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Discover your
Zones of Genius

A guided journey to uncover what energizes you, what drains you,
and where your unique brilliance lives.

The Four Zones

Based on Gay Hendricks' framework from The Big Leap, we've adapted it with a focus on how to apply these insights, and use them to make better decisions about your time, your work, and what's next.

The four zones describe every activity in your work and life:

✦

Genius

Effortless, energizing, distinctly you. Where time disappears.

★

Excellence

You're good at it. But it costs something to show up.

●

Competence

Fine. Reliable. Draining over time.

○

Incompetence

Tasks that don't play to your strengths. Minimize, delegate, or automate.

The goal isn't to live entirely in Genius — it's to see clearly, so you can make intentional choices.

Once you've mapped your zones, you can use that picture in a few ways: to redesign how you spend your time in your current role, to run new opportunities through a filter before you say yes, or to ask an AI tool to help you imagine jobs and projects that combine your Genius activities in ways you haven't considered yet. The map is the starting point.

Choose your pace

However you prefer to reflect — in one sitting or over two weeks.

Deep Dive 🔍

30–60 min

Work through all four zones at your own pace. Save progress with your email and come back anytime.

Daily Reflection 📬

5 min/day

One thoughtful question per day for 14 days. Build your zones map gradually through small moments of reflection.

Designed for real reflection

The daily path sends you one thoughtful question each morning. No theory — just prompts that help you notice patterns.

  • 14 carefully sequenced questions
  • 3 minutes per day, in your inbox
  • AI-generated insights after day 14
  • Review your full response history anytime
DAY 5 — ZONE OF GENIUS
Think about a moment this week where you completely lost track of time. What were you doing? What made it feel effortless?
2:34 voice note
Beautiful reflection. I'm noticing a pattern — this connects to what you said on Day 2 about energizing conversations. I'm adding this to your Genius Zone.

Map your Four Zones

How to get the most out of it: 1. Take your time.
2. Think about work and life, past and present.
3. Include what you do and how you do it.
4. Include specific examples.
Genius

In Your Zone

What can you not help but do — even when no one's asking, even when there's no payoff? (Think: what you do AND how you do it. Both count.)

Excellence

Good at it, but it costs you

What do people consistently come to you for -- that you're good at, but if you're honest with yourself, you don't look forward to?

Competence

Fine...

What do you do if you must, but you're not the best at it, and already know you don't love it?

Incompetence

Drains you and you're no good at it

What do you avoid and procrastinate on, or you just don't do well?

Want to keep reflecting over time? Switch to Daily Reflection — we'll save your Deep Dive work and build on it with 14 daily questions.

AI will analyze your responses and identify patterns, a Genius Zone statement, and next steps.

Daily Reflection

Day 1 of 14
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Feeling like you'd prefer to do the Deep Dive now? Switch to Deep Dive mode — we'll save all of your Daily Reflection responses so far.

Your Insights

Here's what emerged from your reflections.

Summary

Your Zones Map

Miss something? Feel free to add your own.

✦ Zone of Genius

    ★ Zone of Excellence

      ● Zone of Competence

        ○ Zone of Incompetence

          Go Deeper

          Want to generate other insights from your work so far? You might ask: List my revealed values. What's my mission statement? Write my decision criteria for what's next. What top 3 words represent me?

          What's next?

          Four ways to keep building on your zones insight.

          🔁

          Try the Other Mode

          Did the Deep Dive? Try the Daily path for a different lens. Did Daily? Go deeper in one sitting.

          🗣️

          Share With a Coach

          Download your summary and bring it to a coaching session or trusted mentor.

          📅

          Revisit in 3 Months

          Your zones evolve. Add a calendar reminder to come back and see what's shifted.

          💌

          Share With a Friend

          Share your genius statement and invite someone to discover theirs.

          Created by Jeanette Mellinger & Christina Riechers, based on Gay Hendricks' framework from The Big Leap

          zonesofgenius.ai

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          About

          This is a free side project. We built it because we've found the exercise genuinely useful — especially now — and figured others might too.

          Jeanette Mellinger

          Jeanette Mellinger

          Jeanette helps founders figure out what to build next — and how they want to build it. Previously a user research leader at Uber and BetterUp, she now brings those skills of empathy, curiosity, and customer discovery to help founders achieve "founder fit" and product-market fit faster.

          Jeanette believes understanding yourself is the key to building better lives and better companies. Her genius zone is building reflection exercises — so head to her website if you want more stuff like this.

          LinkedIn
          Christina Riechers

          Christina Riechers

          When Christina left Square after 9 years of building and leading Square Banking, she wanted to think carefully about her next chapter. Her dear friend Jeanette shared her Zones of Genius worksheet, and it helped Christina clarify when and how she thrived.

          She hopes this can also help you filter opportunities that sound great on paper, but don't bring out your own genius — and vice versa. One of her genius zones is building new products that people find useful — so she was tickled to help Jeanette bring this to life.

          LinkedIn