In the Zone!

Most people have heard about an athlete being "in the zone." As in, Michael Jordan's famous Flu Game. He was really sick, running a fever, dehydrated and unable to miss. He was in the zone.

Most of the time, the athletes describe the zone as "everything slowing down." Baseball players see the ball quicker, sooner, longer because the pitch -- still at regular speed for everyone else -- seems slow. There is more time to react.

I've been in the sport's zone once that I can recall. Maybe it happened more than that, but this is the time that sticks out. It was my freshman year at tiny Belfry, MT. I was on the 8 man football team (we had 12 players total on the team and played area 8-man teams, mostly JV squads). All preseason we'd practiced our typical 4-2-2 defense and I was one of the 4 down lineman. We also had a rarely-practiced 3-3-2 where I played middle-linebacker. Most teams will run the ball in 8-man, because of the small pool of players from which to choose -- some of whom couldn't care less about football but where coerced into playing by their classmates, so there could be a team -- most of the teams ran the ball predominantly. Busby, Montana was the first team we played and they came out in what was clearly a pass formation. So my coach was yelling "3-3! 3-3!" frantically. My head was spinning with first game jitters, but I got out of my four-point stance and dropped back into the middle right as the ball was snapped. I dropped back for the pass that was coming and everything slowed down. I mean SLOW. It was great. I saw the drop-back, the small QB look right through me and then loft a pass over my head. My brother was one of the DBs -- the '2' in both formations were the defensive backs/safeties -- and he was covering a receiver going deep while I had the slot in the flat. The pass was out and high with no real speed. I raced back and just about got to the pass before it fell incomplete. My first football play in high school. Not a huge success, but I was IN THE ZONE. I loved it. The zone lasted a few more plays and Busby eventually stopped passing, for reasons the other 8-man teams didn't pass -- it was too hard to do well. We went back into 4-2-2, I went back to the line and we won handily -- one of two wins that year for our second-year program. That's that.

But that, the zone, is really cool, and worth wanting. Life slowing down. It's like being a super-hero or something. So, what does this have to do with anything? Just that my life has been slowing down lately, and here's why: I get up an hour earlier every day now, and I read, pray and wake up on a more human schedule. I still need my alarm, but I have almost 90 minutes before I walk out that door. This has stolen an hour from my busy schedule but has made my day, and that schedule, slower and rendered me more effective. Perhaps it's my personality. Though type-A, OCD, I am less-so when given time in the morning. Everything slows down. I'm not "in the zone," those times are rare and more intense. But everything slows down, my heart-rate, my attitude, my pace. If you are like me, you also need that extra hour.

I'll promote it to those religious and not. If you believe in God, you'll find the extra first hour twice as nice if spent in prayer and reading (I have read my One Year Bible and two short Christian books in the three weeks I've been doing this). I've always shoe-horned my OYB reading into each morning, but never with time for reflection and curiosity. It was a chore. Give God your first hour, deep in authentic prayer, and I believe you'll see big dividends in your life and your attitude.