COMPETITION AND THE ZONE

*Based on "FLOW" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

            *The roots of the word "compete" are the Latin con petire, which means, "to seek together." What each person seeks is to actualize their potential, and this task is made easier when others force us to do our best. But competition improves experience only as long as attention is focused primarily on the activity itself. If extrinsic goals, such as beating the opponent, wanting to impress an audience, or obtaining a cash reward at the end of the competition, are what one is concerned about, then competition is likely to become a distraction, rather than an incentive to focus consciousness on what is happening. In other words: PLAY THE TABLE NOT THE OPPONENT.

Competition is enjoyable only when it is a means to perfect one's skills; when it becomes and end in itself, it ceases to be fun. Playing pool, for me, is done not with the expectation of some future benefit but simply because the doing is enough of a reward.

One can enter the zone at any skill level. What happens is, when one is involved in competition, it provides a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of transporting one into a new reality. It pushes the person to a higher level of performance and leads to a previously undreamed of state of consciousness. Your "in the zone', "feeling the flow" "on the stick".

This is a comfort level and may last for weeks sometimes increasing to a high level when actually in competition and ebbing a bit until the next competition. Eventually one will become bored or anxious. Bored because the level of competition has flattened or anxious because of their own lower level of ability compared to others at this level. At this point one must improve their skill level to get back in the zone, so they can enjoy themselves again. The zone can be addictive.

One will feel euphoria at first on each horizontal step of the staircase, because your skills are matching the challenges of that level. After the euphoria comes boredom because the challenges are not making you work as hard to overcome, then you will start looking for challenges that your skills won't overcome and anxiety takes over your attention. You are now on the vertical part of the staircase, and you are looking for that euphoria that your mind is craving.

You may find that this subject is not limited to the game of pool, indeed not limited to games at all, but includes music, art, work, and all aspects of life. One may enter the zone, "feel the flow", when composing music, anything that you enjoy from rock and roll to Mozart, while producing at a piece of art especially pleasing to your eye, finding challenges at work, can bring enjoyment and therefore pull you into the zone, friends and family can make you feel the flow. It is addictive and can be attained through the willingness to meet all challenges with the skills you retain through experience.