Seminars and Workshops
"What's the Zone of Peak Performance?"On July 7, 2019 Steve Randall taught a seminar on the 'zone' of peak performance, contrasting the first and third levels of TSK, and including third-level quotes on twelve dimensions that may be helpful in embodying the third level.
What is the zone? Why do athletes have trouble describing the zone? Why isn’t the best way of doing things just common knowledge? Can we describe the zone in terms of personality styles or attitudes? Virtues, or spiritual qualities? Video for the seminar is on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/K1gjAPg613k Script for the seminar
Exploring the Zone Ppt script Slide 2 Objectives 1. Discuss what a vision of peak performance might be like, and what it could offer us 2. Inquire about and identify essential qualities of our peak experiences 3. Compare to our typical way of being in the world and identify important ‘normally’ limiting presumptions, perceptions, and habits Slide 3 How are the ‘Zone’ & ‘Peak experience’ related? What do you think the word ‘zone’ means? What about the term ‘peak experience’? Are they interchangeable? American Heritage: (informal idiom) says the zone is “a state of focused attention or energy so that one's performance is enhanced.” [Merriam-Webster online dictionary: the ‘zone’ is “a temporary state of heightened concentration experienced by a performing athlete that enables peak performance.”] Murphy and White say the zone is a state of mind "in which one’s performance seems supernormal." (Murphy and White, In the Zone, 1995, ITZ, p. 3) The definition of peak experience comes from dictionary.com: “a high point in the life of a self-actualizer, during which the person feels ecstatic and more alive and whole than is usual.” [From Wikipedia: “Peak experience is a term used to describe certain transpersonal and ecstatic states, particularly ones tinged with themes of unification, harmonization and interconnectedness.”] I usually use the term ‘zone’ and ‘peak experience’ interchangeably, although the term ‘zone’ usually describes a performance of some kind, often athletic. Peak experience can refer to a particular state of being, with no performance implied. [I certainly don’t consider the zone a kind of special ‘place’ in the mind that we can ‘go to’ somehow to make everything right, or perform at our best.] Experiential aspects of peak experience constitute what I call the zone. People have empirically determined varied aspects of peak experience. These can be portrayed on a single diagram. But not every peak has the same identified qualities. Slide 4 Why study the zone? What if I want to travel to a particular part of San Francisco, say Embarcadero Center. How do I get there? What do I need to know? It’s helpful to know what the Center looks like. Perhaps I was there before, and I remember what it was like. Perhaps I can ask others what it’s like. It can also be helpful to know how it’s different from similar places. Suppose I meet someone from out of town, and I ask them which way to go. They might be able to tell me what the Center is like, and how it differs from other places, but they may still not be able to tell me how to get there from where I am. They may not know the directions, highways, neighborhoods (good and bad), construction zones, one-way streets, etc. There may be many ways to get there, but it’s useful to know both where you’re going, and where you are now, how the two are relatively positioned on a map, and also some information about the surrounding terrain and neighborhoods. Finally, there may be many different vehicles I can use to get there. Slide 5 Is there a balanced, general description of the ‘zone’, or peak experience? If it’s general--applicable for any person, environment, and task--it cannot be defined in terms of specific things, processes, or styles. This would confirm the idea that “The best things in life aren’t things.” [Defining such a vision is subtle, perhaps “the subtlest aspect of the learning organization—the new way individuals perceive themselves and their world.” (p. 12, FD)] If a vision didn’t tell us specifically what to do, perhaps it would tell us how best to do, or be. (In other words, it deals with how experience is structured, and not just with the content of experience.) Perhaps perspectives, frames of mind, world-views, & qualities of experience can define the zone. These qualities are in fact what stand out in statements about peak experiences by geniuses, mystics, and peak performers of all kinds. Take race car driving, e.g. Drivers in peak experience don’t talk about how to negotiate turns, deal with their fear, or other specifics like this; they talk about being one with the car, e.g. Finally, when applied to work situations, it should help balance productivity, quality, and well-being, rather than emphasize productivity or the bottom line’ as many organizations like to do. It’s pretty obvious that when people focus primarily on getting things done, it’s easy to burn out rather than having anything like a peak experience. Slide 6 Let’s explore all our past peak experiences a bit and see what we can learn from them. What were some peak experiences you had? Think of many different kinds. [Give examples: skiing, being in love, insight, lying on the beach.] We’ll take five minutes to recall these and make some notes about them. Note the essential qualities of peak experiences you recall. Not just the specific events, what you were doing, but what made the experiences very special, what made them your ‘best’ experiences. Now tell me what made them special, and I’ll record our results on the easel. [Let’s see if we can draw any conclusions. Do some of our experiences have some of the same qualities? Do all peak experiences have same qualities? Do peaks have same proportions of qualities?] Slide 7 Twelve Dimensions of the Zone can be explored (Simple Circle Diagram) Slide 8 This slide transitioned to the embedded Ppt file below. Twelve dimensions slides script Slides 1 and 2 Flow What happened to personal will, effort, and control? ‘Normally’ things take effort, discipline, will power, control; we have stress and struggle against some kind of friction and chaos that seems built into the world. With high involvement, things are spontaneous, effortless, seem to go by themselves in a frictionless flow. Action is powerful; things seem coordinated, synchronous, serendipitous. “We live in a very fantastic, magical world. There is no 'doer' or performer of the magic.” (p. 107, TSK) Are you applying effort or control to something that feels separate from you, or does your activity seem to flow effortlessly “by itself?” Slides 4 and 5 Creatifvity What was the source or cause of things? How did experience seem to arise? ‘Normally’ there’s a strong sense of sameness and continuity from moment to moment. Things are readily explained in terms of causes and important past generative events. People are quite habitual, have a very fixed identity, and exist in a very stable reality. With high involvement, everything and everyone seems to be mysteriously created anew each moment. “With our position not established in advance and our identity indeterminate, a new choice opens: We can be what we are manifesting.” (p. 148, DTS) Do things feel familiar, somewhat predictable, or even habitual, or does each new moment, along with all that appears in the momentary scenario, seem spontaneous and fresh? Slides 7 and 8 Accomplishment How did the experience of accomplishing things change? ‘Normally’ energy feels divided. We feel limited in what we can produce, strive against resistance, and seek satisfaction and completion at some later time. With high involvement, self merges with process, and fulfillment is naturally present, not projected into a future time. Coherence of energy effortlessly produces optimal results. Are you looking forward to being done with the work, or are you currently fulfilled within your work-in-progress? Slides 10 and 11 Objective space How did the experience of space, boundaries, objects, and the world change? ‘Normally’ space is like a container for objects, people, and events. Space is contrasted with things, extends in all directions, seems divisible, and separates things. Its volume is limited. With high involvement, space is not extended or divisible, doesn’t separate things, and is not limited in its accommodation. Things are space. “Space projects Space into Space. There are no fixed points and no fixed identity, but quality and character remain.” (p. 242, KTS) Do objects and events take up space and appear to be separate and dispersed, or are do they seem intimately connected in and even as one space? Slides 13 and 14 Mental space How did mind change? ‘Normally’ there’s a strong sense of separation between our mind and the outside world and others. There’s a stable sense of our self controlling or using our mind. With high involvement, subject and object don’t feel divided, nor do people’s minds. There’s no sense of a locatable center from which one operates. There’s a merging with what is ‘other’ in an interpenetrating space. “We are opening to the emergence of a 'knowing' which discerns that thoughts are 'going nowhere', 'getting nowhere', pointing nothing out.” (p. 57, TSK) Is there a private space or personal world that feels separate from everything outside, or do inner and outer, subjective and objective appear to be inseparable facets of the same undivided space? Slides 16 and 17 Identity How did the feeling of identity change? ‘Normally’ there’s a strong and continuous sense of self at the center of experience. With high involvement, the separate self disappears. There’s no ‘owner’ or director of experience, and little felt separation from others, events, and objects. Rather than separate existence, there’s identity with the ‘other’. “A new experiencer is called for—not the self, not mind or consciousness or any other agent of the self—an experiencer attuned directly to the energy of the present. A way presents itself: The experiencer can be transformed directly into light.” (p. 168, DTS) Is there a sense of self that stands apart from experience and externals, or do you feel identified with, or absorbed in, what is happening? Slides 19 and 20 Locus of Knowing Where did knowing happen? ‘Normally’ perception and knowing are directed by a central self and interpreted by mind. Understanding is largely intellectual and felt to arise in the located mind or brain. With high involvement, awareness is ‘with’ the content or object known. Understanding is not localized. Knowing doesn’t involve an act caused by a central self or mind. Full knowledge dissolves the 'distance' between knower and known that characterizes conventional not-knowing. With no distance, an intimacy of knowing emerges, and knowledge becomes inseparable from love. (Tulku, 1987, p. xlviii) Is knowledge simply something that you or others possess or lack, or is there a sense of being intimately part of what’s around you, knowing things that are happening ‘from inside’ them? Slides 22 and 23 Content of Knowing What happened to the content of knowing? ‘Normally’ knowing is largely limited to identification, judgment, thinking, categorizing, and sensing. Knowledge is directed, collected, and possessed by a self. With high involvement, there’s no subject-object duality. Awareness merges with content, event, or object known. Knowing is an illuminating clarity merged with object known. Knowing is spontaneous and unowned. “Refining this quality of clarity in everything, it becomes possible to use this clarity itself rather than ‘mind’ and ‘things’ as our orienting guide.” (pp. 281-2, TSK) Is knowledge only identification, categorization, judgment, and detached observation, or also an illuminating clarity merged with the subject being explored? Slides 25 and 26 Well-Being What happened to our typical fragmentation of being? How were health and wholeness? ‘Normally’ mind, body, self, and personality feel fragmented. Reason, emotion, sensation, and intuition aren’t integrated. With high involvement, all aspects of being feel harmonious, integrated or whole, complete, and nourishing. “An integrated, natural intelligence, unfragmented into reason, emotions, sensations, and intuition, is our greatest treasure, and our key to progress.” (p. xxxiv, TSK) Are there divisions among your self, mind, body, and personality, or is there a natural sense of wholeness, fulfillment, and satisfaction? Slides 28 and 29 Need and Fulfillment What happened to desire, need, and fulfillment? ‘Normally’ the self seems to need certain things and feelings and to avoid others. There’s a basic sense of lack or deficiency that the self tries to fill or satisfy. With high involvement, all experience is appreciated and immediately fulfilling; there’s no dependence upon any means for satisfaction. “We participate in an uncontrived intimacy. We are also absolutely self-sufficient in a nonegoistic sense. We can draw nourishment and energy directly from our own being, directly from Space and Time.” (p. 287, TSK) Are you driven by a need or a desire for pleasure, or is everything being found to be immediately and inherently fulfilling? Slides 31 and 32 Feeling of time How did the experience of time change? ‘Normally’ time feels like an uncontrollable and continuous linear flow from moment to moment. Past, present, and future feel separate, and we’re positioned in ‘the present’. With high involvement, there’s no feeling of time flowing, just timeless and positionless involvement in whatever’s happening. Past, present, and future don’t feel separate. “There is no duration remaining in which acts of perception might occur and no fixed place for a 'watcher' to stand: thus, there is no 'experience'.” (p. 52, DOT I) Do you notice a feeling of time flowing in the background, or are you timelessly involved? Slides 34 and 35 Feeling of reality How did reality seem to change? ‘Normally’ things are contrasted with space, and seem to have a particular inherent core of substantiality. With high involvement, things have an openness rather than some apparently characteristic density or substance. Everything seems ephemeral, a whole without separations or parts. “All existence and experience is like an apparition, a surface with no substantial core, no dimensions to it, no wider and founding environment.” (p. 199, TSK) Does reality seem solid, fixed, and substantial, or does everything seem somewhat fluid or dreamlike? |
Script (continued)At this point we returned to the Exploring the Zone Ppt
Slide 8 Diagram Here is the zone circle, which summarizes research I’ve done on the ‘zone’ of peak performance, and how it compares with our ordinary experience. This, with descriptions and quotes for these dimensions, appears in my book, Results in No Time. Twelve dimensions of enlightened experience, which can collectively be called the zone, are at the center. Our ‘normal’ experience is depicted on the periphery. These twelve dimensions can be used to measure our increasing or decreasing involvement as we work. Slide 9 The Circle of Life Central values of the circle describe how, best ways, to experience, which are independent of what we do. At the center are deeply shared values, and our most valued qualities. As we become masters in life, our experience changes from having qualities on the periphery to having those at the center of circle. Continuous improvement can be defined as increasing involvement, moving from experience at the periphery toward experience at the center whenever possible. By fostering this type of continuous improvement, we have an effective implementation of “Managing by values,” whereby the values are the boss, our principal guideline. We have a means for “Continuous improvement through a commitment to act on our expressed values.” MBV, p. 68 Slide 13 What's a General Description of the Zone? Considering only the time, identity/knowing, and space dimensions, we might say that zone experiences can be characterized by flow, glow, and zero: qualties of unobstructed flow (time dimension), luminous presence and positionless knowing (identity/knowing dimension), and complete and dimensionless openness (space dimension), with varying proportions of these qualities in different experiences. Thus using the term "flow experience" to characterize all peak experience, as Csikszentmihalyi does in the book Flow, can be misleading. Slide 14 What's not in the zone? We might note that such experiences are not characterized in the least by the presence or absence of particular ordinary objects, processes, or events. The anecdotes do not focus on conventionally designated things or events--which are what we usually focus on in 'normal' experience. Indeed, this fact is congruent with the saying that "the best things in life aren’t things." No wonder the zone is so difficult to recognize, or even to adequately describe! Slide 15 What's not in the zone? (2) But much more significantly, we find that all the zone experiences lack one or more of the common strictures, the typically stable, fundamental, and restrictive (at least compared to the zone qualities) experiential structures such as subject-object, substance, here-there, distance, and before-after. This freedom from 'normally presumed and persistent' restrictions is likely what makes zone experiences "so valuable that they make life worth while by their occasional occurrence." (TPB, p. 80) Although in themselves the anecdotes we examined do not imply the following conclusion, we might easily speculate that the ultimate zone experiences--perhaps of those who might be called self-actualized or enlightened--would be devoid of all strictures. Slide 16 What's not in the zone? (2) Although the zone seems to be a natural state of mind, all 'normal' and neurotic personal as well as culturally 'normal' complexes, habits, and strictures seem to limit the appearance of the zone, somewhat the same way that clouds limit our view of everpresent sunlight. Maslow's subjects said that their peak experiences were "reported as illuminations, as true and veridical characteristics of reality which previous blindness has hidden from them." (p. 102, FRHN) Yet many structures in our experience--for example, 'positive' habits and strictures like self-other, linear time, before-after, and substance-- are taken for granted, seen as features of normal knowing and perception, rather than being seen as limitations to well-being or performance. But apparently the more we break up and dissolve these obstructions, the more intensely and frequently the zone shows up. If this is so, whatever we can do to decrease the holding strength of habits and strictures will probably contribute to our improving performance, fulfillment, and awareness. This aligns with statements by Tarthang Tulku: "We may have had glimpses of a higher destiny, but to shape our lives in accord with that vision, we must learn quite specifically how to activate an inquiry that can cut through the structures of our present knowing." (p. 71, VOK) And: “Full implications of the . . . vision will reveal themselves most clearly through a focus on experience that calls the framework of experience into question.” (p. xxviii, LOK) Slide 17 Although the zone seems to be a natural state of mind, all 'normal' and neurotic personal as well as culturally 'normal' complexes, habits, and strictures seem to limit the appearance of the zone, somewhat the same way that clouds limit our view of everpresent sunlight. Maslow's subjects said that their peak experiences were "reported as illuminations, as true and veridical characteristics of reality which previous blindness has hidden from them." (p. 102, FRHN) Yet many structures in our experience--for example, 'positive' habits and strictures like self-other, linear time, before-after, and substance-- are taken for granted, seen as features of normal knowing and perception, rather than being seen as limitations to well-being or performance. But apparently the more we break up and dissolve these obstructions, the more intensely and frequently the zone shows up. If this is so, whatever we can do to decrease the holding strength of habits and strictures will probably contribute to our improving performance, fulfillment, and awareness. This aligns with statements by Tarthang Tulku: "We may have had glimpses of a higher destiny, but to shape our lives in accord with that vision, we must learn quite specifically how to activate an inquiry that can cut through the structures of our present knowing." (p. 71, VOK) And: “Full implications of the . . . vision will reveal themselves most clearly through a focus on experience that calls the framework of experience into question.” (p. xxviii, LOK) |
