EXPERTISE A FUNCTION OF FOCUSING

“If people know how hard I work to gain mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.” Michaelangelo

The person who has probably most emphasized the relationship between focus and expertise is Csikszentmihalyi and his work on the phenomena of flow. For him, to get into the flow zone meant a special kind of thinking, a special kind of attention, what he described as a near-total concentration on the task at hand. In searching for words for this state, he called it an altered state, a hypnotic state, and a state of absorption. In this state of focus, you would be doing no multi-tasking because of the intensity of your focus.

This focus state would also be a state of mental clarity in each and every stage. First mental clarity about your goals, then about your actions in reaching your goals, then about your problem-solving and decision-making as you identified the specifics for reaching your goal. For Csikszentmihalyi this mental clarity was something you had to work for in terms of your thinking skills and abilities. It does not come to the mentally or physically lazy.

Speaking about the effort it takes, it was Csikszentmihalyi who came up with the two axes, challenge and competence. When a person unites both in a singular action, she enters the flow zone. If there is ability to perform and the focus is entirely there, then one will easily get bored and enter into the drone zone. If there is the ability to take on the next level of challenge, but only to do that, then one enters into the panic zone of anxiety and stress.

For the excellence of the flow zone, you have synergize both challenge and competence. In Neuro-Semantics we do that with the Meta-Coaches and the Trainers by using deliberate practice—constantly adding a bit more challenge to whatever level of performance a person can achieve. Doing that keeps you in the flow zone—always learning, always getting a bit better, always moving toward excellence.

Now to do that, welcome the next level of challenge even if it scares you. By doing that you can transform your fears into a challenge. The amazing thing is that when you frame it as a challenge, your fear becomes a compass for you. And eventually you can learn to

enjoy the risk as you look forward to the challenge as the next to step up to. As you keep doing this, you’ll experientially discover that risks are always relative. What is a ‘risk” at one time, becomes ‘nothing’ at a later time. The more your skills and competence increase, the less your sense of risk. You’ll also discover in your experience that risk is actually needed if you are to stay in the flow zone.

Whatever you are currently doing to become more skillfully competent, how much of a sense of risk do you feel? If none, then you’re playing things too safe. And you are probably selling yourself short. If it is too much, you are in danger of getting overwhelmed and too anxious and giving up. So aim for a moderate amount of risk—perhaps 5% more challenge. Push yourself to reach beyond your current level of skill. You will need to find the sweet spot for yourself as we all do. If you are a coach or trainer, sit for assessment! Scary? Good. It’s good because when you don’t know what’s going to happen, you pay more attention.

To find the synergy between challenge and competence, you also need the right attitude. You need a mind-set that allows you to stay flexible so you can adapt. The risk of acting is not about “success or failure,” it is about learning, improving, discovering new insights. The motto in Silicon Valley has been, “Fail early, fail often, fail forward.” And that’s the attitude—failure is a tool for progress. No wonder experts themselves often say that the path to being exceptional begins when you decide to be responsible for your actions no matter the situation. Notice the response you get, if it is not what you want, learn from the experience, and go for it again. Maybe, just maybe, that’s what Michaelangelo meant in his quotation at the beginning of this article.