The Big Leap

Have you ever had something really good happen to you followed by something really terrible? According to Gay Hendricks, this is the Upper Limit Problem. We hold ourselves back, either because we think we are terrible people, because we are afraid of leaving others behind, because we don't want to outshine others, and because we feel like we're a burden. If we can leave all this behind, we would jump into our "Zone of Genius", where we live in bliss and success, we always have enough time for everything, and we don't get sick for 13+ years. How do we do this?Basically, by repeating a mantra of "I will live my life to the fullest and inspire others to do so".And there, I've saved you 200+ pages and 7 bucks of your hard earned cash.I'm not saying that this book has zero merits. I do believe I've experienced this "Upper Limit Problem"; I've had moments of great success, namely weight loss, followed by drastic falls (weight gain).But I've also had moments of failure (losing out on an exclusive project) followed by more failure (having a tree fall on our house). So no, bad doesn't always follow good, and getting sick is not a sign of something good happening. Then there's the fact this is Hendricks version of the Prosperity Gospel/The Secret/Toxic Positivity, where it doesn't have space for people with, say, chronic pain or born into institutionalized racism. What did people born in poverty or to undocumented immigrants or to the "wrong color" or in the "wrong body" do wrong? They didn't think the right thoughts so this is what they got??No, this book is tailored to the white middle class, the ones who get stars in their eyes when they see all these glittery examples of various CEOs, stockbrokers, executives and business owners whom Hendricks consults with and suddenly become even MORE rich and successful than ever! Hendricks' clients are almost exclusively of the 1% that none of us will ever reach in our lifetimes - but one we all imagine we are a hair's breadth away from. The advice is only really applicable to a small, teeny tiny portion of the population who are wealthy enough to buy this book and afford to be concerned about this topic, who envision themselves as the next Bill Gates.The NEXT big beef is the entirety of the "Einstein Time" chapter. At the beginning of the chapter, Hendricks says "it’s based on solid science inspired by Einstein’s physics." I want to enunciate "INSPIRED BY" because nowhere is anything Hendricks says about Einstein or Newtonian Time even remotely grounded in actual science. The Theory of General Relativity (Einstein) says that at the speed of light or approximately light, time is not constant, while Newton made time a constant. Numerous website stated that at our speeds, we cannot tell that time is not a constant. There is no such thing as "generating more time" when you are out of time. If the author meant "Stop worrying about time" or "Be honest with yourself and others that you don't really want to do something", fine. But this isn't what you find in the book! Hendricks flings around Einstein and Newton like many hucksters fling around quantum and other physics terms - you don't know what they mean and neither do your audience, but you act like you do, so it impresses your audience. But I ain't impressed.The final nail in the coffin is the sheer amount of repetition in this book. This is best shown in the following example:You’ll either have too little of it or too much. You’ll either have “no time at all” or be sitting around with “time on your hands.” You’ll be rushing to catch up or bored out of your wits. In the Newtonian world, we’re either “running out of time” or watching the seconds creep by.This was one portion of a paragraph; the entire paragraph could have been summed up in the first sentence. Most of the examples (if they were even true - with most of these types of books, I am skeptical of this many examples of how so-and-so's miracle method worked with every single person they met) were basically the same story - this CEO/executive/business owner had a minor setback and after a quick talk with Hendricks, they were set on the right path. And then you have the sales pitch - before Hendricks will tell you what his method is, he must convince you it's the best method ever and will totally change your life. I get it already - tell me what it is!If this entire book had been trimmed for a blog post or Huff Post article (even more with the exclusion of Einstein time), it would have been greatly improved. As it stands, despite the good nugget of being proud of your successes and embracing them, I cannot recommend this book or rate it higher than 1-star. There is absolutely no citation whatsoever in the book; the writing is atrocious (the worst of this pop self-help schlock); the book excludes anyone outside a narrow subset. I cannot in my good conscience recommend this to anyone.

You know, it's rare, when you're a colossal nerd who reads literally everything you can get your hands on, to find a book that is somewhat lifechanging. This is one. It's not that its well written - writing quality is about average, author presence average, etc. - but it really does call out a mental pattern that is standard in lower- and middle-class upbringing in the west. I find myself referencing it mentally at the most miserable of moments ... and choosing different responses. It has been life changing to me - on content alone. And I've sent copies to most of my extended family over the past couple of years too. Worth a read. May have something for you too.

Sometimes, you pick up a book and just can't put it down. Something grabs you right away and pulls you along. It's like the author is speaking directly to you. That was the case with this one. There were a number of themes in this book that resonated with me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.This book is all about understanding limiting beliefs, discovering from where they are derived, and learning how to bust through your self-imposed upper limit to realize your full potential.We learn about the four hidden barriers that many of us impose on ourselves that may limit us. It may be one particular item that's limiting us or a combination of a couple. The hidden barriers are as follows:1 • Feeling Fundamentally Flawed2 • Disloyalty and Abandonment3 • Believing That More Success Brings a Bigger Burden4 • The Crime of OutshiningThe author does a good job of detailing each of the hidden beliefs. Many times, it's deep-rooted from our early years and we may not even recognize that we have these hidden beliefs.The author speaks of working in different "zones." There's the Zone of Incompetence, the Zone of Competence, the Zone of Excellence, and the Zone of Genius, the ultimate Zone where we should play.The book is filled with all kinds of great suggestions for finding your way past your upper limit and finding your way into the Zone of Genius.The biggest takeaway for me was the Ultimate Success Mantra. This is something you say to yourself when you meditate. It's something you say aloud to yourself. It's something you program into your neural pathways so you never forget and I happen to like it word for word. The Ultimate Success Mantra is,"I expand in abundance, success, and love every day and I inspire others around me to do the same."The only language I've added to it is, "so I may serve more people" and I've inserted this right after the word "day."This book was published in 2010. It garners a 4.7 rating after 505 reviews on Amazon and a 4.06 on Goodreads with 3,062 ratings and 253 reviews. I actually gave it a 5-star rating and I'm inspired to check out more by Gay Hendricks.

3 stars because the concept is great.The presenration of the topics in the book started off well but then became annoyingly repetitive...A lot of "fillers" to render this book "thick".....the chapter about Einstein time wass probably the worst : 25 pages just to say, well, nothing that couldn't be said in a few sentences.Overall, the content in these roughly 202 pages could have easily fit in a 40 page-book, examples included.

I had heard people rave about this, and I did like Hendricks’ ‘Five Wishes’. There are some useful concepts here, notably about how we willfully self sabotage, and some nice turns of phrase, but mostly this book left me frustrated. Firstly because there is a somewhat smug assumption that once you see your self sabotage, that in itself is enough to get you past it. Secondly the language. Exhortations to “expand in abundance, and love every day, as I inspire those around me to do the same” sounds like some manual for low grade motivational self-styled gurus ra ra ra chanting. Who really says that!?! And thirdly the explanation of how we can all free ourselves of Newtonian time and live in Einstein time was woefully incomplete. I still don’t get it. More examples of that concept in action were needed. I stopped reading at this point because I was so annoyed. I suggest if you want to free yourself of self sabotage, you read Stuart Wilde’s ‘Infinite Self’ instead - which is clear, liberating and also hilarious in parts.

I purchased this book on the recommendation of a popular positive mindset youtuber hoping it would instill some positivity into my life.I managed to make my way half way through the book before I stopped reading and deleted it from my kindle library, absolute infuriated.The main premise of the book is that we are are all currently suffering with the upper limit problem, in that however well our lives seem to be going, we will always find some conflict to sabotage how good things are, be that in work, relationships.... And even illness.Yes, illness. Apparently illness is a mindset.If all of this sounds a bit strange, imagine how you would feel if you'd read the thing.At present, I'm a 30 something healthy male, but if I'd been born with a long term illness, reading this book would have sent me into a frenzy. The way the author states how you can overcome illness by just believing and reconditioning your brain into a positive mindset is just brainless. Anybody with a long term illness who decides to pick up this book, consider yourselves pre-warned.One of my favourite passages was how he describes the war in the middle East between Muslims and Jews can be overcome with them both accepting that they are 100% the problem. So there you have it, 600 years of war solved in a sentence. Yes I understand those fundamentals may be correct, but the authors patronising tone just suggests it's a simple solution.At this point, the more I read, the more the words on the page just sounded completely patronising. The guy cant stop preaching about he has overcome his upper limit problem and how his life is now a bundle of joy... This includes never arguing with his wife, and the ability to never catch a cold.Probably one of the worst books I've ever read. If you're looking for positive books I recommend Tony Robbins' "Awaken the Giant Within' or "the 7 Habits of Highly effective people" by Stephen Covey instead, books where you won't come away feeling like you've just wasted a few hours of your life.

Author has simply taken the aspect of self-sabotaging your own happiness about which Nathaniel Branden wrote in the 80' and 90' and made it his very own. He rehashed and expanded on everything Branden said and published it as 'his own' discovery. He's not only made a lot of money on stealing his ideas but he's not given any credit to Branden. Wow, what a genius! I guess people don't read much these days and wouldn't even probably notice. One star is more than enough.PS I was quite harsh giving it one star, as I like Branden's teachings so much that I gave it an extra star for spreading Branden's teachings and expanding on them.

This is my second time reading this book and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. As usual, I've discovered little nuggets of wisdom that I missed the first time.I'm re-reading a lot of books in order to create a reading list for soul led entrepreneurs and this one HAS to be in that list.One of the reasons many of us suffer from unhappiness, even depression, is feeling like we aren't doing work that is valued or that matters. We get stuck in jobs and careers that we think will make us happy. Yet, more often than not, these jobs are more in line with what other people expect from us. We don't feel happy at all!And then, should we be lucky enough to start a business or find a job we truly love, often we self sabotage it! Why do we do that?Read this book and all will become clear.We all have blocks to our success and this book explains clearly why we are blocked and where the blocks come from, along with some simple tips to help you overcome them.It's a wonderful book and I highly recommend it, especially if you're just considering starting a business as it may help you to refine your offers and make sure you're working in your zone of genius.

We all want more abundance, success and love in our lives (or some combination of the three) so when our lives go well, why do we think we don't deserve it? The core premise in this book is to show us why this happens and offer us ways to transcend these 'upper limit problems'. Easy to read and with many real life examples, the author gives us the benefit of his decades of experience in helping others and leaves us with a lot of positive things to think about.