Written by: Dr. John L. Terry, III, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Named after the fabled Goldilocks who, after getting lost in the woods, stumbles across the home of three bears, who are not at home at the time of her visit. As the story goes, she finds three bowls of porridge, one too hot, one too cold, and one that was just right – and she eats it.
Goldilocks also discovers three chairs in the home, one too hard, one too soft, and one just right. Feeling tired, she goes upstairs to find three beds, one too hard, one too soft, and one just right. She curls up in the just right bed and falls asleep, only to be discovered by the Three Bears when they return home.
NASA adopted the story to define a specific region of space where scientists would narrow their search for extraterrestrial life, the “Goldilocks” zone.
According to NASA, the “Goldilocks Zone” is the habitable zone within any solar system in a galaxy where the range of orbits around a planetary body is sufficient to support liquid water within a given range of atmospheric pressure. Put another way, part of the hunt for water on other worlds means looking for planets orbiting a certain distance from their stars. Planets in this zone are neither too hot nor too cold – conditions that could be just right for liquid water.
According to astrobiologists, our galactic habitable zone likely starts just outside its galactic bulge. This area is about 13,000 light years from the galaxy's center and ends about halfway outside the galactic disk. Earth is about 27,000 light years from the galactic center, so we’re on the outside edge of what is considered the “Goldilocks Zone” of our galaxy.
If a planet doesn’t reside inside the habitable zone, it’s either too hot or too cold for liquid water to exist, creating atmospheric conditions that are too extreme for life to exist and flourish.
Within our solar system is the place of optimum performance where conditions are perfect to support life.
Earth is the place where it’s just right.
So, what does this scientific discussion have to do with success?
Everything.
If conditions are not favorable, the odds of a successful outcome of any endeavor or undertaking are diminished, often impossible.
Successful people understand they perform best within their own Goldilocks Zone.
The goldilocks principle
The Goldilocks Principle, as it’s often called, is about learning to operate in your area of greatest giftedness. It’s operating within the best use of your strength and talents to achieve a desired goal, objective, or outcome.
It’s the place of optimum performance where you achieve your best results.
It’s your Goldilocks Zone.
Vilfredo Paetro was an economist born in 1848. A gifted mathematician, Paetro used his talents to study economics, specifically an analysis of individual choice and how that affected economic outcomes. He uncovered what has become commonly known as the Paetro Principle, or the 80/20 Rule.
The Paetro Principle states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of the consequences a person experiences in life are determined by 20% of the choices an individual makes. Also known as the Law of the Vital Few, it recognizes that there are a few key choices, if made well, from which we can derive our greatest satisfaction and our greatest success.
It’s the place of our optimum performance, our Goldilocks Zone.
In short, it’s the place where it’s just right.
I have six children, each of them unique in their own way. They all have their own strengths, talents, and abilities. They also have their own weaknesses and shortcomings. They don’t all like the same things. Some things they do well, others not so well, and some things they shouldn’t even attempt to do because they aren’t good at it and never will be.
Can you relate to that?
Of course, we all can. Each of us has our own gifts, talents, and strengths. We all have our own weaknesses, shortcomings, and limitations. My wife is an incredible seamstress; I can barely darn my own socks. My middle daughter is a gifted artist; I can barely draw a stick man. We all have areas where we excel, and we all have areas where we do not.
Successful people learn early in life where their Goldilocks Zone is, and they choose to operate in it.
Why?
It’s there they experience their greatest satisfaction and success.
So, what is your Goldilocks Zone?
Short answer, it depends.
In the Goldilocks story, things came in threes. Three bowls of porridge. One too hot, one too cold, and one just right. Three chairs. One too hard, one too soft, and one just right. Three beds. One too hard, one too soft, and one just right.
Do you see the Goldilocks Principle at work here?
Each scenario had three outcomes, and only one of them was ideal.
What was ideal for Poppa Bear wasn’t ideal for Momma Bear or Baby Bear. Only one outcome was ideal for Goldilocks. And, in life, only one outcome works best for you – and it may well be a different outcome than what works best for me.
The Goldilocks Principle is about finding the area of your greatest strength and ability and operating there.
Why?
Because that’s where you’ll experience your greatest satisfaction and success in life.
To equate it to the Paetro Principle, it’s about finding the 20% of things you’re best at doing…and spending 80% (or more) of your day doing these things. It’s your “Giftedness Zone”, your area of greatest potential, the place of your optimum performance.
Too hard, too soft, and just right
The same Goldilocks Principle applies to our daily lives.
First, there is our Strength Zone, the area of our greatest giftedness. These are the few things we are great at, where we excel and experience our greatest satisfaction and reward. It’s our “20% Zone” where we are at our best, our finest, and where we can’t wait to get up each morning and do it again.
I’m a competitive guy who loves sports. When I was in school, I played football. I loved the sport, and I still do, but I weighed 135 pounds in high school. I was mediocre, average, but I wasn’t great. There were no college coaches banging down my door to get me to sign a contract for a football scholarship. The same was true in track and field. I was okay, but I wasn’t Usain Bolt.
But I found out I was really good at martial arts and found not only success but satisfaction. I was the 1 ranked forms, fighting, and weapons competitor in my division in a four-state circuit for four consecutive years. I went on to build successful martial arts schools and later went on to lead the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
I took the leadership and success principles I learned in martial arts and began teaching these to individuals and organizations through speeches, workshops, training events, and webinars. I have authored seven books (so far), and countless articles like this, and I love what I do.
Why?
I’m operating in the area of my greatest strength, the place where I can best use my talents and abilities to pursue my passion for helping others discover, develop, and deploy their own Black Belt Leader within.
I found my Goldilocks Zone.
Secondly, there is our Competency Zone, also areas of some giftedness, but not our best giftedness. These are talents we have, things we are good or okay at doing, but we’re not great at. These are things we can do if we have to, but we don’t really enjoy it and it doesn’t provide us with a real sense of accomplishment. We feel relieved when we’re done doing these things, but it doesn’t generate the same energy and excitement as when we’re operating in our Strength Zone.
For me, it’s detailed work like accounting. I can do it, I’m good with numbers, but when I’m done doing bookkeeping tasks, I feel drained and depleted, not energized like I feel when coaching, training, or speaking. I’m glad when its over, but if someone else wants to do this, then I’m okay with that.
I’m sure we can all think of areas if our lives where we can do something, but if given the choice, would say “Thanks, but no thanks.” When asked, we are capable, but it’s not something that gets us up in the morning ready to start the day with enthusiasm or excitement. It’s more of a sense of dread, and these are the things we often put off as we really don’t like to do them.
It’s too hot, too cold, too hard, or too soft. It’s not just right.
Thirdly, there is our Weakness Zone, and this is an area we need to avoid at all costs. These are things we’re not even average or mediocre at, but things we stink at doing. When someone is wondering WHO they could ask to complete this task, you’re the last person they would want to ask to do this because they know they would be setting you up for failure.
Put me in the water, and Michael Phelps had nothing to fear. Growing up, I was one of the few souls who had negative buoyancy, I couldn’t float. When I took swim class in college, what I thought would be an easy “A” for one of my PE credits, I discovered I wasn’t cut out for swimming.
The swim coach put us in the water, had us hold our breath, and reach down and grab our ankles. A few moments later, I felt him pat me on the head and looked up only to see myself floating about 2 feet under the surface of the water. He laughed, and told me he’d never seen that before, and wanted me to know, up front, that this was going to be a hard class for me.
I was never so happy with a “B-“ in my life as I was when I completed that class. And no one’s ever going to ask me to be the final leg of a swimming relay event, unless they are excited about coming in last.
Operating in your goldilocks zone
You and I, we all have our own Goldilocks Zone.
In my work as a behavioral intelligence coach and trainer, I’ve used tools like Real Life Management and DISC to help individuals find their Strength Zone, the 20% of their greatest giftedness and to help organizations align one of their greatest assets, their employees, with tasks and responsibilities best suited to their strengths, talents, and abilities. These assessments also highlight your deficiencies, the areas of weakness you should avoid, or minimize your time doing.
Other programs, such as Strength Finders, Working Genuis, and EQI do similar things. The goal of each of these assessment tools is to help individuals find their unique Goldilocks Zone so they can operate in the areas of their greatest strength and giftedness and optimize their performance and results.
It’s the place where it’s just right!
We know intuitively much of what we’re really good at doing. It just comes naturally to us. Those we spend the most time with also see your strengths and your weaknesses and can help you define and refine what you’re best at doing so you can spend more time honing those skills, getting even better.
We also know that when we’re operating in the area of our greatest giftedness, we are energized, excited, and motivated to keep going. We feel driven. Core competencies don’t give us that same feeling of energy and excitement. They drain us of energy, and if we spend too much time there, we can actually experience depression, anxiety, and ultimately burnout.
And who wants to operate in an area of weakness?
Nobody who truly wants to be successful in life.
One other thing to remember about the Goldilocks Principle is this.
What makes you unique, special, and incredible is different for each of us. As a species, humanity is incredibly diverse. Each of us is one-of-a-kind, individual, and unique. There’s not another person who has lived, or who will ever live, who will ever be exactly like you.
It’s why all of us are better than some of us, or any one of us.
But in order to experience a greater level of success in your life, you’ve got to apply the Paetro Principle to your life. That means you need to spend at least 80% of your time focused on the 20% of things you do best to optimize your performance and results.
It also means surrounding yourself with people who are great at the things you don’t enjoy doing or simply can’t do well. Applying the Paetro Principle once again, if someone can do a task 80% as well as you can, let them have that task so you can take if off your plate and focus your energy and effort on the 20% of things you’re best at getting results.
You’re giving others an opportunity to thrive in their Strength Zone, and continually hone their skills in this area, while you’re freeing yourself up to do the same. Why do something you are just average at, or can’t do well, when there are others who are highly gifted in these areas and are waiting for you to hand these tasks and assignments off to them?
One of the characteristics of high-performing teams is that everyone on the team understands their own Strength Zone and chooses to operate in it at least 80% of the time. The same can be said for high-performance individuals. They, too understand their Strength Zone and they spend at least 80% of their day engaging in activities optimizing the best use of their giftedness.
They each find their Goldilocks Zone, the place where it’s just right.
And they all experience more success as a result.
Final thoughts
Let me leave you with this…
Some things in life will be too hard or too hot for you to handle. Others will be too soft, too cold, too easy for you. And that’s okay. You were not created to be great at everything, only a few things. Find what you’re best at doing, your greatest giftedness, and focus your time and energy there. Delegate what you’re okay at doing, and especially those things you’re not good at doing, to others who can thrive in these areas.
That way, everyone’s operating in their optimum performance zone.
Everyone’s in their Goldilocks Zone.
The place where it’s just right!
Oh, by the way, if you’d like to learn more about your unique Goldilocks Zone, please visit here, scroll to the bottom of the Home Page, and take the 3-Minute Survey. You’ll receive a complimentary assessment summary of your strengths, weaknesses, and giftedness.
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Dr. John L. Terry, III, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dr. John Terry went from being bullied as a 13-year-old boy to becoming a 3X martial arts Hall of Fame inductee and multi-discipline Black Belt. What he learned along the way was not just how to defend himself, but how to become a Black Belt MASTER of who he was and what he did. Today, Dr. John teaches individuals how to discover, develop, and deploy their own unique “Black Belt Leader Within” so they can rise to their full potential as they learn to lead their lives with Black Belt Excellence. He is the founder of Black Belt Leadership, a coaching and training organization dedicated to developing world-class individuals who live their lives ON purpose, FOR a purpose.
