How to Get Out of Your Own Way at Work

You know what it’s like when you’re in the zone at work: On some days, work feels easy, enjoyable, and satisfying. You move easily from task to task, challenges are fun to solve, and you have a sense of clarity that you’re working on exactly the right things.

Yet the same work on a different day can feel like a tedious, difficult grind. Each task feels like a burden, you keep getting distracted, and your incessant inner monologue criticizes everything you do. 

This phenomenon is similar to the experience of “choking” in a sports context. A baseball player might be on a great hitting streak when all of a sudden they lose their magic. They get caught up in their heads, trying harder and harder to get back whatever they had. But the more they try, the more anxious they get, and their performance continues to suffer.

In short, they have the capacity to access enormous skill and potential, but they get in their own way. The same process can show up for you while you’re working.

I’m going to explore perspectives and tools that will help inspire more of those easy days and fewer of the debilitating ones, drawing inspiration from W. Timothy Gallwey’s book The Inner Game of Work and from my own knowledge of the Alexander Technique, a kind of mindfulness practice that’s integrated into daily life.

It starts with noticing, and being more intentional about, what you’re paying attention to.

Focus affects your body and mind

Let’s play a game to illustrate the power of your focus.