The Zone

If you’re looking for the direct answer to try and enter “the zone”, look elsewhere.

Better yet, look inward.

I watch a lot of sports. Baseball, basketball, football, hockey, golf, Aussie rules football.

I’ve played quite a bit of sports, as well. But no one will ever confuse me with a professional athlete. Except for the time someone said I looked like a white version of Kyle O’Quinn.

I’m always fascinated when a player enters the zone. The moment when your state of mind and muscle memory work in perfect harmony.

I describe the feeling as floating. Or having an out-of-body experience. Auto-pilot, if you will.

I’ve been in this zone, yet I have no idea how I entered it.

I’ve listened to countless athletes give interviews, discussing how they enter the zone. They, too, don’t have an answer for it.

It just happens.

It’s the perfect recipe of preparation, mindset, and circumstance.

So easily explained, yet entirely unexplainable.

I saw Steph Curry with that look in his eyes during the 2024 Olympic Gold Medal game against France. That same look that Tiger had on the Sunday of the 2019 Masters. That look was also shared by Madison Bumgarner in the 2014 World Series. Tom Brady had it as soon as the Patriots went down 28-3 in Super Bowl LI.

Afterwards, they were asked about these moments. They trusted their preparation. They trusted their team. They trusted themselves.

They were in the zone.

However, even when the best athletes in the world want it the most, they can’t get there. How did Tom not channel this when he lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl (twice)? How did Steph not get in the zone for their Finals loss against LeBron and the Cavs in 2016?

Getting into the zone feels like luck.

And a lot of it is luck. I won’t deny that.

But a big part of it is doing the work. When nobody is watching. When you’re exhausted. When you think you have nothing left to give. You push.

When the moment is right, you’ll be ready. You’ll rise to the occasion. You’ll enter the zone.

As a founder, I’m so fortunate that I can enter the zone from so many different directions.

The obvious, and most rewarding, is at a catering event. That’s game day. My big stage. My moment. After those days are over, I expect confetti to fall from the rafters.

I’ve entered the zone on sales calls. On production days. Working in Excel grids. Writing this very blog, at this very moment.

Entering the zone is a privilege. But you don’t get to enter it if you don’t do the work.

Make a promise to yourself this week. To put in that extra bit of effort. To work a little later. To think a little harder.

Because one day, when you need it the most, you’ll be Michael Jordan in Game 6.