Journey to the Zone of Genius
Navigating burnout, breaking boundaries and embracing your true potential...
Professional burnout is at an all time high. The NHS has been hit by several strikes this year - from both junior doctors and consultants. People are beginning to have enough. Although we don’t have much control over how the UK government is going to help us, we can do our part by striking. Have you ever wondered if there is anything else you can do to overcome this burnout? Let’s explore this more with the help of Dr David Laith Rawaf, Orthopaedic Surgeon and Clinical Excellence Lead at Inovus.
The Zone Of Genius
The Zone of Genius is a concept based on a book written by Gay Hendricks - The Big Leap. It demonstrates how to eliminate the barriers to success by overcoming false fears and beliefs, and explores the zones that people are often stuck in, and how they can break transcend the upper limits into the zone of genius.
Understanding the 4 Zones
Zone of Incompetence: involves things that you’re bad at, or things that other people do better than you. You are not happy in this zone
Zone of Competence: involves things that you’re proficient at, or things that you can do as well as other people. You’re likely to suffer from fatigue or burnout since the activities don’t energise or satisfy you.
Zone of Excellence: involves things that you excel in. You’re highly skilled in these areas, deliver superior results, and are likely to achieve great success and recognition in this zone. Yet, deep inside you don’t feel satisfied or fulfilled. Many successful people operate in this zone, creating value for other people without feeding their inner selves. They get stuck in this comfort zone without discovering and unleashing their inner genius. David has some insights regarding this,
“It's the zone of excellence, that has taken you a long time to get there. Doctors sit in this zone quite a lot. Because of the amount of time and effort it's taken to get there. But there is something about it that you don't really, truly enjoy. You don't have complete fulfilment.”
Zone of Genius: you’ll enjoy the ultimate levels of success in love, wealth, and creative contribution when you make the Big Leap into this zone. It involves the things you’re uniquely suited to do — things that fit your talents, strengths, and passions. When you operate in this zone, you don’t just perform well; you also enjoy a sense of inner well-being, and can achieve the utmost levels of joy, success, and fulfilment.
So how do we enter the zone of genius?
David’s Story: From Burnout to Brilliance
David’s experience through medical school highlights a common struggle many of us face: the balance between excellence and expectation. He mentions what he observed:
“I saw an element of mediocrity being celebrated and excellence being punished in a way. Not just excellence, but just, pure genius.”
The dissonance was obvious to David as he witnessed exemplary doctors go above and beyond, only to be met with an added burden of work or even undue criticism.
Contrast this to David’s experience during his medical electives in the US. He described the system there honouring and celebrating excellence in the way it should be. He also noted the sheer commitment and drive of those in the same field, encouraging him to sit the USMLE exams to be able to practice in the US.
David tells us a story from his first F1 rotation:
“I'd automated what was a painful process that was taking out probably about 4 to 6 man hours of foundation program time a day where we were copying bloods from the computer system into every consultant's book for every patient across the four wards. I decided to just implement a slightly automated service that would print everything and and I would staple it in, after all it was just pulling all the relevant hospital numbers from the Excel spreadsheet automatically. I went off on the weekend came back on Monday and there were passive aggressive notes everywhere telling you to not print out the bloods. It doesn't feel right to me to put time and energy and into actually improving a system and then it having being thrown in my face.”
His effort, which aimed at saving significant man-hours daily, was met with passive-aggressive resistance. This resistance to efficiency and innovation highlighted a systemic issue that David felt needed to be addressed. While he wanted to transition to the US healthcare system, personal reasons kept him in the UK. But this didn’t waiver his commitment to innovation and excellence. These experiences, challenging as they were, helped David identify the need to transition into his "Zone of Genius," ensuring that he would not just survive, but thrive, in an environment that occasionally seemed to resist brilliance.
The Barriers
“It takes courage to escape the magnetism of the zone of excellence".”
Societal norms encourage us to stay within our zone of excellence - it is where most people feel comfortable and it is easy to get stuck in this zone. Here are some other reasons why you may be holding yourself back:
Self-doubt: the voice inside your head could be constantly questioning your abilities - “Am I good enough to do this?”, “What if I fail?”. These thoughts can anchor you to your comfort zone and prevent you from transcending your upper limit. David mentions some thoughts he had:
“I think some of those moments where I realised there was an upper limit and I was approaching it was when I was talking to mentors, and asking them about what their life was like what did their life entail? I would absorb all of that and I think this doesn't seem that attractive actually. And perhaps that upper limit is not that enticing to me. There were moments where I was thinking, am I just being silly here? Am I being selfish? Do I think I'm better than them? But, and I had to reel myself in. I am witnessing a future that I'm probably going to become that doesn't look that appealing. That was an upper limit, a limit that I didn't want to be become anymore.”
Imposter syndrome: even when individuals achieve notable successes in their fields, they may feel like frauds, fearing that one day they'll be 'found out'. This phenomenon is especially prevalent among high-achievers. The constant worry that their accomplishments are a result of serendipity rather than skill can stifle growth and deter them from taking risks, ultimately keeping them in their "Zone of Excellence" rather than propelling them towards their "Zone of Genius".
Perfectionism: an obsession with perfection can be paralysing. It becomes a barrier when the fear of making mistakes or not meeting impossibly high standards prevents one from venturing into unknown territories. It can trap professionals in a cycle of overthinking and second-guessing, hindering them from taking the very leaps that could lead to their most groundbreaking and fulfilling work.
How to Enter the Zone of Genius
There are several factors that are considered in the Zone of Genius. If you recognise any of these, perhaps you are already partly there:
You are utilising your talent, skills and strengths together. You have to have found what your innate abilities are to get to this point.
Time disappears when you're in the zone.
You find yourself adding value to yourself and the world around you.
Your innate abilities are being utilised, rather than just your learned ones.
You find ceaseless inspiration and flow.
In order to achieve these, you have to ask yourself these 4 questions:
What do I most love to do?
What work doesn’t seem like work to me?
In my work, what brings the most abundance and satisfaction for the least amount of time spent?
What’s my unique ability?
These questions are inspired by the concept of Ikigai - a Japanese concept meaning “A Reason For Being”.
Where would you say you are at this moment in your life?
Answering these questions truthfully, even if you don’t have an exact answer to all of them, will help you on your journey. Thinking about them and trying to answer them is the first step. The next step is to put in the due diligence to work your way towards the middle of that Venn diagram.
This diagram shows Ikigai as the convergence of four areas of life: what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. The very centre, where each area overlaps, is your Ikigai – your reason for getting up and where you should focus your efforts to find ultimate fulfilment.
A misconception about the zone of genius is that you have to operate in it 100% of the day. The truth is your 9-5 job could you be working in your zone of excellence and your hobbies and interests outside of your career could be where your zone of genius lies. Don’t view the zone of excellence as something you have to escape; instead try and view every day as an opportunity to identify the problems that exist (your upper limit) and find potential solutions, essentially weaving the zone of excellence and genius together.
We hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of the Doctor’s Time Machine. As always if you haven’t yet, watch the full episode below :)
Bye for now,
The Beyond Tomorrow Team.