Excel Sheets to Inner Peace…Finding My Zone in a Book Club.
I am part of a book club. It is awesome.
I’m leaning into my nerd and loving it.
This month was ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ by Timothy Gallweiler.
Growing up, I obsessed over goals and worked hard to fulfill them.
I printed out Excel sheets and used colored-coded markers.
Each weekend and school break was wet gear, army-style training camps, and spaghetti.
95% of it I despised. But that 5% was worth it.
Until I accomplished my goal of sailing for Canada in Ireland but had a breakdown after.
My new friend Andrew expressed a brilliant insight;
Aren’t goals just a way to satisfy ourselves into believing that we can achieve greatness?
This blew my mind.
It challenged me and is the reason I am adoring the club.
I took a step back.
Am I not reaching my potential because I am determining what that is?
Not the way I operate at least.
If I don’t understand my direction, I have trouble having the motivation to move forward.
But, I’ve learned over time I need to pace myself for sanity.
The goal of the book?
Letting go of our inner talk, good or bad.
Coming to terms with the knowledge that it isn’t helpful and never will be.
To me, that means being in the zone in every step we take, effortlessly.
Let’s get there.
Leveraging Time
Alex also had a terrific thought;
Do we need constraints to operate at peak performance?
For me yes and no.
I use them all day, and then do my best to let them go.
Either I establish my own constraints, or others determine them for me.
I smash that eggy, kaley whole wheat bean burrito I made or pay triple for it and it’s less healthy.
Things add up… the worst-case scenario I see my GP sooner and fail on my budget.
When I choose one specific task, hit the timer on my watch, and go, I enter the zone easier.
After I’m done, if I go to a social to scroll to relax, I am in someone else’s constraint.
And somehow feel tense after.
Yes, we need balance, but I find I enjoy it more when it’s later in the day and I’ve earned it.
Rest, Recharge, Refresh
Gallwey must be a prophet.
In 1974 he said in the next 100 years your biggest competitive advantage is to have inner stability.
I agree.
So, how do we get there?
Enter ventral state.
There a three states of our nervous system, dorsal, sympathetic, and ventral.
Staying in a calm, ventral state all the time isn't possible.
Sometimes we need our fight or flight response.
The key is to return to that calm state as soon as we can
There are lots of techniques, and I’ve spoken about them before.
One recent discovery is using my feet to ground me.
They are the farthest away from my mind and have.
When paired with breath I find a steady anchor.
Plus it can prevent disease?!
Use your next distraction today as an opportunity.
Decide with intention which action will support you on your path.
Walk the road less traveled.
Momentum builds and the only force that slows me is a cheap thrill that makes me ill.
#bars
Ari