the Zone

“You’re right in the work, you lose sense of time, you’re completely enraptured, you’re completely caught up in what you’re doing … there’s no future or past, it’s just an extended present in which you’re making meaning …”  Mark Strand

What does it mean to be in the “zone”?    For some it is a magical experience where time seems to stand still and the mind and body are fused in harmony.   Some would call it the perfect moment a synchronous dance between the external world and your internal world.   Athletes are in the zone when they are at their peak in terms of experience, this harmony, or flow, or being in the zone often produces great results.

The key ingredients to getting into the zone include:

1. A clear goal

2. Activity that provides feedback

3. A focus that becomes intense.

The idea is to achieve a balance between anxiety (fear of failure) and not being challenged enough (the goal is too easy).   Somewhere between failure and challenge is the zone, a zone of mental harmony and maximum results.

 Some athletes prepare to get into the zone by using visualization techniques.  

“We have all experienced times when, instead of being buffeted by anonymous forces, we do feel in control of our actions, masters of our own fate. On the rare occasions that it happens, we feel a sense of exhilaration”, writes Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi the author of the book, “Flow”.      Getting into that experience even for a short amount of time is a worthy experience.   Staying in that experience for a long period of time proves to be a challenge.   The zone is a space between challenge and ability and as the ability increases there is a shift out of the zone.   If the challenge increases without a corresponding increase in ability then there is too much tension to stay in the zone.

The zone is a place of harmony, appropriate challenge, the right frame of mind and sufficient capability to maintain the experience.

When have you been in the zone?

What was it like to be in the zone?

What kept you in the zone?

The zone is emphasized in sport, but what about other areas of life and how do you get into the zone?

 

reinvention … you … your organization …

“People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.’

Warren G. Bennis

Reinvent yourself.    There is no denying that the rate of change for organizations are changing fast, yet many of our processes and principles rely on methods that are old, very old in an age of exponential growth.

In many cases we are using principles and processes that were developed for the industrial age and many  of those processes are outdated.   Organizations are struggling to find their identity in a time of unprecedented change.  

The old ways are indeed the old ways.   New ways of thinking and acting are required today and certainly for the future.  Gary Hamel a leader in business thinking has some suggestions on how organizations need to change.

After looking at the model Gary Hamel explores, what do you think you need to do to keep pace in the world we live in today?  

1. Adaptability – new ideas, new methods, new processes are informing organizations and people on how to act and thrive in an ever changing world.  How adaptable are you?

2. Resilience – the ability to respond to events quickly and without becoming overly emotionally constrained.  When change occurs are you quick to respond or do you find yourself trapped in the past?

3. Outlook – what does your future look like, are you focused on the past or on what you can do today?

4. Social Intuition – I notice people their actions and emotions or people blend into the environment and I don’t notice them.   What do you notice about the people around you?   Are they visible and important or invisible and unimportant?

5. Being self-aware -  Who are you?   Do you really know the answer?  Are you open to finding out?

6. Attention -  I have the ability to put my energy into the right thing at the right time or my energy is scattered and little gets accomplished.   Where are you putting your attention?

 Organizations implement processes that support their key goals.  Anyone who is a part of an organization needs to have personal processes that support their activity in that organization.   If you are finding yourself mimicking patterns of the past and struggling to adapt to the new organizational landscape then what things do you want to change so that you can contribute to a larger measure?

Reinvention isn’t something that others or organizations do, it is something you do to respond to fast change.   Practice being more adaptable, resilient, generating a positive outlook, being aware of others, being self-aware and putting your attention into the things that are the most important.  

Practice reinventing yourself.   Here take a look at what reinvention can do in organziations.

Joy – The responsibility equation

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.”   Albert Ellis

Joy, what is it?

Is joy happiness?   Is joy the sustained sense of well-being that we experience when our needs are met and some of our wants are met?   Is joy a sense of contentment in the midst of all of life’s circumstances?

Some people would say that joy has no definition, it is a state of mind that defies description.   It is a feeling that is different for every person.    Let’s look at an example, two stewardesses on a plane with basically the same job, the same pay, the same circumstances and yet one is happy and the other is grumpy.    The conditions on the plane are the same for both stewardesses, yet one is happy and the other isn’t.   What is the difference?

Where does joy come from?    Does joy come from things outside of you?    Joy seems to be manufactured by the interpretation of the situation you  see yourself in right now.   If you find yourself being anxious, upset, worried, fretting, angry, or depressed about how things are in your life there will be little space for joy.   If you find yourself at peace with what you have and where you are in life right now then you’ll probably sense some joy and happiness.

The difference it seems between feeling joy and not having joy is about taking responsibility for joy.   If you take 100% responsibility for your life then you will start experiencing more joy in your life.   Responsibility means that you are doing all that you can to create the outcomes you want in life for you.   It means that you are giving more, you are more concerned with others than yourself.  It means that you give with the expectation of getting nothing in return.

For many people getting more stuff provides some level of increased happiness yet that only lasts a short amount of time.   Hedonic adaptation takes over and that new car, new home, new bike, new clothes, or new something only has a short impact on happiness.      So while new things provide momentary happiness that happiness dissolves within a relatively short amount of time and as a result there is an increased sense of dissatisfaction which increases the pressure to get a happiness fix.

The responsibility equation replaces those momentary happiness fixes with a sense of long-lasting joy.   That is taking 100% responsibility for all things, giving more and doing more.   Think about it, what would living the 100/0 equation do for you?

Take a look:

Grow

“Don’t go through life, grow through life.”  Eric Butterworth

When did you stop growing?   How many books do you read a year?   How many educational events do you attend each year?   What are you doing to grow your personal brand?

For many people just getting through the day is enough, never mind adding more to it, more to do, more to learn, it is just too much for some.    In the world we live in today, just relying on what you know today isn’t going to be enough to allow you to compete in a fast changing economic and social structure.   Change is happening faster than ever before and for some people it is just too much.

How do you start on a journey of growth?   Perhaps you can start by doing something just for a few days, like 30.

What does it take to GROW?

1. Understand what you want?   Have a Goal.

2. Assess your current situation, understand your Reality.

3. Look at your Options.   What is available to you?  Or, what could you do?

4. Make a commitment, what Will you do?

Maybe you’re not the kind of person who likes to set 30 day goals and just trying something for 30 days.   If there is something you want to do  then start now.   Do it for 7 days and see how it feels and then do it for another 7 days.

For example.  Read a book.   Find a book you’d like to read.  Turn off the TV, and read for 7 days straight.   Read a little, read a lot.   Just find time to read each day.   Your imagination will be strengthened, your time will be invested rather than used up.

Turn off the News.   What have you found on the news that helps you to live a better life.   If you are like most people all you heard was that there were all kinds of problems happening in your part of the world.   The news wants to create the illusion that the world is a bad place to be.   Turn off the news and take the time to learn something new, or do something new.   Perhaps take up a hobby,  and create something.   Write a letter to a friend that you haven’t written to in a while.   Pick up the phone and call someone you haven’t talked to recently.  Use the time to connect to people rather than “listening” to what has happened.

What do you think?

Are you willing to GROW?   What is your GROWth plans for the next 30 days?

“No matter how qualified or deserving we are, we will never reach a better life until we can imagine it for ourselves and allow ourselves to have it.”   Richard Bach

be a peak performer

“The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do.”   Dennis Waitley

In the last blog post I talked about performance zones and looked at the definitions of the two lower zones, the excuse zone and the victim zone.  These zones are where many people spend most of their waking hours.   So many people are finding that life is nothing great and living like life is just a great big pain.   I’ll bet you know some people who are just existing and not enjoying life.  Is that right?   What are they saying and what are they doing?

Isn’t it tiring to listen to someone who is always telling you the reasons why they just couldn’t get it done (whatever that is)?    They always have a story of why they couldn’t and they certainly “would” have if ….

Notice the language that people use.   Is it filled with “Only if” or “If I …” or “I wish …”.   That isn’t the language of high performance that is the language of victim level performance.    Victim level performance takes energy away from others rather than elevating the energy.

What are the attributes of a performer or a high performer and how do you know you’ve met one?   One of the attributes is “energy”.  What kind of energy are they producing?   Performer’s generate energy and give it away and it becomes this infectious smile or attitude that radiates outward.

High performer’s exude energy and charge up others.   Even their bad days are only moments in time rather than most of the time.    High performers have bad days and they know that bad days aren’t the rule.   Low performers think that good days are unusual rather than the rare occasion.

The big difference between a top performer and low performer is the direction the energy flows.   It is a choice that each person makes on what direction their energy flows.   If it flows inward you’re not living your full potential.  If  your energy is flowing outward then you are giving your life meaning.

How do you create high performance?

1. Reduce stress in your life.

2. Increase personal learning

3. Feed  yourself positive material  (turn off the TV, the radio, the email, …)

4. Serve others … give your time.

5. Be clear on your mission/purpose in life.

6. Being intentional about creating high performance.

7. Develop your mental view of yourself – your personal psychology.

8. Being present … being in the moment (not the past or the future).

Eight steps to reach greater performance and all it takes is putting those ideas into practice.   Do you believe that living in performance or high performance is living a better life than living a life of excuses?   If you said, “Yes”, then what is stopping you from being the high performer that you can be?

“It’s not the mountain we conquer-but ourselves.”
Sir Edmund Hillary

peak performer …

“Don’t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour?s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What do you think is your normal operating zone?    By zones I mean “victim zone”, “excuse zone”, “performance zone” and “high performance zone” where you spend most of your time.

What zone do your thoughts and actions reside in most of the time?

With stress increasing daily and more and more jobs being lost in an anemic economy many people (over 10%) have lost hope, at least the hope that they would fit into a job that would pay the bills and offer some type of security.    When hope is lost the focus is in making excuses about “why” they are in the position they are in.   As time passes the feeling moves from excuses to being a victim.   The victim mindset is characterized by withdrawal and giving up.   At times the victim will lash out in anger with that anger being directed externally (it is someone’s fault) and with a strong need for sympathy.

What we need today is fewer victim’s and excuse makers and more performers.    Shifting the mindset from victim to owner (performer) takes work and a lot of work.    It takes recognizing that there are opportunities and it takes a desire to step towards opportunity rather falling into the pit of despair.

John Milton wrote, “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”    What we feed our minds we soon become.  If we feed our minds and endless stream of excuses that is what we become.  If we don’t believe we are good enough we will shortly become that as well.   If we rise to the level of our thoughts then when are thoughts are decidedly negative our results will be as well.

We choose our thoughts as we choose our performance.   Even though our circumstances may be challenging or very challenging we have a choice to make about out thoughts.   Are our thoughts going to meet the challenge or be beat back by the challenge?

Maybe you know someone who has given up and fallen into the mode of being a victim.   You might know someone with similar circumstances finding opportunity and taking action.   The difference between a performer and a victim are the thoughts rather than the circumstances.

Take a look at Louis Zamperini’s life and see how he was able to overcome  physical and mental abuse by keeping a positive attitude, a high performance attitude.

Next time, how to become a peak performer.

i’ll start tomorrow …

“We intend to take action when the idea strikes us. We
intend to do something when the emotion is high. But if
we don’t translate that intention into action fairly soon,
the urgency starts to diminish. A month from now the
passion is cold. A year from now it can’t be found. “
Jim Rohn

Tomorrow … that is when I’ll start, tomorrow.   It is easy to put off for another day, another week, another month, another year the things you would like to do.  Somehow something else slips in the way.   Maybe it is a good TV show that you really like to watch.   Of course it is easier to watch the show than to exercise.   Maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow never arrives.   It is a placeholder in our lives, it is an excuse to put off the hard work it takes to really make the difference in  your life.  I’ve met a lot of people who have put off today the thing that would make their life better. I’ll get to it tomorrow.    Eventually after many years the stories change from the things I did to the things I could have done.   “Only if …,  only if I had more time …, only if I had more money,  only if I was in shape, only if I knew more, only if …”

The “only if” story is the story about putting off today and believing it will be done tomorrow.  Really, tomorrow!    Is it really going to start tomorrow.

One of the greatest regrets that people have is that they “didn’t” go for it when they could have.   That means taking action on the idea when you are passionate about it.   Waiting for tomorrow for most people means not doing it at all.

A great idea can’t wait for tomorrow.   Take action today.

“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer. ”   Robert Browning

overwhelmed and frustrated

‘Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”  Pope John XXIII

More and more people are overwhelmed by all the things they have to do.   There is a list and another list and lists that have long been buried.   Lists upon lists of things to do and they all seem important and necessary to do.   It creates a sense of overwhelm and lower energy to do the work.    How do you move beyond the feeling of being overwhelmed?

The first step is to define and list all the things that are important to you, things you value and list them in the order of importance to you.    What is the most important thing?   Is it money, relationships, career, spirituality, family, health, personal development or something else?    Do you know what you value, what you place first in your life?    What are you placing first in your life?

If you value relationships and spend very little time growing those relationships there will always be a tug towards the values you hold and over time that tug will grow into more than just a tug.    When you are living in a way that doesn’t align with your values it is easy to get overwhelmed, frustrated and upset.

What steps can you take to overcome the frustration of being overwhelmed?

1. Write down all the things that are you feel need to be done. All of them, small or large.

2. How important are those things?  Do they need attention immediately, in a day or two, or longer (a week or a month).

3. Rewrite the list and put those things in the categorized of immediate, soon, and later.

4. Estimate how long it will take to do the “immediate” tasks.  Minutes, hours, or days.

5.  Which one is the most important of the immediate tasks to complete now.

6. Do it and get it done.

7. Now, how much time do you have left today to complete those “immediate things”?     Will you be able to complete these tasks?

8. What can be re-negotiated?   What can you do last?

9. Take a break … 10 minutes, refocus, re-energize, take in some deep breaths.   Relax

10. Start on the next most important task.

Now 10 steps may seem like a lot of tasks to do to just whittle down the immediate list to something that is manageable  and that is because it allows you to focus on what is the most important right now.   Work on lowering the stress by getting things done.  Little things create a win and may give you the energy to tackle a bigger item.   Keep moving forward through the list.   If you get all the immediate tasks done, work on something that is coming up.   Prioritize that list and do what you can.  Keep removing things off of the list.

It may take some time to shrink the list down but applying effort each day, doing what you can will help reduce that feeling of overwhelm.

If you can’t get it all done yourself, see who you can find that can help you.  Is there a friend that could spend a couple of yours shrinking your list.  Is there an employee that could take a few of the tasks.   Distribute the workload if it is more than what you can do alone.

If the work was given to you by someone else see if you can reschedule some of the work.  Get some help so that you don’t get too far behind.

“It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?”
Henry David Thoreau

activate … your life

“The way to activate the seeds of your creation is by making choices about the results you want to create. When you make a choice, you activate vast human energies and resources, which otherwise go untapped.” The way to activate the seeds of your creation is by making choices about the results you want to create. When you make a choice, you activate vast human energies and resources, which otherwise go untapped.” Robert Fritz

Change happens, sometimes it is forced change and at other times it is a change by choice.  In either case in order to make the change last there is a certain amount of physical and emotional energy that has to be invested in that change.  The amount of energy that it takes to create lasting change is known as “activation energy”.   That is the amount of psychological and physical energy that has to be developed by you to make a real change possible.

Imagine what it is like for someone with little confidence and low self-esteem to have the kind of energy that will permit change to occur.    They may have thoughts of changing and they’ll tell their friends someday I am going to lose some weight or quit smoking or do something that is life altering and that is the same story you’ve heard year after year.  Those are just thoughts of change there is no commitment to change.     Some people live in land of “should”, “could” and “would” which mean a life of perpetual disappointment.   “I should do something but ….. “, they would say.  Or, “If I had _______________  I would be able to _______________”, would roll off their tongue for the thousandth time.   There is no energy  or commitment to make the change.

People are desperate for something different.

Thomas Mann wrote, “There is at bottom, only one problem in the world and this is its name.
How does one break through?
How does one get into the open?
How does one burst the cocoon and become a butterfly?”

Our brains see change the same way it sees fear and it reacts with the same powerful force as it does when there is something is threatening you.   You’re not going to think about running if there is a bear right behind you, you’re going to run (bears can run 30 mph so it doesn’t make sense to run, but we’ll use it for now).   Now think about the amount of energy it takes for you to get up and run full speed, it takes a lot.   It takes that kind of effort to make personal change as well.     Instead of making a change the brain says “No, you don’t need to do that” and of course that is what you do, you don’t do it, you do something else that is less threatening.     It takes a serious shock to raise the level of energy up to the activation energy level for change to occur and the brain just isn’t going to let that happen because you can think about it.

Think about any change effort you have made, what did it take?   How did you sustain the effort?

To make change happen you have to be committed to making the change, you have to override the brains message to you to “give up”, to “go back”, to “do something else”.   You have to have what is called “passion” to change.

If you know you should change, do you have the passion to make that change work?

“Change is avalanching upon our  heads and most people are  grotesquely unprepared to cope with it.”  Alvin Toffler “Future Shock”

mediocre me …

“People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.”
Andrew Carnegie

mediocre - lacking exceptional quality or ability; “a novel of average merit”; “only a fair performance of the sonata”; “in fair health”; “the caliber of the students has gone from mediocre to above average”; “the performance was middling at best”

Maybe you know someone that lives a life of mediocrity.   What has that life brought them?   Is the mediocre life the kind of life that you would want to live?

Take a look at mediocrity, is this what you want?

People what to live extraordinary lives and at the same time rarely take the steps to live outside of mediocrity.   Think about the tons of self-help books that exist and the tons of self-help programs that are available and think about the vast ocean of self-help CD’s.   People buy the programs, read the books, listen to the CD’s and return to mediocrity.   What are you doing to live a life that is beyond mediocrity?

When was the last time you talked to someone who would work with you to move towards an exciting, positive rewarding goal?   When was the last time you took your life seriously?

What can you do to move beyond mediocrity?

1. Turn off the TV.  There is nothing on TV that adds value to your life.  What is there subtracts value from your life. 
2. Get the right amount of rest.   Get 7-8 hours of sleep per night.  Sleep is necessary to be fully alive during the day, mentally and physically alive.
3. Start exercising.  Even if it is just for a few minutes get out and start a regular program of exercise.  Find someone who can exercise with you if exercising alone isn’t your thing.   Moving is important for mental and physical capacity.   Life is stressful as it is and exercising is just one way to lower the stress.
4. Eat the right foods.   So many of the problems people face today are lifestyle choices.   Diabetes is a lifestyle choice for the most part.   People can either choose to eat low cost high calorie diets or they can choose to eat foods that are healthy. 
5. Create a plan for your life.   Mediocrity stems from drifting through each day.   There may be a goal but in most cases it is just getting through today and then doing it over again.  It is no wonder that people are “checking out” and finding TV as a way to get away.   Create a plan and start working on those goals.   Start with a 5 year plan and define what it is and where you want to be in five years.
6. Improve you.   Spend the time and energy to improve who you are and the skills you need to be successful in the world today.   The “old” world, the old way, are gone.   It takes new skills, new abilities and new ways of thinking to compete in today’s global economy.  Become an expert.  Sometimes it takes digging deep into who you are to find out what it is that really makes you come alive.  Find out what it is and then start moving forward.
7. Read.   Reading is an easy, inexpensive way to improve your personal results.    Start reading the kind of things that improve your value to yourself and others.

8. Get help.  Work with someone to push you towards higher levels of performance.  Doing it by yourself isn’t working is it?   Getting more out of life in this fast paced world isn’t going to happen if you have to do it alone.  Maybe a few people are able to push through the briars and thorns but most people aren’t able to move in the direction they want alone.

9.  Make the time.   So many people say, “I don’t have the time to ….” and it’s true.   There is less and less time for “you” because of all the distractions that you can sign up for.   It takes time to go to the gym, it takes time to prepare meals, it takes time to get ready for work, it takes time to do the household chores, it takes time for everything but “YOU” and “YOU” are important aren’t you?   Make the time to take the time for you.   If it is one day a week, take that time to focus on bettering you.

10.  It costs too much.   It costs too much to be mediocre?  Improving yourself, either with coaching, attending programs, and working on being excellent will improve your life.  It takes time and it might cost money.   If you can pay for cable TV, if you can pay for “extras”,  if you can pay for things you don’t “need”, then it isn’t about the costs.  It is about the priorities  you are making for yourself.

In 5 years where do you want to be?   Do you want to be living a life of mediocrity?   Make a choice and start living beyond mediocrity today.

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be.   If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”  Mahatma Gandhi