Living from your Zone of Genius

By Lian Brook-Tyler

The different zones from Incompetence to Genius are something that the Waking The Wild Medicine ‘22 circle are in the enquiry of right now.

The method comes from Gay Hendrick’s book The Big Leap, and the different zones could be described thus:

1. Zone of Incompetence: Activities that other people can do better than you.

2. Zone of Competence: Activities that you do just fine, but others are as good as you at them.

3. Zone of Excellence: Activities that you are excellent at — better than most, in fact — but that you don’t love doing.

4. Zone of Genius: Activities that you are uniquely brilliant, and that you love to do, so much so, that time and space likely disappear to you when you do them.

The Medicine circle will soon realise that choosing to live in one’s Zone of Genius often requires making hard choices, being willing to be seen as inept, diva-esque or selfish, and most certainly requires actually taking actions, however scary, from your ZoG.

As ever, I go first to light the way.

In addition to the challenges I’ve already mentioned, one of the consequences of focusing on being in my Zone of Genius I’m noticing recently is that my tolerance for anything other than that seems to be reducing rapidly.

As I move more and more into my Zone of Genius, am SO grateful for the people around me - my family, friends and team - who help me to create this kind of life by supporting me in the places that are in my other zones, and in particular the Incompetence and Competence zones which are becoming intolerable.

In particular today, I’m feeling so blessed for WTW team member, Bex, who gets umpteen voice messages from me a day about the things that are so far outside my ZoG that they exist on a planet whose air I can’t breathe.

The things in my Zone of Incompetence: are things that most people find easy (for example: organising my diary - at the moment Bex is having to work literal magic to find space for people in my jam-packed pre-rebirth diary, and calling companies to organise my phone contract or book my car in for a service), but they’re things that feel like someone is draining my blood, and not even in the appealing way that some vampires provide.

I so appreciate retaining my life blood to spill into the creation of an enchanted life for me and those around me.

What’s in your Zone of Genius - and are you choosing to create your life there?
💖

Photo: me luxuriating in the pure, virginal ground of my genius.

P.S. link below to a podcast where I spoke more about the ZoG.

 
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