The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level

by Gay Hendricks

I manufactured the stream of painful images because I was feeling good! Some part of me was afraid of enjoying positive energy for any extended period of time. When I reached my Upper Limit of how much positive feeling I could handle, I created a series of unpleasant thoughts to deflate me. The thoughts I manufactured were guaranteed to make me return to a state I was more familiar with: not feeling so good.

The pattern was simple: enjoy a period of feeling really good; then do something to mess it up.

The problem: I have a limited tolerance for feeling good. When I hit my Upper Limit, I manufacture thoughts that make me feel bad. The problem is bigger than

just my internal feelings, though: I seem to have a limited tolerance for my life going well in general. When I hit my Upper Limit, I do something that stops my positive forward trajectory. I get into a conflict with my ex-wife, get into a money bind, or do something else that brings me back down within the bounds of my limited tolerance.

How can I extend the periods of contentment in my life?

If I can eliminate the behaviors that stop the flow of positive energy, can I learn how to feel great all the time? Can I allow things to go well in my life all the time? In relationships, can I live in harmony and intimacy all the time? Can our species live in expanding waves of peace and prosperity, free from the pattern of messing things up when they are going well?

Am I willing to increase the amount of time every day that I feel good inside?

Am I willing to increase the amount of time that my whole life goes well?

Am I willing to feel good and have my life go well all the time?

Are you willing to take the Big Leap to your ultimate level of success in love, money, and creative contribution?

Speaking personally, I found that my biggest resistance was the fear of owning my full potential.

As I explored this fear, I realized that making such a big commitment put everything on the line. It eliminated any excuse I’d ever allowed myself for failing to achieve what I set out to do. In the past, I could always say, “Well, I failed, but I wasn’t really trying hard. Maybe I’d have succeeded if I had really tried.” Or “I failed, but I might have succeeded if I hadn’t gotten sick.” But now, after making the commitment to going the distance, any excuse that crept into my mind sounded hollow, even ridiculous, as if Columbus had sailed back to Europe and said, “Well, we didn’t find land, but we might have if I hadn’t gotten a nasty cold.”

Many of our fears are based on the workings of the ego, the part of us that’s focused on getting recognition and protecting us from social ostracism. In the Zone of Geniu...

own reward. In the Zone of Genius, you cease to care about recognition or ostracism. Once you make a commitment to inhabiting your full potential, your ego is suddenly faced with extinction. It’s been making excuses for you throughout your life. Now, if your commitment to taking your Big Leap is sincere, your ego will need to be shown the door. Unless you’re l...

There’s only one way to get through the fog of fear, and that’s to transform it into the clarity of exhilaration.

Do that, and your fear turns into excitement. Do it more, and your excitement turns into

exhilaration.

The goal in life is not to attain some imaginary ideal; it is to find and fully use our own gifts.

Each of us has an inner thermostat setting that determines how much love, success, and creativity we allow ourselves to enjoy. When we exceed our inner thermostat setting, we will often do something to sabotage ourselves, causing us to drop back into the old, familiar zone where we feel secure.

Your capacity expands in small increments each time you consciously let yourself enjoy the money you have, the love you feel, and the creativity you are expressing in the world. As that capacity for enjoyment expands, so does your financial abundance, the love you feel, and the creativity you express.