Mindset Monday 1/17/11- FLOW while you compete Pt.2

Continued from last week…

Dr. David Lieberman describes this IDEAL STATE as he calls it:

"Your ideal state of mind is to have no ego and this is achieved by focusing solely on your objective. This will allow you to be unconcerned with how you are coming across and help you avoid second-guessing yourself. If you are absorbed with your objective, the "I" or the ego disappears and you can pursue your goal relentlessly. Focus only on the outcome, not on yourself."

Surely when Dr. Lieberman speaks of focusing on your objective, he means focusing on executing your mission, not on how to do it, and certainly not on winning. When you watch McElwain and Jordan below, they are achieving Flow by thinking about making baskets, not on winning the game. The winning is a byproduct of making baskets.
Letting Go and Trusting your instincts is another important part of attaining Flow. A common complaint among athletes is that they perform better in practice than in a match or a game. I believe that this phenomena of a "practice room wrestler" is due to the fact that in practice it is easier to LET GO. In practice, these athletes attain, if not, come closer to attaining Flow. They may experience tunnel vision to an optimal extent, not to the extreme. Fluidity and creativity is maintained as one is loose and relaxed with their muscles. Being too in the Zone would create extreme tunnel vision, and overall narrowing of the vision. This is likely what happens when a "practice room wrestler" competes, due to over arousal.

I do not know if there are different levels of Flow and if exists along a continuum, but I would have to believe this is at least somewhat the case. Either way, it seems the more into Flow one becomes, the better.

So if in practice an athlete can come closer to Flow, they will probably perform better (better not in terms of wins or losses, but rather in terms of competing to their potential). If its easier to Let Go in practice, then it logically follows that the athlete will be more into Flow and thus perform better.

A more technical name for Flow is what Sport Psychologists call Ideal Peak Performance State (IPPS). They say there are 7 characteristics of IPPS.

(1) Total Concentration (focused on the Here and Now. Living in the present moment).

(2) Clear Goals (the clear objective we spoke of earlier)

(3) Lack of Self-Awareness (loss of the ego and audience and audience evaluations).

(4) Unambiguous Feedback (Clearly seeing things as they are. Also includes no value judgements of good or bad associated with actions. Not thinking, yet not dreaming, ready for whatever may come).

(5) Sense of Control (In a sense that the person is competent enough to perform the task, the task must be a challenge, neither over challenging or under utilizing the person's present skills) It is a little bit of a stretch of the persons current skill level, hence it is within their control, and the person is aware of this

(6) Autotelic (Self-Goals) Experience (Intrinsic Motivation, the process becomes its own reward)

(7) Transformation of Time (Which some report, make time seem to slow down during the task, but paradoxically seems fast once the task is over).
How Does it feel to be in Flow? (basically corresponds with the 7 characteristics of Flow):

1. Completely involved in the experience. Focus and concentration.

2. Sense of ecstasy. Greater than normal.

3. Inner clarity. Knowing what needs to be done and how to do it.

4. Sense of Control (we spoke of just above).

5. Sense of Serenity (loss of ego and evaluations)

6. Timelessness (Happens in a flash, things fly by).

7. Intrinsic Motivation (we spoke of before).

Warch FLOW in action next week: Jason McElwain and Michael Jordan

Gene Zannetti
Peak Performance Specialist
One-on-One Consultation and Motivational Speaking
(908) 337-6143
genezannetti@gmail.com
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