Can I "Get into the Zone" with NLP?

Whether you’re an Olympian, a professional, semi-professional, Saturday morning amateur, or a retired Sunday afternoon jock like me, let’s examine what triggering and anchor mean, and what you need to do to program it in your mind and get in the zone.

Flow or Being in the Zone was first described by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in his 1975 book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience as “a state of mind where your sense of self disappears, so does your sense of time."

Whatever you’re doing becomes effortless, automatic and unconscious. And, there is a sense of enjoyment, accomplishment, and happiness.”

I bet you’ve been there, in the zone I mean.

Have you ever been so deeply into what you were doing that you didn’t notice what’s around you, and several hours later realized that time had passed without you noticing?

And when you surfaced, you felt that you had experienced your best performance. This is what sports psychologists call “being in the zone!”.

Your ability to get into the Zone (the Flow State) is determined by your skill level and the challenge of the activity or opponent. When you have clear goals, get immediate feedback, and have just-manageable levels of challenge, your attention becomes completely absorbed.

However, to stay in the zone the challenge must hold your attention. If you’re bored or apathetic because the level of competition is low relative to your skills, your attention will drift. You become anxious when challenges exceed your skill level compared to competition. Your attention shifts.

A lot goes into being a pro athlete — hard training, raw talent, the ability to perform under pressure. You already know the importance of mental preparation when it comes to crushing your athletic goals.

For some stars, a little superstitious reasoning is the added edge they need to get into the zone.

If you wear lucky underwear, grow a championship beard, listen to pre-game music, or do a slow clap, the science shows that observing these rituals will help you improve your game.

The Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg, known as the “Ice Man”, always grew a beard and wore the same Fila shirt in winning five straight Wimbledon titles from 1976 through 1980.

Ben Roethlisberger wore a beard all during the Steelers' 2006 Championship season.

Adequate mental preparation is no simple feat. Goal-setting, visualization, and crafting that perfect mindset all take serious work, just like perfecting your sport.

The best performers in the world can get into the right state of mind especially in situations where their competitors are equal physically, technically, and tactically aware.

Soccer games are 90 minutes, but a player touches the ball a total of maybe 3 minutes in the game.

Rory McIlroy who spends about 4-6 hours on the course playing 18 holes meets the ball less than 15 minutes! And each stroke takes seconds.

Nomar Garciaparra used to refasten his batting gloves between every pitch. Was it a pre-performance routine or a superstition?

What about Dirk Nowitzki, who sang David Hasselhoff tunes before he shot free throws?

There is Neuro-Linguistic Programming (or NLP for short) strategy that you can use to GET IN THE ZONE. It's called Anchoring.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP for short) is becoming a popular tool among sports psychologists, fitness gurus, and top athletes. The programming in NLP refers to its practical aspects.

One of the most important techniques in NLP, and what you’re about to learn about in detail, is “programming” a specific cue to produce a desired mindset or attitude.

When you are at the peak of experience during an intense emotional state, an applied specific stimulus can establish a neurological link between the emotional state and the stimulus.

Anchors can be used by both coaches and players to produce different states of mind. The list is endless: confidence, motivation, focus, and relaxation to name a few.

Sports psychologists and NLP practitioners train athletes to access intense feelings by remembering when they performed at their very best and experienced winning states.

I am going to show you how you can program an anchor in less than 15 minutes. Sound too good to be true? Not when you have the tools. I am going to show you a step-by-step process that you can use today to create get in the zone.

Decide what state you want to anchor, whether it’s being calm and in control, confident, motivated or another mindset.

Recall a memory of your past performance where you were totally calm and in control, confident, motivated or another mindset. If you were excited about it and you were going to be an active participant in it and really tap into that. Now crank everything up.

Now, what I want you to add to this is the excitement that you felt about what was coming up. Something was coming up. Remember, in this memory, something’s going on that you’re going to participate in. You were excited about it. You’re motivated. MORE ...

All right. Good. Very good.

Now you can open your eyes and relax if you want to be counting down from 10 to break the state and distract yourself, or you can stay pumped up.

What have we done? We’ve installed an anchor, creating an association.

Before the game, or at a break close your eyes and snap your middle finger and thumb.

Check that the required state occurs. When you step into the moment for real, your mind gets you into the zone of play. It really is that easy.

And that’s it.

Just remember that what NLP does is, firstly, to recognize that anchors occur naturally and then show you how you can deliberately set a positive anchor or, equally importantly, collapse a negative anchor.

So remember, the next time you need to get in the zone, all you must do is SNAP YOUR FINGERS.

To learn more about how NLP can enhance your sports performance, visit Can NLP Enhance My Sports Performance.

Watch the Mihály Csíkszentmihályi Ted Talk: HERE