What Is the Zone? The Zone is the ability to perform at your highest level in whatever domain of life you wish to enhance. It is not a phenomenon exclusive to sports; the Zone exists in all arenas, including business, art, music, and sports. Most people who achieve the mental state and intensity of engagement don’t do so by accident – in other words, there is nothing magical about getting in the zone. It's real and it is attainable.
The Zone is a mental state in which your thoughts and actions are occurring in complete synchronicity. Through twenty years of clinical work and research studies utilizing neuro-imaging techniques, I have studied the biologic action of the brain when athletes are in the Zone. I've repeatedly observed ten essential characteristics that enable them not only to perform at an optimal level but transcend the distractions and everyday challenges that can hinder their performance. Indeed, the non-athletes, who were the controls in the same studies, reported that they had days at work and in their personal lives when "everything just went right"; when they couldn't "do anything wrong"; when they felt "connected to everything" they did; and when "things were effortless."
These ten characteristics form both the basis of my book, Finding Your Zone and also the platform from which you can develop the mental acuity, the emotional resolve, and the skills that will better your performance in whichever sphere of your life you seek to improve.
Like every aspect of our physical health, our mental health lives on a continuum that constantly changes. Our mental health fluctuates in response to what is happening in our lives (i.e. job stress, marital discord, substance abuse, mood and anxiety disorders or many other life experiences). All of these issues profoundly effect the way an athlete performs in competition or how a person functions at home and at work. Unless your life is in balance and you have good mental health, you cannot get in the "zone."
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months earlier I had contemplating quitting the game. Working with Dr. Lardon has been invaluable."