Why We Self-Sabotage as Academics

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We’re a successful group of people, we academics are. We have climbed school and career ladders that other people only dream about but rarely accomplish. We know how to gather our gold stars and make things happen within our universities and higher education institutions.

Yet, many of us struggle with aspects of our lives outside of academia. We overeat. We overdrink. We procrastinate on a big project we really want. We struggle with finances. Or in our relationships with other people. We walk around with the myth that “we can’t have it all,” and we very often tend to get in our own way. 

Dr. Gay Hendricks provides vocabulary around these ideas in his book, The Big Leap. In his book, Dr. Hendricks describes what he refers to as the “upper limit problem” which is often experienced by us in academia. 

Wondering what this looks like? Well, this often happens when we publish something amazing or when we win the grant money, but then we can’t seem to relish it. Instead, we snap ourselves back to reality and find a way to sabotage our success. We downplay it with others and move on to the next goal.

But we don’t have to do that! Instead, we can discover our giftings and live out of the places where we excel most. 

Four Zones of the Big Leap

Dr. Hendricks writes about the four zones we find ourselves in:

Zone of Incompetence

• The things we’re just not good at.

There are lots of skills we don’t have and aren’t interested in developing. For instance, I have no desire to learn how to fix things in my car so I typically have no problem leaving that up to my husband. A few weeks ago I thought, “I can change my own headlight. I’ll watch a YouTube video.” I watched for a few minutes and realized it was more complicated than I thought. Instead of continuing to spend time figuring it out, I let it go. It’s in my zone of incompetence and I’m okay with that! 

Zone of Competence

• Things we’re okay at.

I’m a competent cook. I did spend time building cooking skills in my teenage years (thank you, 4-H!). I enjoyed it then. But now, it’s not something I want to pursue. I can make a good dinner, yes. But who is even better at it? My husband. Cooking is in a different zone for him than for me. So if we put that on his plate (pun intended), we’re both winning.

Zone of Excellence

• Things we’re good at and have developed skills in.

In my own Zone of Excellence, I have many characteristics, such as enthusiasm, discipline, connecting people, warmth/kindness, optimism, joy, intelligence, reflection, and analytic skills. It’s comfortable for me to be here. I can tap into these strengths in a variety of ways.

Zone of Genius

• Where we really shine and excel when we’re in the flow.

Finding your zone of genius is like thinking about Russian nesting dolls. Where are you when you’re in the flow? That’s the first layer. 

For me, my Zone of Genius begins in a classroom or a coachings session. But then, I consider that coaching is all about helping others learn. Digging deeper into that, I realize that I’m at my best when I am learning and others are learning too. As the layers are peeled off, something more detailed emerges from inside and I discover more specifically where my Genius Zone lies.

Strengths and Superpowers

Dr. Katie Linder has a comparable concept with different language. She calls them “strengths” (Zone of Excellence), and “superpowers” (Zone of Genius). Strengths are great but the Zone of Genius is where greatness is fully amplified. It’s where you naturally do well. It’s the place where you operate so automatically that it can very quickly trigger the imposter syndrome. We wonder why others are praising us for something we’re so good at! 

How do we find our Zone of Genius? Well, it’s not always easy and it takes a bit of work. In the search for our superpowers, we ask ourselves questions like:

• What do I love doing? 

• What have I always enjoyed doing, even when I was a kid?

• What would I do if I didn’t have any barriers?

• How do I like to spend my free time?

• What fits me so naturally that I almost feel like I’m cheating?

Fighting Hidden Barriers

Hidden barriers are ways we get in our own way of living in our Zone of Genius. We doubt ourselves and pull back. We start to shine and throw up lots of obstacles. We think it shouldn’t be this easy, so we make it difficult on ourselves. We do this when we’ve experienced lots of Zone of Genius moments.

As with the number of zones, we find four roadblocks that keep us from functioning in our sweet spot: 

Hidden Barrier #1 - Fundamentally Flawed/Fear of Failure

In this barrier, we convince ourselves that we are not worthy of enjoying our genius so we play it safe and sit on the sidelines. We fear that we won’t succeed so we don’t even try. 

Hidden Barrier #2 - Disloyalty and Abandonment 

Here we believe the message that others will turn away from us if we dwell in our Zone of Genius. We assume that others in our community will feel threatened or otherwise upset and we will ultimately end up all alone. 

Hidden Barrier #3 - More Success Brings Burdens

With this barrier we tend to downplay the lives of celebrities to make ourselves feel better about our lack of success. We might have ideas such as: “I’d be/have an even bigger burden than I am/do right now if I became successful.”

Personally, I often think thoughts like this: “Well, at least no one is looking in my windows or wanting to take my trash. If I were famous like Dr. Brene Brown, I’d have to deal with those things. And who wants that?” It’s a point of self-sabotage meant to make me feel better about my less-than-ness. 

Hidden Barrier #4 - The Fear of Outshining

We send ourselves messages like these: “I don’t want to get in other people’s way. I want them to have success too, so I’ll play it small in order to let them shine.”

It’s so easy to become complacent and allow barriers to keep us from our genius. In fact, I see it all the time with my clients who don’t really want to live in their zone of genius. They are afraid and they continue an inner monologue that justifies their fears. Ultimately, they want to play small and hide.

We can choose to get out of our own way by only saying yes to things that are in our Zone of Genius.

Consider making this commitment as Dr. Hendricks suggests: “I am 100% committed to living in my Zone of Genius.”

And that means saying no to a lot of great opportunities so that you can say yes to the perfect opportunity! Why busy yourself with doing only those things you are competent at so that you aren’t available when the true, genius opportunities show their faces? 

Photo by Edu Lauton on Unsplash

Living It Out 

Now that I’ve introduced the zone of genius concept to you, it’s time for application. Personally, I needed a life coach to hold the space for me to explore these ideas. I could certainly carve out the time to sit down and make myself think about it. But I need prompts and someone to guide my thought process. So I use a coach. Having someone else to hold the space for you to discover your superpowers makes all the difference! 

Examples of Success 

Doing this type of work brings such clarity to daily decisions. Because I know when I’m in my Zone of Genius, I know exactly what to say no to. Sometimes I have to turn down what seem to be amazing opportunities because I know it’s not in my Zone of Genius.

For instance, I could analyze statistics all day, every day. It’s in my Zone of Excellence! It’s fun for me! But is it in my Zone of Genius, where I love being? Not anymore. So I say no to it. Even when it seems so attractive.  

Another way to think about it is on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being something you would love to do. If it’s a 7, it’s probably in your Zone of Excellence, but not your Genius Zone. We have to be wise about saying no to 7 opportunities, even though they are better than 3-5 opportunities!  

Right now, coaching is in my Zone of Genius. And I would be honored to be your coach to help you figure out the difference between your Zones of Excellence and Genius. Read my take on why academics should or shouldn’t hire a life coach.

You can stop settling for your Zone of Excellence. Take the leap and let me help you to also live in your Zone of Genius!

The WHY Behind Dr. Caitlin Faas [Why I Do What I Do]

Setting the scene

I believe we can all agree that being stressed and exhausted can quite often lead to overeating and lack of exercise. 

What we may not all be aware of is that according to new studies women directly gain weight when facing heavy pressure at work. And things can get even more complicated for women in academia, where demands are high, deadlines are close, and time is not a friend.

Stress is the cause of many health issues, but weight gain is one of the obvious side effects. Stress at work, especially for women, can result in little time to eat healthily or exercise, which in turn causes extreme fatigue and a strong desire to indulge in comfort food.

Although studies haven't necessarily investigated the hidden causes of overeating in this situation, it may be about the combination of job tasks at work and the responsibility for the household that women often assume. This makes it rather difficult to find time to live a healthy life.  So how can you avoid overdrinking, overeating, and procrastinating?

The good news is that there are ways to fight stress efficiently, improve sleep, boost your mood consciously, lose weight in a healthy way and tackle unhealthy eating habits, watch your caffeine intake, and exercising more. 

And that's where I come in.

Let me tell you how it all began…

I’m Caitlin Faas, Ph.D., tenured psychology professor and certified life coach. All these struggles were very familiar to me. While climbing the academic ladder, without feeling personal fulfillment, I was eating junk food between meetings and enjoying one too many drinks. Taking care of my health, was not a priority. No wonder I felt exhausted and suffering from burn-out syndrome. 

That is why I have a special understanding of women in higher education who make sustainable, lifelong changes ripples across their lifespan.

They are willing to make healthy choices, ready to educate themselves on losing weight in a quality way, but get stuck in their semester routine with weight loss. The majority are doing so well in August, but are falling apart by December.

And then everything changed

However, I decided that enough was enough and I want my story to help, inspire and empower you. I managed to lose the weight and kept it off, breaking my vicious cycle of overeating and overdrinking for good. 

Reaching out to a life coach revolutionized everything for me, making me show up for myself,  investing in myself and committing to doing the work of real transformation. Because I believe in helping and teaching by example, I wanted to guide others to experience life to the fullest. 

• Once I did the work myself, I became a certified life and weight coach to offer guidance to others on their journey to their better selves.

Why I do what I do

Being the best version of myself shows others what is truly possible. I am an example of what is possible and taking care of my own physical and mental health has created the foundation for my life success.

I believe that when people stop bad habits, they unlock the ability to go after their dreams, setting things in motion. 

My top priority is now my physical and emotional health. It can take some time to make it work and I want to help other academics unleash their power to do the same. They have such amazing work to get out into the world and overeating doesn't have to hold them back.

Academics have great ideas to share with the world, trying to reach as many people as possible, but we cannot do that at the highest level unless we are taking excellent care of ourselves. 

Photo by Allie Smith on Unsplash

What I do

Everyone who enters the journey of self-discovery and self-empowerment realizes they had the power all along. I just provide the help they need to get out on their own. I can also show them how to refocus those intelligent brains to work in their favor.

In order for you to get the results that you want, I am a strong believer in 1:1 coaching sessions where we can create together an outline naming all your obstacles, plus strategies and tips to overcome them. 

With my help, you will be able to go introspective on understanding why your circumstances are neutral and how to run an analysis of the reasons why you don’t take action. All of these can lead to the discovery of existing beliefs that sabotage your productivity.

After assessing where you stand, I can guide you on learning how to allow urges and unlearn desire, give advice on how to plan for difficult situations. Then we'll also create a plan on how to handle the discomfort, with a clear focus on defining the tangible results you want to achieve in our six weeks together.

All these will help you unleash your inner strength, helping you create the feeling that fuels action, leading to the implementation of pro-activation instead of procrastination.

My work is to teach you how to believe something you don’t yet believe while coming up with proactive plans for you without judging. 

How my work can benefit you

Decisions that will benefit your life in order for you to feel and look great aren’t that easy to make because you will need to discover the cause of your overeating and how it relates to your life, learn how to allow for food urges, but unlearn desire and determine what to do when you have upsetting life events.

Under my guidance, you will enjoy your own individualized food protocol in order for you to get the results you actually want. Teaching you how to allow discomfort throughout the process of weight loss and learning how to plan ahead for difficult situations will end up developing exception plans and embrace the joy of eating. 

All these steps will create a new mindset where you will discover what desire is and where it comes from and help you change self-depreciation to curiosity. One can obtain lasting change only by getting to the root of the issue and I can guarantee you that you will see a difference in your actions and lifestyle.

How I do it

As a life and weight coach, my work consists of showing you your beautiful brain. I don’t believe in the authoritarian approach in which I end up telling you what to do. You will realize through our process that you actually have all the answers inside of you. My job is to help you see that for yourself, so you can make true progress and feel good inside and out. This is how you can actually lose weight for good, stop overdrinking, and end procrastination.

I have designed a six-week program where I will guide you through making decisions and help you to follow through several steps along the way, steps tailored specifically to your needs.  We’ll cover the result you actually want, obstacles and strategies, what desire is and where it comes from and how to change your judgment of yourself to curiosity and to explore your mind.

I know it can feel overwhelming like there’s no way breaking the vicious cycle. But I believe you can do it and I want to help you learn how.

In the end, it is about true change. And true, lasting change comes from getting to the root of the issue that keeps you stuck in the cycle of procrastination. Changing your thoughts and mindset can and will result in a difference in your actions and lifestyle.

What is the next step

What I mean by 'leading by example' is that I believe my success can become your success.  I want to help you become your best self. 
So, let's work together and overcome the need to overeat or drink too much and become unstoppable in what you can accomplish. Once you do that you will realize that you can really enjoy life to the fullest.