In the Hot Seat: Gay Hendricks, Author of ‘The Big Leap’
In his bestseller The Big Leap, author Gay Hendricks says discovering our genius is the key to reaching our potential. In the Talent Development Hot Seat with Host Andy Storch, Hendricks tells us how to find it.
"Fasten your seatbelts, because it's so simple but so powerful that almost nobody takes me up on my invitation to do it," he says. Here's a video clip from the podcast:
When I go and consult with a C.E.O. of a corporation, sometimes I come in and I'll work with some person for a day about a particular issue, and I spend all day with them, and they have to pay a lot of money for that. But whether I'm working with that person who's paying me a lot of money for it or some person sitting next to me in an airplane seat that's asking me stuff for free, I'm always going to be after helping them have a breakthrough to their creativity.
And when they ask my advice on how to do it, I say, 'Here's the way to find your genius. Today, or tomorrow, but pencil that into your calendar, 10 minutes, I want you to go in a room by yourself for 10 minutes and do nothing but wonder about, "Hmmm... what is my genius. Hmmmm.... what is my genius?" And I want you to say that sentence out loud, and I want you to say it in your mind, but don't bother to do anything else. You know you might get off on a difference chain of thoughts, that's okay, but come back to that. Use it like a mantra. "Hmmmm.... what is my genius?" '
Next, I give them the assignment, you can get this in The Big Leap, but this is the advice I give right here in my office, whether it's a C.E.O. or some high school senior who's got a glitch of some kind. It's to ask yourself, "What do I most love to do?" Again, it's worth going in a room for 10 minutes and just, "Hmmmmm... what do I most love to do? Hmmmmm... what do I most love to do?"
So, spend 10 minutes wondering, pure wonder about it. Nobody who's ever done that has ever come back to me and told me me it didn't work. It works. It's just that it's so powerful that most people won't get around to doing it.
There's a great philosopher of several hundred years ago who said, Blaise Pascal was his name, a French philosopher, and he said that, "All of humankind's troubles stem from the inability to sit in a room by ourselves for 10 minutes doing nothing."
So I want people to go in a room by themselves for 10 minutes, but I want you to do something. I want you to cultivate wonder because wonder is the gateway to creativity.
In one of Einstein's notebooks, Andy, there's a a passage about a question in theoretical physics that he wondered about every day for 27 years. He wondered about it for 27 years! You know, he just pondered it in his mind. To me, that's absolutely stunning because most people don't wonder for 10 seconds about whether they want to go to McDonald's or Burger King.
It's sacred territory, is wonder, because it opens you up to this new world of creativity.
–Dr. Gay Hendricks
More about Dr. Hendricks
Dr. Gay Hendricks has been a leader in the fields of relationship and bodymind transformation for more than 45 years. After earning his PhD from Stanford in 1974, he served as professor of counselling psychology at the University of Colorado for 21 years. He has also written more than 40 books including best-sellers Five Wishes, The Big Leap, Conscious Loving, and New Conscious Loving Ever After. The last two books were co-authored by his wife of more than 35 years, Dr. Kathlyn Hendricks. He has also appeared in more than 500 radio and television shows including Oprah, CNN, CNBC, and 48 Hours.
Here's the full episode:
Highlights
- Gay's origin story
- His entrepreneurial roots
- Reason he trained in psychology
- His advice when it comes to finding one’s spark of genius
- On building things up incrementally
- The idea of Einstein time
- It's all a matter of priority
- The life lesson he mentioned in his book
- Einstein Time: When you are doing what you most love, time becomes your friend and you have all the time you need
- People are often waiting for time to let them do what they want to do
- Having enough time all comes down to priorities and how you spend your time
- When you spend your time in your zone of genius, you have all the time you need
- Importance of prioritizing your creativity
- The importance of living in “a state of completion” where there is nothing unsaid
- Advice for entrepreneurs: carve out time to devote to your zone of genius
Are you listening?
Sponsored by Advantage Performance Group, the Talent Development Hot Seat podcast features interviews and insights from leading talent development professionals and company executives who are passionate about developing their people. Host Andy Storch asks guests to share some of their successes, failures, challenges, and advice for others as well as what trends they are seeing in the industry. More than 1,000 downloads in its first month!
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