The Mindset Of A Champion Blog

We’ve all experienced it – being ‘in the zone’… What an incredible feeling it is. Today, I thought I would clarify a few things about the ‘zone’ or as experts call it, the concept of ‘flow‘ which I think was coined by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, author of the book Flow. What you might not know is that flow is achieved when you experience a balance between external demands and internal skills.

Flow - Being In The Zone

When this relationship is 1:1 between difficulty and ability, the door opens and you can step into the flow. Because this is a balancing act, it’s a fleeting and rare experience. When the balance tilts with external challenges surpassing aptitude, anxiety is usually the result and conversely, when the balance shifts to your talent outpacing the demands made of you, you get bored, even sloppy.

You know you’re in the zone or flow when:

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Last year, I competed in the 2009 World Masters Championships and I lost the Bronze Medal in my division by 6 points and the Silver Medal by One Game or I increased my ranking from a ‘Top 50′ to #18 in the world. Which one do you think I focus on?

That’s right – my ranking – NOT because I didn’t win a medal, but because I went in with the explicit outcome to INCREASE my ranking from a Top 50 to Top 32. Getting to within the Top 20 was HUGE accomplishment, but that’s not the point I want to make today.

The result doesn’t change over time just because I got so close to a medal. If I didn’t have the Mindset Of A Champion, I’d hate myself for losing, when in fact if you asked me BEFORE the competition, would I be happy with a top 20 ranking, I would have said “YES!”

But y’know what?

Easier said than done.

Distorted Retrospective Perceptions

I can see it in people’s faces – the ones who understand this and the others who don’t. The expressions give them away.

Your lesson for today is simple, but not that easy. Set yourself an outcome or goal and WRITE IT DOWN. Go ahead and compete and then RETROSPECTIVELY evaluate the result. Be honest with yourself and you’ll see your orientation and attributions will come into play.

Master yourself and you’ll master your sport.

This is a classic and says it all – “Clear The Mechanism” might not be catchy, but when you can do this, YOU are in TOTAL control, unstoppable, in the zone, the flow… At your ultimate very best. Learn to clear YOUR mechanism and watch what happens to your performance.

I recently competed at the 2009 World Masters Championships and ‘ALMOST’ had this mastered, but not quite – I know it’s one of my Next Best Steps to (excuse the pun) focus on. With bad refereeing (not biased, but just plain bad) this ability is paramount.

A friend who is a champion plays every point without distraction – like a ‘robot’ – totally in control. THAT is SELF MASTERY. That is the Mindset Of A Champion. This video is what I use to get into the ‘ZONE’.

In business, I call it Management By Metrics, but in sport I guess I should call it Mastery By Metrics. The question is “How do you know how well you’re playing?” Today’s post is one of the ways I do it as an elite squash player.

These photos are self-evident, but the question for you is how do YOU know how you’re progressing? What feedback mechanisms do you have in place to gauge progress and development?

Squash Racquet Strings Usage Comparison

You want to consider this on an on-going basis so that whenever the opportunity arises, your Reticular Activation System (RAS) will pick up on it.

Squash Racquet Strings Usage Close Up View

In future posts, I’ll share additional feedback mechanisms I use. Of course if you have some you’ve used in other sports, by all means share them with me so I can share them with our readers!