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Think Day 1: Workshop Outline And Exercises

Think day 1: workshop outline and exercises

For anybody interested in trying out the reflection workshop I designed for myself – you can find it in today’s post. I’m sharing here what I had originally prepared. In the end, I did not have time or energy to do the final wrap up, and I decided to skip some of the exercises, but you get an idea about what is possible.

Preparation (15 minutes)

  • Set up a comfortable and quiet workspace.
  • Have a journal or computer for writing, and a timer.
  • Begin with a 5-minute meditation to clear your mind and set intentions.

Part 1: Discovering Your Zone of Genius (1 hour, 45 minutes)

  • Introduction (10 minutes): Read through the Zone of Genius exercises to familiarize yourself with the flow.
  • Exercises 1-10 (60 minutes): Spend 6 minutes on each prompt, writing freely.
  • Break (5 minutes): Short walk/stretch.
  • Exercises 11-20 (60 minutes): Spend 6 minutes on each prompt.
  • Reflection (10 minutes): Review your responses, highlighting insights and common themes.

Part 2: Confronting the Upper Limit Problem (1 hour, 45 minutes)

  • Introduction (10 minutes): Read through the Upper Limit Problem exercises to understand your objectives.
  • Exercises 21-30 (60 minutes): Spend 6 minutes on each, identifying your upper limit behaviors.
  • Break (5 minutes): Mindfulness breathing.
  • Exercises 31-40 (60 minutes): Continue with 6 minutes per exercise, focusing on overcoming these limits.
  • Reflection (10 minutes): Note down the most striking revelations and consider how to implement changes.

Part 3: Integration and Action Planning (1 hour, 15 minutes)

  • Review (15 minutes): Go over your work from Parts 1 and 2. Draw connections between your Zone of Genius and Upper Limit Problem findings.
  • Action Steps (30 minutes): Choose 5 insights from today that you feel are most impactful. Develop a concrete action step for each insight that you can take in the next week.
  • Break (5 minutes): Short walk/stretch to clear your mind.
  • Commitment (10 minutes): Write a commitment to yourself about pursuing your Zone of Genius, addressing your Upper Limit Problems, and following through on your action steps.
  • Closing Reflection (15 minutes): Reflect on the entire workshop. What did you learn about yourself? How do you feel about your Zone of Genius and Upper Limit Problems now?

Wrap-Up (10 minutes)

  • Organize Materials (5 minutes): Collect all your notes and responses in one place.
  • Closing Gratitude (5 minutes): End with a gratitude practice, acknowledging your effort and any new self-awareness you have gained.

Post-Workshop

  • Schedule time in the coming weeks to review your notes and progress on action steps.
  • Consider setting up periodic check-ins with yourself to continue this work.

Here are the exercises that I used (note that I skipped some and found some a bit repetitive so I also skipped those):

Zone of genius reflection:

  1. Reflection on Joy and Engagement: List activities that make you lose track of time and feel a sense of joy. Explore why these activities engage you so deeply.
  2. Dreams Analysis: Write about your dreams and aspirations as a child. What brought you unadulterated happiness? Look for clues to your Zone of Genius.
  3. Peak Experiences: Recall three peak experiences in your life—times when you felt at your best. Identify what was common in these experiences.
  4. The Compliment Exercise: Note down the compliments you often receive. What skills or qualities are people acknowledging in you?
  5. Journaling Your Best Self: Write a journal entry from the perspective of a day lived fully in your Zone of Genius. What are you doing? How does it make you feel?
  6. Flow State Triggers: Identify moments when you’ve been in a flow state. What were you doing? What conditions helped create this state?
  7. Life Themes: Look for recurring themes in your life—subjects you’re drawn to, activities you love, or causes you’re passionate about. These can point to your Zone of Genius.
  8. Feedback Solicitation: Ask five people what they see as your greatest strengths and gifts. Note the patterns in their responses.
  9. Experimentation Diary: Try a new activity each week and journal about your experience. Did the activity energize or drain you? What did that tell you about your Zone of Genius?
  10. Skills Inventory: Make a list of all the skills you possess, including ones you don’t use in your current job or daily life. Which of these do you enjoy using the most?
  11. Authenticity Check: Reflect on when you feel most authentic. What are you usually doing during these times? This can signal where your Zone of Genius lies.
  12. Ideal Day Visualization: Visualize your ideal day from morning to night. What activities are you doing that make you feel fulfilled and happy?
  13. Barrier Identification: Write about the barriers you perceive in accessing your Zone of Genius. How might you overcome these barriers?
  14. Energy Mapping: Track your energy levels throughout the week. When are they highest? What activity are you doing at this time?
  15. Success Deconstruction: Think about a recent success. Break down the elements of what made you successful. How can these elements be applied to finding your Zone of Genius?
  16. Learning from Failure: Write about a recent failure. What did you learn about your abilities and preferences that could guide you to your Zone of Genius?
  17. Mentor Imagining: Imagine having a conversation with a mentor you admire. What advice would they give you about finding your Zone of Genius?
  18. The Letter From Future Self: Write a letter to your current self from your future self, who has found and is operating in their Zone of Genius. What insights do they share?
  19. The Elimination List: Identify what tasks or activities you’re willing to stop doing to make room for discovering and working in your Zone of Genius.
  20. The Genius Declaration: Craft a statement that declares your intent to find and work within your Zone of Genius. Refer to it daily to reinforce your commitment.

Upper Limit Problem reflection:

  1. Daily Upper Limit Diary: Keep a diary for a month, noting when you feel exceptionally good and when you don’t. Look for patterns that suggest self-sabotage after high points.
  2. Trigger Tracking: Make a list of events that trigger your Upper Limit Problem. Reflect on the feelings and thoughts that arise when you hit your upper limit.
  3. Gratitude Practice: Start and end each day by writing down three things you’re grateful for. Noticing abundance can help expand your capacity for success and happiness.
  4. Reframing Exercise: When you notice an Upper Limit Problem thought, consciously reframe it into a positive one. For example, change “I always mess up good things” to “I deserve to have good things in my life.”
  5. Mindfulness Meditation: Spend 10 minutes each day in mindfulness meditation, focusing on your breath. When thoughts of self-sabotage arise, acknowledge them without judgment and return to your breath.
  6. Success Visualization: Visualize yourself enjoying a higher level of success without any negative consequences. What does it feel like? What are you doing differently?
  7. Comfort Zone Challenges: Deliberately step out of your comfort zone once a week and observe your feelings and thoughts. Write about the experience and what you learned.
  8. Joy Spotting: Create a joy journal. Whenever you feel a moment of joy, write it down. Reflect on whether you allowed yourself to fully experience it or if you cut it short.
  9. Thermostat Setting Reflection: Reflect on your family’s attitudes towards success and happiness. How might these have influenced your internal thermostat settings?
  10. Body Awareness: When you feel you’re hitting an upper limit, stop and scan your body. Where do you feel tension? Breathing into these areas can help release the limit.
  11. Affirmation Creation: Write a set of affirmations that affirm your right to ongoing success and happiness. Repeat these affirmations daily.
  12. The Blame Game: Notice when you blame others for feeling bad or when things go wrong. Write about these instances and how you might own your role in them.
  13. Limiting Beliefs: Identify and write down the beliefs that limit you. Challenge each belief by finding evidence of the opposite in your life.
  14. Breakthrough Goal Setting: Set a goal that is beyond what you think is possible. Break it down into steps and work on it daily, noting the upper limit problems as they arise.
  15. Success Sharing: Regularly share your successes with a trusted friend or mentor who celebrates them with you. This can help normalize higher levels of success.
  16. Permission Slip: Write yourself a permission slip to excel and be happy beyond your perceived limits. Keep it somewhere you can see it daily.
  17. The Sabotage Alert System: Create a list of self-sabotage behaviors you’ve engaged in. Be alert to these behaviors and when you notice one, pause and make a different choice.
  18. Upper Limit Mantra: Develop a personal mantra to counteract the Upper Limit Problem. For example, “I expand in abundance, success, and love every day, as I inspire those around me to do the same.”
  19. The Role Model Exercise: Identify people who embody what it means to live beyond upper limits. Study their lives and actions for inspiration.
  20. Letter of Release: Write a letter to yourself releasing you from the patterns that cause your Upper Limit Problems. Include a commitment to embracing your potential.

Overall Big Leap questions:

  1. Reflection on Joy and Engagement: List activities that make you lose track of time and feel a sense of joy. Explore why these activities engage you so deeply.
  2. Dreams Analysis: Write about your dreams and aspirations as a child. What brought you unadulterated happiness? Look for clues to your Zone of Genius.
  3. Peak Experiences: Recall three peak experiences in your life—times when you felt at your best. Identify what was common in these experiences.
  4. The Compliment Exercise: Note down the compliments you often receive. What skills or qualities are people acknowledging in you?
  5. Journaling Your Best Self: Write a journal entry from the perspective of a day lived fully in your Zone of Genius. What are you doing? How does it make you feel?
  6. Flow State Triggers: Identify moments when you’ve been in a flow state. What were you doing? What conditions helped create this state?
  7. Life Themes: Look for recurring themes in your life—subjects you’re drawn to, activities you love, or causes you’re passionate about. These can point to your Zone of Genius.
  8. Feedback Solicitation: Ask five people what they see as your greatest strengths and gifts. Note the patterns in their responses.
  9. Experimentation Diary: Try a new activity each week and journal about your experience. Did the activity energize or drain you? What did that tell you about your Zone of Genius?
  10. Skills Inventory: Make a list of all the skills you possess, including ones you don’t use in your current job or daily life. Which of these do you enjoy using the most?
  11. Authenticity Check: Reflect on when you feel most authentic. What are you usually doing during these times? This can signal where your Zone of Genius lies.
  12. Ideal Day Visualization: Visualize your ideal day from morning to night. What activities are you doing that make you feel fulfilled and happy?
  13. Barrier Identification: Write about the barriers you perceive in accessing your Zone of Genius. How might you overcome these barriers?
  14. Energy Mapping: Track your energy levels throughout the week. When are they highest? What activity are you doing at this time?
  15. Success Deconstruction: Think about a recent success. Break down the elements of what made you successful. How can these elements be applied to finding your Zone of Genius?
  16. Learning from Failure: Write about a recent failure. What did you learn about your abilities and preferences that could guide you to your Zone of Genius?
  17. Mentor Imagining: Imagine having a conversation with a mentor you admire. What advice would they give you about finding your Zone of Genius?
  18. The Letter From Future Self: Write a letter to your current self from your future self, who has found and is operating in their Zone of Genius. What insights do they share?
  19. The Elimination List: Identify what tasks or activities you’re willing to stop doing to make room for discovering and working in your Zone of Genius.
  20. The Genius Declaration: Craft a statement that declares your intent to find and work within your Zone of Genius. Refer to it daily to reinforce your commitment.

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