What pro athletes know could make your business more successful. For athletes, being “in the zone” means reaching a state in which your mind and body work in harmony. You’re calm, yet energized. Challenged, yet confident. Focused, yet instinctive.
Former sprinter Mark Richardson described being “in the zone” as follows:
“It’s a very strange feeling. It’s as if time slows down and you can see everything so clearly. You just know that everything about your technique is spot on. It just feels so effortless; it’s almost as if you’re floating across the track…”
While you may not be an Olympic sprinter or a basketball star, you can work at getting your business “in the zone,” achieving that effortless sense of harmony that comes from fine-tuning your skills.
In a LiveScience.com article, Dan Peterson references Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience to share 9 components that can help you get in the zone. Here we detail five:
1. Challenge-skills balance. This happens when you have enough confidence in your skillset to help you meet any challenge your clients might throw your way.
2. Action-awareness merging. This is like tunnel vision, when you’re concentrating so completely on the task at hand that you become lost in the activity.
3. Clear goals. Setting goals can increase your motivation and provide you with a sense of challenge. Set some long-term goals, but don’t forget to set short-term goals too.
4. Unambiguous feedback. Athletes get this from coaches and fans in the form of immediate feedback. You can get it from colleagues and clients. Often the unambiguous nature of the feedback can be retrieved through regular surveys that will enable you to adjust your approach and processes in order to be more successful.
5. Autotelic experience. Peterson says this is achieved “when you feel internally driven to succeed even without outside rewards. You do something because you love to do it.”
Learn New Skills and Get “In the Zone”
You can expand your business and make more money by adding tax preparation services to the menu. The Professional Tax Preparer program can help you learn those skills quickly and efficiently. Call Universal at 1-877-833-7909 to sign up for training that can get your business “in the zone.”
Resources
–. “Get in the Zone.” MindSportLive.com
Peterson, Dan. “How Do Athletes Get ‘In the Zone’ of Peak Performance?” 2 June 2010 LiveScience.com
