinking. She also discovered the real fear that was underneath it all: that if she made a big commitment to her creativity, she might fail on a bigger scale. If she stayed small, she could avoid the possibility of big rejection.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 129
- “Someone is watching and that’s a fact, Someone will copy the way that you act. So make this your motto and put it to use, Be someone’s example and not their excuse!” – Anonymous