7/31/2019 How to Do Better

1/4

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, TVappearances, 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

7/31/2019 How to Do Better

2/4

7/31/2019 How to Do Better

3/4

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, itsshape, 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 upto 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 hopewill 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

7/31/2019 How to Do Better

4/4

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-doubtis 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 wasable to talk to the group about her

experience----to make the first speech of

her life ---and has since become a talk-

show 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 ourwhole 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.