From our newsletter Outside the Lines

Surfing the web waves

I was recently in my native country of Australia, a ridiculously short trip of six days to run my Coaching for Great Work workshop.

I had an afternoon free and - in a stroke of genius, if I do say so myself - took my client and myself to a surfing lesson at Bondi, one of Australia’s iconic places.

There were three of us in the class and our instructor was just what you’d imagine a surf instructor would be: blond and tanned, wry, laconic, and cool. Just add a New Zealand accent, and you’ll be able to imagine Sean perfectly.

Planting the back foot

Sean did a couple of things really well as a teacher.

First, he got me to focus on the one thing that would make it most likely that I’d be able to stand up on my board: planting the back foot.

That’s just one step in about a ten step process that gets you to the holy grail of standing up on your surf board.

But rather than getting me to worry about all ten steps - which, as an A-type personality I would certainly do - he just got me to think about the thing that most mattered. The subtle benefit of this is that it quieted my inner critic, that voice I (and you) have in your head that keeps up the running commentary on what’s not working and second-guesses all you do.

The second thing he did - as I swam out to him time and time again having failed to stand up time and time again - was to focus on what I was doing well. Regardless of what had happened, Sean picked up something that I’d done right and pointed it out to me.

The result of all this?

I spent two hours surfing, and easily achieved my goal (to fall off lots of times) … and didn’t manage to stand up on the board. My client did though - hurrah for him!

But I left thoroughly elated, with my confidence just fine - and with clarity about what I need to do next time to stand up on the board.

What will make the most difference for you?

In our busy lives, filled with things we need to do, we’re often doing too much - employing a strategy of hurling a bunch of things at the wall and hoping something sticks.

As you think about a challenge you’re facing right now - at home or at work - take a breath, and think about the one thing you could do that would make the most difference.

Most likely, you’ll need to run through a few alternatives, so that you can compare and contrast them. Will this make the most difference? Or will this?

And when you’ve decided what it will be, put all your focus on that. Just concentrate on that action - and see just how far it does actually take you.

Additional resources

Tim Gallwey is the grand master of this insight.

You can watch him teach a woman how to play tennis in less than 30 minutes in this two part video here and here. It was first shown in 1975 and was his “breakthrough moment.” He went on to become one of the fathers of the coaching movement. You actually hear his pupil say, “Every time I did start to think, things went wrong. When I stopped thinking, the body seems to know what to do.”

His books are excellent, and I’d thoroughly recommend both The Inner Game of Tennis and The Inner Game of Work.

Connected to that is Rick Carson’s Taming Your Gremlin. The updated version of this classic came out last year, and is an excellent way to understand (and lessen) the impact of that “inner critic” that we all have in our heads.

You might also enjoy Jon Kabat-Zinn’s video on mindfulness here. His book Full Catastrophe Living is a wise book about meditation and focus.

Finally, Tim Winton’s latest book Breath is a gripping meditation on a young man’s search for an extraordinary life. Set in Western Australia’s surfing culture, this small, perfectly formed book looks at all the implications of finding the one thing that matters.

Don’t take my word for it

Smart folks thinking out loud about focus.

You can read this month’s quotations and add your favourites here.