The Big Leap for Food Bloggers

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As food bloggers we are actively engaged in taking the big leap. Today I’m sharing about the book by Gay Hendricks, The Big Leap, and the ways food bloggers can use key concepts from this book to live the dream! If you’d like to see more books I’m recommending, here’s my synopsis on Fish! for Food Bloggers! and you’ll definitely want to read my post on Why Mindset Matters.

As food bloggers we are actively engaged in taking the big leap. Today Marly talks about the book by Gay Hendricks The Big Leap and the ways food bloggers can use key concepts from the book to live the dream!

Leap and the Net Will Appear

Today we’re talking about leaping. You know like eleven lords a’ leaping? ????

And one of my favorite quotes from Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way is, “Leap and the Net will Appear.”

Now I’ve heard people criticize that quote, and I get that. You don’t want to take just any leap. A calculated leap is a much better way of going about it. But there is some truth to following your passion.

in fact, I have a life example of that. Because I took a leap and went to grad school. I was a single mom and really didn’t have the financial means to do that. But I also was recently divorced and it seemed like going off to grad school would be a great opportunity for healing. And that’s exactly what happened. I met new friends, opened my horizons, and my daughter, Adee, got to go to the university daycare program with kids from all over the world. One of my goals as a parent was to expose her to different cultures and people, and so going to grad school was a perfect way to do that.

And I returned to KC and within a year I received contract work that more than paid for the financial investment into my education.

All the pieces fell into place.

Why Entrepreneurism is the Big Leap

Sure, I had all the pieces in place, but I wasn’t happy. And now I’ve taken yet another leap. Because I’m leaping into following my passion with a more creative flair.

Personally, I think this is much harder than the leap to grad school. As I’ve said before, mustering the energy and enthusiasm to work for others? To me, that is very easy.

I have a point to illustrate this. I’ve mentioned on this podcast that we are dealing with health issues with my mom. And that means from time to time we’ve had to help her with some day-to-day things, like cleaning her place. And you know what I’ve noticed? I clean her place with such enthusiasm! It’s like I want everything to be perfect for her. I imagine her waking up and walking into the kitchen and seeing fresh flowers and the counters all cleaned and sparkling and that will make her feel so good.

And then when I’m in my home? I clean, but I don’t have that same enthusiasm.

That’s just my case in point for today’s discussion. If you have chosen to create your blog as a career, then you are working for yourself. And I truly believe that entrepenrism is the modern day voyage of self discovery. Not everyone is able to make that journey, but if you’ve chosen to select this path, then it’s important to understand yourself and what makes you tick.

It’s one reason I love this book The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. I heard about this book from a MasterMind group I’m in with Casey Benedict of Kitchen-Play.com

I knew it would be a good book for two reasons:

I trust Casey and her recommendations of books because i’ve read other books she’s recommended and truly found them to be helpful
I’ve read another book by Gay Hendricks, Conscious Loving, and in fact, that one came recommended by my husband, Shawn. Conscious Loving is about creating a true, lasting and loving friendship and relationship with your spouse or significant other. It’s a great book. I recommend it.

Take-Aways from the Big Leap Book

Here are some of my favorite concepts from The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks.

Mindset matters. I know I talked about Mindset before, back on episode #123. Gay Hendricks really drives this point home with this book The Big Leap.

It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of thoughts impacting your life seemed kind of woo woo. In fact, today, we know that thoughts of anger, resentment, guilt, shame, and unworthiness, these all weaken us. Whereas feelings of peace, love, and hope strengthen us.

Gay asks the question: Are you willing to feel good and have your life go well all the time? And he uses this analogy to make his point: Scientists, in the early days of the steam engine, used to believe that they had to cap the speed of the engine to 30 miles an hour, because they believed going any faster would cause a human body to explode. Finally, some brave soul tested that limit!

Do you cling to the notion that life can’t and won’t go well for you? That you can’t be successful as your own boss? I confess, I have struggled with this at times. Sometimes I’ve found myself reciting a litany of why I can’t be successful — it’s too competitive, or I’m not good enough, or maybe it requires a level of popularity or the ability to be popular, or I started too late, or didn’t understand it early enough, or whatever. These are all examples of clinging to and arguing in favor of limitation.

What is the payoff for arguing for our limitations?

Gay says this: Having a willingness to feel good and have life go well all the time is genuinely a radical act.

Some people are imagining building colonies on Mars, and yet the simple act of going into your own inner depths, where your deeply held beliefs reside, is radical.

Think about that.

Fear is Real. Deal with It.

The Big Leap also states a bit of the obvious: Many of our fears are based on our ego.

The ego is trying to protect us from being a failure, from being a social outcast. It’s a fear-based, but understandable reaction. It’s all about fear of the unknown.

Gay talks about something I’ve heard several times: fear is excitement without the breath. If you think about it, fear and excitement are very similar physiological responses. He says that any fear can be transformed into excitement by breathing fully with it.

I completely agree with that. It’s one reason I try to incorporate deep breathing into my daily routine.

Get Into the Right Zone.

You’ve heard people talk about being in the zone. Right? Well, this book takes working in the zone to another level. Because, believe it or not, there are some zones where you don’t want to be.

Zone of Incompetence — activities we are not good at. Others can do them better than we can. However, it’s easy to waste time here, and freeing yourself from it can result in feeling energetic and a zest for living. I think of people like Gaby Dalkin who was on the podcast and talked about how she didn’t like taking photos of her food so she hired Matt Armendariz who now shoots all her recipes. Brilliant idea! It freed her up to do the work she loved.

Zone of Competence — you’re competent, but others can do them just as well. The problem is, when you’re good at something, you may want to continue doing it because it gives you a feeling of accomplishment. I put social media in this category.

Zone of Excellence — You do these extremely well. You can make a good living here. But it can be seductive. You’re reliable here. But it keeps a deep, sacred part of you from blooming.

Zone of Genius — this is the set of activities you are uniquely suited to do. You have special gifts and strengths here. Gay says there is a call to genius — it may be loud and it may come in the form of depression, illness, and relationship conflict. I think it can also come in the form of a toxic work environment too.

Upper Limit Problems.

I love this term. And I can so easily identify it in my own life and others now. It’s really a form of self sabotage. And it is also tied very closely to our unacknowledged beliefs. For example, we may think we’re fundamentally flawed in some way. For example, if you think all successful food bloggers have some thing you don’t have, then you feel you are fundamentally flawed. You will believe you cannot expand to your full creative genius because something is wrong with you. You can progress to a certain level but your Upper Limit Problem is like an alarm system, and it will set in and keep you small.

It’s as if you have a false line in your programming code that causes a breakdown inn your operating efficiency. And that program will run counter to the work you’re doing.

This book goes into other examples of how the Upper Limit Problem can get triggered. But it’s all the same outcome. You can move forward in a certain level of success, but unless you go inward and know your internal programming aka your beliefs, your upper limit problem will continue to get triggered and keep you from being ultimately successful.

He talks specifically about worry as symptom of Upper Limit Problems. Here’a process Gay suggests for how to deal with worry:

Notice yourself worrying
Let go of the worry, shifting your focus away from them
Wonder: what positive new thing is trying to come into being
Focus: On a feeling in your body where that positive new thing is trying to come through
Open your focus to feel that body feeling deeply
Feel that deep feeling for as longs I possibly can
Later you may receive an idea of the positive thing that was trying to come through.

If the idea of a body feeling sounds strange to you, let me give you an example. I oftentimes like to think of a moment when my daughter was a baby and I would hold her close to me and see her bright eyes looking up at me, lovingly. The feeling of love between us was so strong and I get a feeling, a strong, feeling of love that feels almost tingly. And I let that feeling expand inside myself and rest for awhile. It’s a great place to work from! And I imagine that might be what Gay is describing when he’s talking about a body feeling.

Integrity Matters.

Gay talks about living your life with integrity. I feel like I have been a person of integrity, but I know I have areas where I can improve. For example, I have a tendency to commit to social events and then back out. For example, if I’m invited to a party a month away, it sounds good to me, but then when the event arrives, I realize I have so many things going on and I’ve overcommitted myself and I end up backing out.

Gay says that integrity is a physics issue, rather than a moral one; that it belongs alongside unarguable forces such as gravity. Integrity has to do with wholeness and completeness. To be integrity meant you were whole and complete. To be out of integrity meant a breach in your wholeness.

Morality is about good and bad; right and wrong.

Think of communication between people as a flow of energy. Think of your communication with your own inner depths in the same way. A breach of integrity stops the flow of energy.

Be committed to living in integrity with yourself and with others.

Be Curious.

Attitude: Adopt an attitude of wonder instead of blame. When you notice your own upper limit problems, be lighthearted and curious about it. I wonder how that got there? Rather than being hard on yourself.

Maintain an attitude of cheerful wonder and curiosity toward your faults and flaws.

Gay points out some great questions you may be thinking about the Zone of Genius: What if I take the Big Leap and find out my zone of genius isn’t that genius? Gay says to just notice these fears. Feel them. Don’t try to rid them from your life. and then get busy in your Zone of Genius.

Be Committed.

In fact, that’s part of your commitment to your zone of genius. The more you make the commitement, the more it brings froth the means necessary for your to live there. If you make a powerful, sincere commitment, your journey will be blessed with uncommon good fortune at all the twists and turns of the road. Commitment has that power.

Say these words with feeling: I commit to living in my Zone of Genius, now and forever.

Make room in your awareness for abundance, love, and success.

A New Mantra.

And that leads me to a new favorite mantra: I expand in abundance, succes, and love every day, as I inspire those around me to do the same.

Isn’t that lovely! I like it so much because it seems to reframe all those upper limit problems I’ve been feeling. It doesn’t say I’m perfect. It doesn’t say I’ve got it all figured out. It says I’m expanding into my zone of genius and sharing that with others as well.

I’ve only covered some of my favorite topics from this book. But there’s so much more to it. At first I wanted to get this from the library, but I’m so glad I decided to purchase it because that way I could underline all the things that really stood out to me.

I highly recommend this book to anyone embarking on a path toward working in their zone of genius.

I hope you liked today’s topic on ideas to the big leap for food bloggers. Thanks for joining me!

Marly

Show Notes

This episode on my Mindset for Food Bloggers shares references you will find interesting. These are:

Learn more about the book: The Big Leap: Conquer Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks
Here’s the book Magic Lessons by Elizabeth Gilbert
Another Episode on Mindset: Addressing Your Thoughts on Making Money
Connect with Chopped Academy Online: Instagram | Twitter
Connect with Marly: Namely Marly | Instagram | Twitter
Production, music, graphic art & sound design by Shawn Beelman
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Posted October 10th, 2017 in Food Blog Resources, Food Blogging, Podcast