Into the Zone
The kind of mental conditioning that makes athletes into superstars also helps ordinary folks become extraordinary
In other words, if the peak performance state becomes merely an instrument, its resemblance to true flow will vanish. But there is no guarantee, of course, that this will not happen in any discipline or undertaking that one pursues, whether it be the making of pottery in the spirit of Zen or the playing of the piano in the spirit of the heck of it. When and if peak performance ceases to be the kind of activity that another quintessential American, Robert Frost, writes about in his poem "Two Tramps in Mud Time," then it might well become a lesser thing. Listen to the poet describe the state that he aimed for, and consider its possible relevance to our peak performance culture:
But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes.
With Carolyn Kleiner and David L. Marcus
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