How to Do Better at Almost Everything (by Not Really Trying) Here is a simple --- yet profound---formula for achieving

peak performance in sports, in business, in all the challenges of life. An editorial review BY SAMUEL A SCHREINER, JR

IT WAS MIDNIGT and cold----well below zero. W. Timothy Gallwey, a young Californian, was driving alone through some Maine backwoods when his car skidded and slid into a snow bank. Gallwey had not seen another vehicle on the road for 20 minutes, so waiting in the car seemed hopeless. He decided his best chance was to go for help. Wearing only slacks and a sports jacket, he started running back the way he had come. In the thin, cold air, he was winded in minutes. Fatigue set in, then thumbness, then a paralyzing fear. I could die out here! He realized. So frightening was this thought that Gallwey stopped in his tracks. Then something happened: he short-circuited his fear by accepting it---- and thinking of something else. If I am going to die, worrying about it wont change anything, he told himself. He suddenly became aware of the beauty around him: the silence of the night, the shimmer of the stars, the trees silhouetted against the snow. Unprompted by thought,

Gallweys body took over and he started to run again, but with new energy. He ran for 40 minutes without apparent effort---until he reached a friendly home. Tim Gallwey did not realize then that the strange inner power hed suddenly developed would become the basis of astonishing career as the formulator of what he calls the Inner Game. But, after years of experimenting as athlete and teacher, Gallwey realized that what saved him on that frosty night was the enormous potential all human beings have if only they will use it. Over the past ten years, hes turned that insight into principles for better performance in almost any endeavor, as set forth in his seminars, TV appearances, and in such bestselling books as The Inner Game of Tennis, Inner skinning (with Bob Kriegel) and The inner Game of Golf. Now 43 he has already helped thousands of people to stay on

diets, transform dull jobs, give speeches and play musical instruments. It was on a tennis court that Gallwey developed his basic concepts. A former captain of the Harvard tennis team, he had embarked on a career in education after four years in the Navy , but then returned to tennis as a club pro when the college where he was admissions director failed. Seeking to improve his game, he gradually became aware of the constant commentary going on inside his head as he played tennis-----Come on, get your racket back earlier. . . Here comes your another high backhand like the one you missed last time. . . Dammit, you missed it again. . . I was surprised to discover there were two identities within me, he says. One was playing tennis; the other was telling him how. Gallwey called these identities Self ! and Self 2. Self 1 is verbal and conceptual, capable of understanding the rules for any game or task. It is also judgmental---fond of deciding whats good and whats bad. Self 2 is the complex combination of mind, senses, nerves and muscles that make possible the accomplishment of any activity. Although Self 1 decides whether or not we learn to play tennis or type or sell a computer, Self 2 will do the learning, and ultimately, the performing. The problem in any endeavor is to reach a

proper balance between Self 1 and Self 2. Gallwey observed that when he was playing his best, there was no noise in his mind; Self 2 seemed to respond automatically to the challenge of hitting the ball. All of us have known such moments of peak performance when we for forget ourselves. Why let these moments happen occasionally? Gallwey wondered. Why not create them at will? He started experimenting with himself and his students on the tennis court. He soon concluded that the key to peak performance is to silence Self 1. All its instructions, and its doubts, fears and criticisms, only confuse Self2. Of Course, turning off Self 1 is not easy; for most of us, that barking voice in the head is what we think of ourselves. But if Self 1 can be turned off at right time, Self 2 can get on with the job. And near miracles can result. How can you go about playing the Inner Game? From Gallweys books and from interviews with the author , I have culled five basic rules: 1 Keep your eye on the ball. Applied literally in sports like tennis or baseball, this phrase is also a metaphor for concentrating on the most important matter in any activity. How to do this? Gallwey believes that concentration is not a matter of the will but a

fascination of the mind. In tennis, for example, he advises that you learn to love the ball. That you stop ordering yourself to watch it and simply let your eyes see it---its textures, its seams, its shape, its trajectory. When I managed to do this myself, I discovered that a kind of magic took over. Soon I was getting shots I did not believe possible. In a game where there is no actual ball, the first problem is deciding what the ball should be. In selling, for example, the salesman may think that hes the ball and concentrate on his own appearance and personality. Or hell think that the ball is the product, and dwell upon its wonders. Actually, Gallwey contends, in selling, the ball is the buyer. Watch the buyer as you would a tennis ball--- the seams are things like a yawn, a shift of the eyes, a change in the voice. Even if you dont make the sale, youll learn from the buyers signs of resistance where your pitch went wrong. 2 Trust yourself. Self 1, the knower inside us, is highly critical. Often it gives up completely on Self 2, the doer, saying, You cant do anything right. This is wrong. Far from criticizing Self 2, Self 1 should stand back in awe of human capacity. We all trust Self 2 to perform without such daily feats of coordination as tying shoe, threading a

needle or driving a car. Mistrust sets in, however , when we take on tasks of measureable achievements that also involve the ego. With our self image at stake, we become afraid to leave it all up to an unconscious Self 2. How do we learn to trust Self 2? By practice! Let go and let it happen, Gallwey advises. Suspend Self 1s judgment as to whether the particular challenge ---the ski turn, the golf putt, the difficult passage in a Beethoven sonata---is being done right or wrong. On the tennis court, for example, Gallwey had students hit balls toward a can without caring whether they reached the mark; they were asked only to first visualize the ball hitting the can, and then to observe where it actually did land. As ball after ball was hit, Self 2 made corrections without conscious thought, and the balls came closer and closer to the can. 3 Focus on the here and now. Self 1 wont be at peace unless it does something useful--and that can be observing and monitoring the performance of Self 2. Concentrate on what is happening rather than on what you fear to hope will happen. When you are skiing, for example, be aware of how your feet feel as your edge bite into the hill, instead of thinking about falling. Anxiety is fear about what may happen, Gallwey writes. But when your attention is on

the here and now, the actions that need doing have the best chance of being accomplished. Awareness should include an objective assessment of everything in the situation you face. Looking down a ski slope, Self 1 may say, thats the bad one ---Charlie fell on it yesterday. In fact, there are no good or bad slopes; there are only slopes with certain characteristics. Self 2s vision of these is sharper when they are viewed by Self 1. 4 Dont worry about winning. Gallwey is convinced that worrying is the most insidious trick Self 1 plays on Self 2. It tightens muscles and tense nerves, the most common cause error. Self 2, Gallwey claims, do its best only when Self 1 stops giving impossible commands. If you stop consciously trying, you can perform with what Gallwey calls effortless effort. Self 2 will live up to its potential, which is the total of its natural equipments plus what it has learned in practice. Gallwey has discovered that the less we worry about end results the better they are likely to be. Abandon is a good word to describe what happens to a tennis player, for that matter---who feels he has nothing to lose, Gallwey says. He stops worrying about the outcome and simply plays all out. Ironically, when

that state is achieved, the results are often the best possible. 5 Dont question your potential. Self-doubt is almost invariably self-fulfilling. The golfer who always thinks as he steps onto the green, I always four-foot putts, will always do so. Self-doubt can be banished only if you silence Self 1 and concentrate on the present. One woman in a Gallwey class claimed she was scared to death to face an audience. How did she know she was scared? asked Gallwey. Because, she said, her knees shook. Gallwey asked her to measure the shaking of her knees on a scale of zero to ten. About nine she said, and already her voice was calmer. Then Gallwey got her to face the class. The womans fascination with feeling her own fear made her lose it. When the shaking dropped to nearly zero, she was able to talk to the group about her experience----to make the first speech of her life ---and has since become a talkshow hostess. A MAN WITH A MISSION, Gallwey has few self-doubts. He thinks that a wider understanding of the Inner Game and his ramifications could help our whole society. Whether thats true or not, the evidence is strong that playing a good Inner Game can at least improve the performance of any individual involved in a specific task. If, that is, we just dont try too hard.