How To Get In The Zone ...
By Not Trying

How To Get In The Zone:
If you've ever achieved the performance of your life, while experiencing the feeling that it was effortless, you were in The Zone. Everything you tried worked to perfection and yet you didn't even have to try.

Yet, if you've had one of those days when nothing went right, you felt like a complete beginner, and no matter how hard you tried - you just got worse, you were definitely not in The Zone.

The Zone has achieved mystical status in the world of sport and it is not surprising to see why. It’s a paradox. How can a peak performance be achieved with such little perceived effort? Surely if we are working at the very limits of our ability it should be hard work and not feel like a stroll in the park.

How To Get In The Zone - Not!

I believe conventional methods of sports training and exercise could be preventing the essential balanced state necessary to get in The Zone. I believe it's time to move on from the view that performance can be improved by simply trying harder or spending a high proportion of valuable training time on exercise drills.

Instead, we need to develop a more creative, mindful approach to our training. Ask most athletes how they entered The Zone and you will get a shrug of the shoulders. Is this not evidence that, even at the top level, there is still an element of the unknown in relation to human activity? Perhaps the way to The Zone lies in developing our skills of self-awareness above and beyond our current ability.

Anxiety, unnecessary effort and simply trying to get in The Zone will not work.

I believe The Zone is a primitive ability, maybe a survival tactic, that temporarily allows us to perform at our peak to escape extreme damage. If this is the case, surely it's an automatic function triggered by circumstances. It’s a place we arrive at when we let go and allow it to happen.

We cannot get there directly by deliberately trying any more than we can get to sleep quicker by shutting our eyes tighter - yes, I used to do that every Christmas Eve and it definitely didn't work!

If we are concerned about getting there, we introduce an element of effort that I believe is the opposite to what is required. Even elite athletes experience the Zone more often by ‘accident’ - they didn’t deliberately try to get there. One moment they are performing, the next it’s just happening.

So, back to the question - How to get in The Zone?

Okay, so we've established that you shouldn't try. So what do you do? When I'm asked by athletes and other sports people I coach how to get in The Zone, I take them back to the basics.

From experience, and coaching for over 15 years, I believe the only way is to first 'be in the moment'. This means not focusing on your sport, but your activity.

So what's the difference?

For example, running is not the activity - it's the end result of one foot, and then the other bouncing off the floor, swing from the knee, that brings your thigh bone along before dropping back down under your head - that in the meantime has caught up. okay, this does sound a little long-winded, but that's the limitation of language. To think it requires a lot less effort. In fact, it's just being aware of the movement.

How To Get In The Zone - Practical

1. Scratch the end of your nose.

2. Now perform the same procedure but this time be aware of the movement of your arm as your finger comes into contact with the end of your nose.

You may have noticed a subtle difference in the experience of two similar actions. The first way is your habitual nose-scratching pattern performed without much conscious intention – it would be practically automatic if done in response to a real itch.

In the second instance you are aware of the actual activity that has to take place in order to carry out your intention. You are consciously guiding and observing the action and therefore 'switched on' for the duration of the act in contrast to the first instance where you only switch on once your finger has arrived at your nose.

So for a brief time you are in the moment, existing in the 'real' world as you fully focused on what was happening and what was making it happening. It is also important to note that it doesn't require effort to do it the second way, just application.

This is just a simple exercise to show the difference between an automatic reaction and mindful, conscious activity. Obviously to be in the moment whilst running a personal best is more fulfilling than scratching the end of you nose, but the principle remains the same.

Being in the moment is a place we arrive at when we switch on, wake up and start living. Although athletes may use the term 'autopilot' to describe their visits to The Zone, I see this as a sense of the action being automatic but ultimately they are still in control of the decision-making process.

How To Get In The Zone - Step-By-Step

1. Be fully focused on the activity
2. To focus you will have to be in the moment.
3. To get into the moment, you need to be fully conscious of your surroundings, what you sense and your reactions.
4. To do all this you have to practise!

So whether you are about to take a penalty or open your front door, practice being conscious of what you are doing and it will become easier to get into the moment.

This is just a short introduction. Below, are details of my book (and new edition) that have all of my theories and dozens of practical exercises you can try to get into The Zone more often to achieve a peak performance.

When you're in it, it has to be one of the most rewarding experiences possible (in my view)!

Discover How To Get In The Zone
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