BE HERE, NOW
Each point I play is in the now moment. The last point means nothing, the next point means nothing.
—BILLIE JEAN KING
You must be present to win.
—ALEX RODRIGUEZ
Alex Rodriguez enjoyed a magical season in 1996. The young shortstop for the Mariners led the American League in batting average, runs, total bases, grand slams, and doubles, and he was runner-up Most Valuable Player, finishing second to Juan Gonzalez of Texas in the closest vote in more than thirty-five years.
Five months later, Alex reported to spring training eager to start anew. Rodriguez is a likable fellow, and his disposition is as sunny as the Arizona sky. I greeted him with a hug. Then I asked about his goals for the coming year. Most athletes are numbers oriented. A ballplayer doesn’t have to look up his slugging percentage or earned run average. His stats are like important phone numbers—he knows them by heart. So I expected this twenty-one-year-old to say he wanted to drive in more runs or raise his batting average, which would take some doing. Alex hit .358 the previous year. Instead, his answer floored me and made me smile.
“Bat Mack,” Rodriguez said, addressing me by my baseball nickname, “my only goal is to learn how to play one entire game in the present.”
To play an entire game in the present moment is the ultimate in mental discipline. Many managers and coaches preach the value of playing the game one pitch at a time or one play at a time. One reason Alex became a star at a young age is because he recognizes the importance of the mental game and understands what it is to play in the present. But the skill isn’t quickly or easily learned. The late Bobby Jones, one of the greatest golfers in history, said, “It’s nothing new or original to say that golf is played one stroke at a time. But it took me years to realize it.”
Successful athletes who speak of “playing in the zone” are describing what it feels like to perform in the present, mind and body attuned, working together. When you are playing your game right on time, in the present, you perform at your best. Why? Because in the present, there is no pressure.
Pressure is created by anxieties about the future and remembered failures from the past. If a baseball player comes to the plate thinking about his last strikeout or says to himself “If I don’t start hitting I’ll be on the bench soon,” is he playing in the present? Obviously, the answer is no.
During an off-season I worked with one of the premier base stealers in the game. What happens, I asked, if while on base he begins thinking about the last time he was thrown out? To make a point, I jumped on his back. I felt like an oversized papoose, but the player got the message. Is it easier to steal a base with a monkey on your back? Thinking about the past—instead of the present—can only slow you down.
In a Peanuts comic strip, Lucy is apologizing to Charlie Brown. “Sorry I missed that easy fly ball, manager.” In the second frame Lucy says, “I thought I had it, but suddenly I remembered all the others I’ve missed …” In the last panel she diagnoses her problem. “The past got in my eyes!” I would tell Lucy what I tell professional athletes. As you learned earlier, worrying about a mistake will usually get you another one just like it.
One key to learning how to play the game at your best is recognizing when your head is not in the present. I am reminded of the television public service message that asks parents, “It’s ten o’clock. Do you know where your kids are?” Ask yourself this: It’s game time. Do you know where your mind is?
My definition of awareness is paying attention on purpose without analysis or judgment. Simply put, it is moment-to-moment observation, being absorbed in the task.
Try this. Become aware of your breathing. Count the breaths you take. One … two … three … four … five. Repeat the exercise. Do it again. Keep counting. Again. It seems like a simple task, but eventually your mind begins to wander. If your mind isn’t on your breathing, what is it on?
I recently had a conversation with a National Hockey League player. He described a game in which he found himself repeatedly glancing at the clock. As the seconds ticked away on his shift, all he could think about was the fact he hadn’t scored and time was running out. If he had one eye on the clock, I told him, then he had only one eye on the puck. To be present to win, both eyes have to be on the target—the puck, the ball, the basket, or the job at hand. Let the clock take care of itself.
How do you place your mind in the here and now? When I worked with the Chicago Cubs we used a technique called the mental locker. When a player arrived at the clubhouse at Wrigley Field, or the visiting ballpark, he opened his mental locker. With each article of clothing he removed—his jacket, his shirt, his belt, one sock, then the other—he let go of a problem or a personal concern. By the time he had changed from civilian clothes into his uniform he had shed all his distractions and personal concerns and was focusing on the present. He was in the right time zone and the ideal state of mind to experience success on the field.
Joe Paterno is one of college football’s most admired and successful coaches. Every football player at Penn State is familiar with the “blue line” that divides the campus and the school’s football complex. Papa Joe tells each student athlete that before he crosses that imaginary blue line on the way to practice or when he leaves his locker for a game, he expects him to dump all his worries and concerns. Once he steps across the line, he cannot be thinking about what grade he made on yesterday’s math test or daydreaming about tomorrow night’s date. The moment he crosses the threshold, his mind should be focused on Penn State football and nothing else. If it isn’t, he is shortchanging himself as an athlete. He is also hurting the team.
He is not fully present to win.
Learn from the past. Prepare for the future. Perform in the present.