In basketball, and indeed in all sports you hear athletes talk about being in the zone — that unstoppable spot where you don’t even think about whether a shot is going to go in or not, it’s just going to go in. Basketball players talk about the basket seeming to become enormous.  Quarterbacks in the zone can’t even think about an interception, they are single mindedly assured that the ball is going into the end zone for a touchdown. Tiger Woods can go into the final round down 7, and then kick into the zone. This psyches his competitors out of their zone and he wins. Why? Because he knows he is going too. When you are in the zone you play above your physical gifts and you don’t even think about the alternatives.

Juxtapose to “The Zone” is “The Fog” — that space where clarity becomes opaque, direction is obscured, fear/doubt/pessimism and bad habits abound. Top athletes have learned the self talk and routines to help keep them out of this fog as well as the practice routines that lead to the correct habits. Those who don’t can only rely on physical capabilities for so long before the thought processes that control physical movements put a limiting barrier on the athlete’s performance.

Athletics is a great window into human performance and something to which it is easy to draw an analogy. In reality, life, family, business … roles and responsibilities in general … are much more complex than a sporting event. We need to find that “Zone” in our lives where we feel confident that our involvement will deliver great [fill in the blank] (relationships, marriages, families, businesses, communities, churches, actions, product delivery, sales etc.).  Zoners who inspire me are people that boldly lead, empathically listen, fearlessly confront, lovingly prod, patiently counsel, intelligently think, humbly submit, proudly stand, caringly hold, correctively repent, selflessly give, prayerfully plead … always knowing that they are an important part of a much greater plan. Life’s challenges don’t take them off track. They see these as part of the experience that will help them learn and develop. They always know that they will succeed and bring those they associate with hope and empowerment as well.
Those people on the other hand that live in “The Fog” tend to worry, be pessimistic, doubt and second guess, feel alone and helpless, commiserate (misery loves company), feel that they are unlucky or that nothing ever seems to go right for them. These and other self-destructive behaviors lead to decisions that are incorrectly made or made for them.

I believe that we all want to live in “The Zone.” It is so easy to have our aspirations and goals launched by periodic expeditions into “The Zone,” yet our feet stick around for the effortless foot message offered by those people, habits and situations reaching up to pull us down. Being part of others’ growth is a formula that helps each of us grow, and we have a great environment here at Obeo hopefully to help effectuate that. By living there we will all perform better. So the next step is to ask ourselves, “Am I Zonin’?”

-Glade Jones CEO