Big Leap EP#43 - Getting Into Your CREATIVE Genius Zone

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This is Gay Hendricks, and welcome to the Big Leap podcast. We're exploring some really unique territory in this episode. A lot around how to get into your own creative genius, how to open up a dialogue with your genius. So that stays online 24 hours a day, and it's effortless for you. So it's a very exciting set of things from my new book, the Genius Zone. Really looking forward to having you dive into this with us.

All right, there's a couple of really cool things that Gay is going to share today. One of them is the distinction between true creativity and ordinary creativity. He also has a unique way to access creativity, and on something he wants to share with you on how to master, it's something called the Genius move. So there's a lot of great information in this podcast. I know you're going to love it, and we'll see you on the inside.

So how do you get and stay inside your creative genius zone? That's what this episode is all about. It is a continuation of the last episode we did. Gay Hendrix just came out with a brand new book, your Genius Zone. So, Gay, why don't you talk a little bit about what we're going to be sharing in this episode and what you're so excited about, and then I've got a series of questions already prepared for you today.

Thanks, Mike. Well, one thing I'm really excited about is that in. In working with thousands of different people using these different tools, one thing that I've been able to really discover that surprised me is that we get dozens, if not hundreds of opportunities on a daily, hourly basis. Basically opportunities to open up to our genius. And I've coined a new term in the Big Leap. You know, we have this term the upper limit problem, and a lot of people call that an ULP U L P like op and so an upper limit problem. But I've coined a new word to replace an upper limit problem is a olo, which is an upper limit opportunity where you.

Oh, I like that a lot better.

Yeah, you hit. Hit an olo, which is kind of like.

A little sign that says speed bump. Slow down. And so you kind of carefully go over the speed bump rather than plowing right over it at 60 miles an hour and rattling your teeth. And so you get all these little moments in life which look like upper limits, but they're really invitations to let your genius shine through. And so I show a bunch of tools on how to do that in the book. But the main idea that I really want to get to people is that you get these dozens of opportunities and I can detail what some of them are so you'll know what to look for.

Okay, and I'm going to just ask you this. So when I. When it's an ula, that's the ulo. Okay. So in ulo, an opportunity, it sounds really like it's a reframe. So instead of an upper limit problem, you list it as an opportunity and a way to engage your creative juices. Is that correct? Am I interpreting that properly?

Yes, yes. And the book will show you some ways of reframing that. But, you know, it's really so important in life to. I know it's trite to say to be in the now, but a lot of times, I mean, we go into a situation with a certain expectation, and then that expectation either gets met or not met, but either way, you've gone in with a certain kind of energy, and then that doesn't allow the open spaciousness of possibility where you could actually have something different occur. And so I'm after really making the most of every individual moment. So that if you have an interaction with somebody that you're not looking forward to, for example, the thing to do with that is to open up and wonder about where is my expectation? What am I expecting here? What am I afraid of.

That'S going to happen? That's making me clutch up around that. The moment you can do that, rather than going into a situation with fixed expectations, you really do open up a whole new way of relating to the world. And it's I. I like coming at the world as a series of unfolding opportunities that are inviting forth the best of me. And I like. It's a much better way to go through the world. It makes me feel better and I think it adds to my interactions with other people if I'm open to the most evolved possibility in every moment.

All right, so here's the next question. You've got a little distinction between true creativity and ordinary creativity. Why don't you talk a little bit about what the distinction is and why that's important?

Yes. I remember talking to you once. I'll give a personal example about your first. You had a business, a software business, early on in your career, right? Yep. And.

I did, too. I had other businesses that I was in in my early days. And one of the characteristics of those is you're using your creativity to serve someone else's vision.

I started out from the time I was 19 to the time I was 23, working my way through the rest of college.

I was a disc jockey at a top 40 radio station, WLOF, channel 95 in Orlando, Florida, and we played all the rock and roll hits. We were the number one station. And in the 60s, which is when this was occurring. And.

That whole time, I was using my creativity, but I was using it to serve someone else's goals. And it worked out fine. I got a good salary and everything like that, but I couldn't wait to get out of that stricture and get off to something where I was. Well, first of all, not having to have anybody tell me what to do. I don't like it when I have to be told what to do. I like to decide what I want to do. And so I was never, ever comfortable in jobs where I was working for somebody else. I don't think I. When I got to be a university professor, that's a little different. You know, I spent 21 years as a university professor, but there's. There's very little people telling you what to do if you're good at your job. You know, if you get out there and you publish the books and you, you know, do all the right hoops that you jump through to be a university professor, then they'll pretty much let you do whatever you want to do. That was my experience anyway. But I. I love serving my own vision. And to me, the moment you begin to say, what do I want to create in the world? How do I want to employ my genius for my own goals and visions? That's a magic moment, you know, that's magical territory. And so just even entertaining those questions begins to send a new surge of creative energy through your body. I don't know about you, Mike, but in your travels, one of the things I've noticed. I've been around the world now more than 30 times, and one thing I've noticed is that people everywhere are suffering because they don't have an outlet for their creativity. And the suffering is just as much in Beverly Hills as it is in Berlin or Bombay. And all of those places are places where I've touched down at different times. And I've seen exactly the same kind of suffering that comes through not being open on a daily basis to your creative genius. And I don't want that to happen on my planet. I think.

You know, one of the. I'm getting toward the end of my life. And so one of the legacy things I want to be known for is helping a lot of people open up a conversation with themselves about what they really love to do and how could they Express that in the world. Because when I've been around the world 30 sometimes I see a lot of people who are not doing that not, you know, because of economic circumstances or because they're, you know, one of 28 children in the family or something like that. I think that there's so much suffering on our planet because of lack of connection to our creative expression. I, I really want to make sure I've spoken to that passionately during my time here on Earth.

Well, I'll, I'll tell you, I don't know if I've shared this with you before, but when my last company you everywhere now. We helped 1800 business owners become best selling authors. And I remember we had a gentleman who came to all of our events. He was just.

Busy, busy, busy, just ate everything up. A constant learner. And he was 82 years old. And part of what said engaged him so much as he says, I can't die with my message still inside me. And I really, I mean I burst out in tears when he told me that. It was so moving. And that was one of the little stories he often shared. You know, when he'd be in a group situation and talking to other people because he became my.

Kind of like my character. I would say, when I'd point to, I'll just call him Old Joe, you know, and I'd say like Joe over here. He goes, I don't care what kind of story you tell yourself about being too old. Listen to him, hang out with him and you'll see that. You know, I don't always buy into age as a mindset, but really age is a mindset. And I've met 60 year olds who act like this is the end. And 50 some year olds, you know, they've got their retirement plan and it's like, and then what? Right? How are you gonna, where's the impact? Where's your expression? And, and I, I, that is very profound. So, so that was, that really triggered something in me that was awesome.

So let's talk a little bit about. You describe a new way to access creativity in the book. So talk a little bit about that because I know many of the exercises. Again, I'm on a meditation high right now where part of what you're doing is accessing your primary energy center, sometimes called the root chakra, as a source for creativity. But you have something different in mind here. So talk a little bit about where that comes from.

Yes, in the Big Leap I talked about a certain, what I call wonder questions where you ask yourself a Question in a spirit of genuine wonder, a question that you really would love the answer to, and the answer to it would change your life, and you really don't know the answer. And so a typical wonder question that we use here is, and I always put a hmm in front of it to make sure it's a genuine wonder. Hmm. What do I most love to do? What do I most love to do? Now, think about that for a moment. Maybe you're driving in your car listening to this or sitting at home watching it, but just think about that for a moment. If you ask yourself that question, hmm, what do I most love to do? Then the next thing you need to do is just kind of get out of that asking mindset and listen and be receptive. So what we do here, and I'll just give you this tool, something that everybody could use, is we ask people to use wonder questions and then take two or three easy breaths after they ask themselves the question each time. And the reason we do that, well, we're kind of into breathing, too. But the main reason is to give yourself space to actually receive. And one of the big shortcomings of human beings in general is that we don't give ourselves enough culturing of our ability to receive, that a lot of us are so much in doing mode. Doing, doing, doing and putting out, putting out and putting out. They don't. We don't realize that there's this other big half of the balance, which is your ability to take an in breath of receiving, like, you know, just letting it all in. And so a lot of the people that listen to our podcast or watch our podcast are people who are, you know, you're high achievers and you get things done and you want to be successful in the world. Well, there's a move to make. I describe it in the book as the genius move. And I encourage you to sit down with the book and the guided meditation that goes along with it and give yourself the treat of an hour or so of really studying it and practicing it. Because, you know, if you were going to learn to shoot baskets, first you'd go out and nobody else is looking and shoot baskets for an hour. So you get it down in your body. Well, I want you to do that with the book, too. And here's exactly what you're going to be doing. You're going to be opening up a space, a greater, greater space in yourself that allows creativity to move through you. It's a very elegant way of getting out of your own way so that you have direct access to that creative flow in the universe. And it's not difficult. It just takes a little bit of the fine tuning of your consciousness. And that's why I want you to sit down or sit down with a friend and just tweak your consciousness for an hour with these tools in the book.

Very good, very good. And I'm going to just put in a reminder here. If you weren't in the last episode, you can learn more about Gay's new book and get a free chapter as well as a special audio download@geniuszonebook.com so there you can get all kinds of goodies. Of course, most likely you're here because of the big Leap book. This is the extension of that. It's the next development for Gay. Fantastic material as usual. So let's talk Gay about something that you call the genius move. It's something that you ask people to spend an hour mastering it. So first of all, what's the genius move? Why is it important? And can you share a story about how you've used it? What, or you continue to use it to this day?

Yes, I have a million stories. But first, let me tell you what it is. You'll encounter this many times during the day. There will be something that you're struggling with, there'll be something in your mind that you're struggling with, or there'll be something in a relationship that you're struggling with. Or you might just feel off center in some way. But that happens to almost all of us on a regular basis. It's just one of those things of Life. Those are ULOs, those are upper limit opportunities. Because what's happened is you've created a little upper limit for yourself. The genius move shows you what to do in that moment. And it has a lot to do with letting go of control.

I can't tell you how much trouble human beings might get themselves into by trying to control things that they have no control over. You know, people get themselves incredibly tied up in trying to control whether somebody likes them or not or whether somebody loves them or. Another place we get tremendously tied up is trying to control the past by running through sequences that happened a long time ago. And the only reason you, you do that is because you're, you're trying to reshape the past so that something didn't happen. And of course, it sounds crazy that that's what we do, but that's the way human beings come programmed from the factory. So we have to interrupt those processes. Like we have to find a way to interrupt the thinking about the past or obsessing about the future or being concerned about other things, like whether people like you that have to do with things that there's no possibility of controlling. And the genius move is when you let go in a particular way of that trying to control something that you've been trying to control. And this space opens up. And that's why I say to sit down with the book for an hour. Because just listening to it, it's kind of hard to imagine what it feels like. But it's the actual feeling of it happening that I don't want you to try to do it while you're driving a car, for example, or while you're doing anything. It really deserves some fine tuning on your own.

That's. I get it. All right, well, let's move on into the process about the power of completions.

Yeah.

And so what are completions? What are they important? I think I can guess. But let's put it in the context of the book.

Well, one of the things that I discovered to my great amazement was how much our negative thinking is based on.

Things that are often about the past or about the future or about the things that we have no control over whatsoever. And the frequency of those thoughts really stunned me. And the way people get engaged with those, you know, like, I had a couple in this very room here.

Probably four years ago now, something like that, maybe a little more. But due to being good at what they do, they had created $100 million, approximately $100 million fortune. And yet, here's the thing. They were still having the same arguments based on scarcity that they had been having 25 years before, before they had $100 million or before they even had a million dollars. So in other words, the recycling of those arguments stayed in place no matter what the money situation was. You might have noticed that sometimes in your own life. Now, here's my big takeaway from that. That oftentimes an argument recycles either in your head or out there in real life, because there was something incomplete that never got handled about whatever it was. And it could have been something 25 years ago. And so I'm always looking when I see trouble, when I see a troubled person or when a troubled couple comes to me, I'm looking for what was left incomplete, that never got dealt with. And sometimes the answers can blow the lid off things. You know, I've been in this room with a couple when the incompletion was that she did not tell him seven years ago that she had a One night stand with his best poker buddy. You know, that's a big deal because now there's karma with her husband. Of course, if she hadn't told him that there's karma with her husband's poker buddy, you know, there's all sorts of ricochet based on that. So completion looks like having her say right here in this office, honey, I had an affair with Ed, your best poker buddy, seven years ago.

Don't let it get to that point. Take care of your incompletion faster. Yeah, most of them are not quite that dramatic, but, you know, like.

Just a simple thing.

I walked away the other day. We've been having a lot of infrastructure repair done here and new things. We have a new walk out front and everything, new paint job. And I walked away from one of the, the boss guys kind of with some irritation about something he'd said, but I didn't say anything about it. And then all of a sudden I got to the house and I said, screech, put on the brakes, you know, turned around, walked back out there and it turned out to be a 10 second conversation. You know, I said, I, I didn't appreciate it when you said dot, dot, dot. And he said, oh, I, I didn't mean it like that. And then we had a little conversation about what he did mean and everything cleared up. But you know, what if I hadn't gone back, you know, then I got this little loop going here.

And the thing about it is you go on to something else and you forget about that loop, but it's still going, like leaving the oven on.

And so.

A lot of times completions.

Are the red flag that's kind of waving at you and say, handle me, handle me, handle me. And the way they come into your body is the form of worry, thoughts in your mind, kind or uncomfortable feelings in your body. So here's a big takeaway from this session, kids, and that is that whenever you feel uncomfortable about anything, an interaction, or just inside, ask yourself a big wonder question. What is not complete about this? What do I need to do to get complete about this situation? Because the word integrity in Greek comes from.

A word that means wholeness, the wholeness of something. So to be whole, to be in integrity, is to be whole, and to do that is to stay in the flow of communication so we don't have these hiccups where we take away a little part and then we don't circulate that part again in the conversation.

Yeah, it makes a ton of sense. I know. You know, it's interesting. The older I've gotten.

The less I'm willing to live with that discomfort of.

An incompletion. But also I can spot them coming a mile away. So it's like I just avoid circumstances that may create an incompletion in the first place. And maybe that's what wisdom is. But.

Again, I often look at it and go, God, how did it take me this long to figure that out?

Well, that's always a sobering, humbling thing about life. You know, not a. Not a week goes by that I say, wow, gosh, why didn't I think of that 40 years ago? Well, maybe I was. And I just wasn't ready to.

Have that possibility occur.

That is for sure, because different things mean different things as you age. And again, I One of my favorite words, I just love it, is nuance. Because there's something elegant and beautiful about a nuanced conversation that. That requires accumulated not only wisdom, but pain. It takes going to battle. It takes going to war and appreciation for life's subtleties and the scratches and the battles that we face to really.

Not only appreciate the nuance and the pain or the dramatic circumstance, but the person and really hold them with a different degree of empathy and compassion for that.

I think it also starts with holding ourselves with that infinite degree of love and compassion, too, because you know that we can only extend that to somebody else to the extent that we've extended it to ourselves.

Oh, man. Well done. Okay, I've got one more big one for you, Gay, which is we've been talking about the genius zone in this episode. A lot of it had to do with getting into your creative genius zone. But for you as the author, what's one big takeaway that you'd like people to get from the genius zone?

One big takeaway is that you get many, many, many opportunities every day to walk through a certain gateway. And then there is your genius right there. It's a lot easier than we've been making it. It's about as easy as going and taking a nice, big, easy, deep breath. So I want your genius to be really easy. And so I found that if I adjust myself and make some nuanced moves in myself, my genius is on the line all the time. And it's absolutely easy. And that's what I want everybody to learn.

It's a good one. Well, I've. I've said this before on the podcast, but for anyone who might be a first time listener or viewer, one of the great benefits I've had of spending Time with Gay is this is who he is all the time. And he really is a master. Like when we're just having a conversation, he'll stop, he'll breathe and he'll.

Into it. And I know from all the work that he's done and the truth is, you and I met and I met you before I read any of your books. So I've kind of met you in a reversed way. But first of all, if you haven't read the Big Leap, it's a fantastic piece of work. That's most likely why you're here. But dig into the Genius Zone and head over to geniuszonebook.com there you can learn more about the book. Gay has a really cool special bonus for you when you get a copy of it. And I have one other thing to add, but is there anything else through your end that you need.

In terms of a completion today? You see how we turn that around. Do you have any completions you'd like to make or do?

Yes. Well, if you're listening or watching to this, you could complete one thing which is to go over to the Big Leap Experience and check that out. And we want to create and, or have been creating a amazing experience where for 90 days you get to focus in and live in the Genius Zone. And so it's a one time only event and I want you to check that out and I would be delighted to have you join me in that process. Process, yeah.

So to learn more, you go to bigleappodcast.com either/apply, that'll bring you right to the application or there's an apply button right on the homepage or you can pull your mobile phone right now and just text the letter BL or two letters BL to 858-434-5316. There we'll send you a link, some information about what the Big Leap Experience is all about and also how you can get and stay inside your Genius Zone with Gay's.

Incredible, incredible skills.

I hit a little loss for words for a moment, Gay, just because I've thought about the almost 20 years that I've known you now and everything that I've learned and also the evolutions I've seen you go through and the people you've supported and helped. Between you and Katie, this is a really profound opportunity and it's the only time Gay is planning on doing it. So, you know, just fill in your information, we'll follow up with you and we'll be sending you an invite to join us for the Big Leap experience very, very soon. So anything else then before we wrap up this episode?

Gay.

Just keep breathing and asking yourself, what do I most love to do?

That's easy enough. I love it. All right, well what I love doing is creating more episodes with you. This has been a total blast as usual. So if you've enjoyed this, make sure you like share comment with someone that you know. And of course you can also send us a direct message when you text us. Again, that is just text BL to 858-434-5316. It is a direct two way interactive mobile text marketing platform. It'll give you a message and then you can leave us any comments or feedback you'd like about the show. So thanks again for watching or listening and see you in the next episode.