“We derive more benefit from the actions we take than the results
we seek.” - David Martin
Chances are you have been in “the Zone.” You know, that place where you played your absolute best, everything just flowed, you felt confident, you were focused, and everything around you was easy.
Chances are you felt calm and quiet inside, you had no worries, and you felt no pressure.
In “the Zone” you were focused, confident, calm, and in control. You moved easily and effortlessly. You were totally tuned into what you were doing, you were unaware of external distractions, you experienced a sensation of elation, joy and fluidity that was unexplainable.
It is that place where your mind, your emotions, and your body were totally connected. Would you like to get there more often?
What is “the Zone”?
“The Zone” is a state of consciousness where all of the body’s senses and functions (sight, hearing, taste, smell, emotions, thoughts, and muscular reaction) act in harmony with each other to achieve some specific task.
When you reach this state of consciousness, you experience what we call in NLP a sense of “Flow.”
You lose conscious control of your senses and functions and perform from a deeper more subconscious level of control. This is the ultimate place; it’s where you want to be to achieve peak performance on a consistent basis.
“Why can’t I get there?”
Most people are not able to get into the zone because of mental, emotional or physical distractions.
Mental distractions occur when you’re unable to block out external distractions like noise, weather conditions, crowd behavior, over-analysis, or just plain thinking too much.
Emotional distractions are feelings like doubt, fear, anger, frustration, lack of confidence or over confidence. Physical distractions include fatigue, lack of conditioning, injury, or soreness.
Many of these distractions can lead to unforced errors which contributes to pressure and can rob you of your confidence. Playing under these conditions will keep the door to “the Zone” shut tightly.
However, the biggest reason people fail to get into the zone is because they refuse to let go of conscious control of their performance. Conscious control is how they learn and it is the only way they know how to perform.
The only way to get into “the Zone” is to let go of conscious control and let the instincts take over. Essentially, you’ll be getting out of your own way!
It’s time to get ready for the next level.
The best is yet to come!
David Martin
