Zidane: Trust your reflexes (Second Half)

(Warning: This post is a spoiler, so if you’re planning to see the movie, don’t read it.)

(And read the post “Zidane: Trust your reflexes (First Half)” first

In the first half of the game, Zidane is marked by his stillness, as opposed to getting caught up in emotional motion, the drama that other players indulge in. Zidane is so focused on the ball, he doesn’t even celebrate a goal he helps to score.

But he’s different in the second half of the game. The team is up a goal and apparently, Zidane’s Inner Critic is gone. He’s more engaged, not just in the game, but with the other players. He spends more time watching other players as well as the ball. He calls to his teammates, he gets more insistent with the referee after bad calls, he even laughs at a joke one of his teammates delivers. When you look at him grinning, you’re glad for him. Finally he looks like he’s enjoying the game!

Just seconds after his relaxed and happy grinning, he attacks with all his power and precision and skill and superb reflexes… but he attacks a player from the other team instead of the ball. He literally goes for the man’s throat. It’s animal fast and downright scary. The referee red cards him: throws him out of the game.

So… what happened?

Well, first of all, people fear loss more than they are greedy for gain. So with his team up a goal, Zidane actually felt less secure, because now they had an advantage to lose as well as something to gain. Success is a tricky gift.

And then he forgot what game he was playing. Zidane plays the ball, and when he started relaxing and interacting with the other players, he lost sight of his game. His emotions were back in motion, and laughter one moment turned to blood the next.

Now, the message is not to be isolationist, unemotional, and solitary. But know what game you’re playing, and if the Inner Critic is absent, be just a little suspicious. It might be switching tactics behind your back. The more energy you’re working with, the more energy you have that can be misdirected.

At the end of the movie, there’s a quote from Zidane: “Magic is close to nothing at all. Nothing at all.”

But I would add, Nothing at all is close to magic. A red card is temporary, and you always get another chance.

Where do you find inspiration?

Writer’s Block? Creative constipation? Problem just doing IT, whatever IT is? Try exploring the reasons why you’re procrastinating and not doing and celebrate them. Singer Gwen Stefani has a fab video called What You Waiting For?, a song about needing to be inspired to do her work. The Inner Critic is clearly enjoying itself as she struggles to write. She avoids sitting down at the piano by taking naps, talking to friends, and playing video games. But eventually she finds the motivation to work in the experience itself.

Check out the video here: Rock on.

How can you find the courage or inspiration to get up and do that thing you’ve been avoiding?

Zidane: Trust your reflexes (First Half)

In “Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait,” two film directors trained 17 cameras on Zinedine Zidane, the world-famous soccer star (David Beckham called him the “greatest player of all time”) for the course of one game. They wanted to watch him and only him for 90 minutes to see what they could see.

Zidane’s playing style is necessarily different from most other players. He plays midfield, he’s used to being a captain, and he’s a lot older than most soccer players. In the first half of the game, the most noticeable thing about him is how utterly still and contained he is, physically and emotionally. After a bad call he’ll shake his head slightly and murmur to the ref “You should be ashamed,” but then he’ll let it go. He isn’t chatty with his teammates. He doesn’t jog randomly after the ball, just to keep moving; instead he’ll suddenly sprint at the exact right time to where a ball is about to be, which makes him seem psychic. Like Louis Armstrong, who played comparatively few notes but just the right ones, Zidane only moves when he’s needed. Then he moves faster than he could possibly think. It’s pure reflex, born of practice and training and watching, always watching the ball.

As chance would have it, the directors caught Zidane on a bad day. From the start of this particular game, the referee seemed to take sides… against Real Madrid, Zidane’s team.

Between his stillness and the 17 cameras, Zidane’s face is amazingly unguarded in the movie; and in the first half, as the minutes tick by without a goal, you can see his Inner Critic taking over. You can read the thought spiral he’s caught in: “Nothing’s happening. This isn’t happening. Why isn’t anything happening?” His reaction to the negative voice is small, but it’s there. Basically, he disconnects from the game. He starts hugging the sides of the field more, doesn’t go after the ball as much, and oddly, it seems like the ball comes his way less often. You can see him shut down, just a little.

So how does he combat the Inner Critic?

He doesn’t. The secret is, he knows that whatever is yammering away in his head doesn’t matter, just like the noise from the stadium (he himself equates the two in a quote from the film). His high performance has nothing to do with what he thinks or feels. Only his reflexes matter. Even when he assists on a successful goal, he has almost no reaction – because even the goal is secondary to the game. The game is watching the ball, always watching the ball.

So if the Inner Critic is yammering at you, take a second and think about what the equivalent of soccer drills would be for you… and go do it. When the ball hasn’t come your way, there’s a whole lot of time and energy for the Inner Critic to use; but when the ball does come your way, you’d better be ready for it.

Smackdown Success Story: Maria Schneider

Maria Schneider is the former editor of Writer’s Digest magazine. She recently left her job and started a new website for writers: http://editorunleashed.com. We talked with Maria to find out how she smacked down her Inner Critic and went after her dreams.

First, do you have an active Inner Critic?

Yes, I have a very pesky Inner Critic. I’m an editor after all.

I think every writer needs an Inner Critic; it’s necessary because you have to edit your work to make it publishable. It’s a detriment to be unable to take a critical eye to your own writing.

That said, it’s important to make sure your Inner Critic is in her place-and when you’re writing, that place is the time-out room.

You recently decided to leave your job as editor of Writer’s Digest in a time of economic turmoil. How did you overcome your fears of making the leap?

It might seem like an impetuous move, but I trust my instincts and my instincts were screaming at me: it’s time to move on. There was a corporate restructuring, and it became clear to me that I wasn’t going to be driving the editorial vision of the magazine any more; that it was going to become more of a marketing vehicle. That’s a corporate decision that I understand; these are tough times for publishers. But it just wasn’t a place I wanted to be any longer. In publishing, you have to align yourself with people who share your vision; otherwise, it just doesn’t work. I’m taking on freelance writing and editing jobs now to shore up my family’s finances, but yes, it is scary not to have the regular income a full-time job provides.

What are you doing now and what’s your vision for the site?

I realized the things I most loved about being the editor of Writer’s Digest-writing my blog, doing interviews, writing articles and interacting on our forum-I could do all of those things on my own by setting up my own website. As much as I love print, I think I really thrive in an online environment; I like the conversation.

My vision for the site is still emerging. I knew I wanted to start off with a blog and a writers’ forum and those are both up and running nicely just two weeks into it.

I want the site to grow into a community destination for both writers and readers. I think it’s really difficult for writers to get solid, trustworthy information online and I want to provide that for them.

I’m doing the majority of the writing for the blog now, but I will be bringing more voices into the mix through guest posts and interviews. The blog and forum will be filled with resources like creativity starters, essays and articles on writing and publishing, and critique forums for peer reviews. I’ll also be offering premium workshop forums in a few months for writers who want more intensive workshopping with an editor.

I would like to eventually start an online journal and publish some of the work that’s been workshopped on the forum. And I have a long-term dream of starting up my own little publishing house if I see the opportunity.

Right now, though, I’m focused on connecting with and growing my community of writers and readers. I believe that my business model will emerge from that. Being connected to this community of writers and readers will show me what they want and need.

What strategies did you use to calm your fears and take action?

It’s incredibly important-as a writer or anyone with creative aspirations-to seek out and align yourself with people who will support and nurture you, whether that’s an MFA program or a local workshop at your library, or an online forum like mine. A big part of the reason I started the forum, really, is that I like the conversation with other writers. I’ve seen first-hand how being involved in a good writing community can empower you. Sure, you need plenty of alone time as a writer or an artist, but the worst thing you can do is isolate yourself.

Over time, does it get easier to smackdown the Critic?

I think so. Actually, blogging has really been helpful for me in overcoming my Inner Critic. If you really commit to blogging, you need to post every day, and there’s nothing like writing every day to get you over your nagging Inner Critic. I don’t think you ever truly get over being self-critical, though. As I said, you need to be able to put a critical eye to your own work, but it’s best saved for the editing process.

What have you done to ensure that you don’t get paralyzed with inaction as you build your new life?

My creativity is really driving me at this point in my life. I almost feel as if there isn’t enough time in the day to put all of my ideas into fruition. I think that’s when you know you’re moving in the right path, you feel compelled to do something and the ideas for making it bigger and better just never seem to stop.

What do you do when none of your smackdowns are working?

Doing really mundane, routine tasks like folding laundry, loading the dishwasher, sweeping, for some reason those things really help me out when I’m creatively stuck. And the bonus, of course, is your house gets a bit cleaner.

What keeps you motivated?

My curiosity, my ideas, my sincere interest in other people, and my desire to provide an educational, inspiring and nurturing online home for writers.

What are your favorite sources of inspiration?

Music (roots, jazz and bluegrass), photographs, coffee (the taste, the smell, the caffeine!); interacting with other writers.   

What advice would you give someone who wanted to start their own venture?

It would be irresponsible of me to recommend leaving your job to start your own venture. But I know that I wouldn’t have gotten my own goals moving if I were still working full-time. Working that much just sucks up your creative energy.

If you have a book you want to write or some other venture you want to pursue, just start a dedicated notebook and write down the ideas when they come to you-a picture will start to emerge. After you have some solid ideas in place, take a week’s vacation from work to start implementing some of your plans.

I think if you find yourself drawn to working on that project every day, all day long for a week or more, that book or project is probably going to have legs for you. It has to be something you’re really drawn toward; something you’d do, at least for a little while, without pay. That being said, it’s important to generate ideas for how your project could become profitable for you in the future. You do have to give some thought to a business model, although I think it really needs to be your creativity and vision driving you.

What advice would you give to someone who was stuck in fear and inaction?

Keeping an idea notebook really has helped me. I’m always jotting down ideas. I think it should be really free form at first, just to start getting your ideas down, but you’ll find yourself being drawn more into the concrete details of a project as you keep brainstorming.

Is there some idea you’ve had at your workplace that you couldn’t push through because of corporate bureaucracy? Is there a book you’ve always wanted to read but couldn’t find in the bookstores? Write these things down in a notebook and start jotting down random thoughts that address that problem with a solution that you could build a book or business or platform around. Think big, but start small.

Life is a musical day.

In our house whenever we feel like we need a pick-me-up we have what we call Life is a Musical Day. And then we sing everything we do with a running commentary set to music. It doesn’t matter that a few of us can’t carry a tune in a bucket. What matters is that we end up laughing every time. We also choose the genre of the musical and switch it up often. For instance, sometimes we sing in wobbly opera voices, sometimes with a country music twang, and sometimes we do scary musical (think Phantom of the Opera or Tim Burton’s NIghtmare Before Christmas).

Today is a musical day because I started reading the news and got so depressed by the violence, economic crisis, and general negativity that I had to counteract it immediately! 

This video will help inspire you to live today as a musical. Props to my stepkids for finding this one!

Why smackdown your Inner Critic?

So what’s the whole point of learning how to smackdown your Inner Critic? Why do it? Why exert the energy it takes? Who are these smackdowns for anyway?

A smackdown is for anyone who is tired of feeling stuck in a job, in a relationship, in a life that does not feel like it has meaning. A smackdown is to help you do the deep inner work, the action steps, the networking, the dating, the believing in yourself that you need to do in order to create the life of your dreams. I saw the author Anne Lamott give a talk in Minneapolis as part of the Pen Pals Author Lecture Series. I’ll never forget something she said: “I didn’t want to be 70 and not have gotten my writing done.” She is famous for smacking down her inner demons in her non-fiction books for all the world to see.

Whether you’ve always wanted to write, run a company, find a partner, have a child, own your own house, run a marathon, lose weight…it’s critical to learn how to smackdown the voices inside you that say, “You can’t do this! Who do you think you are? You’re not smart enough! You’re not motivated! You’re lazy! It’s easier to do nothing! You can’t change, you have people depending on you!”

If you become an expert at contradicting the Inner Critic, and proving it wrong, again and again, then you’ll learn how to face the Outer Critics, too, who will offer resistence to your plan because they love you or they doubt you or they fear change.

So what is your Inner Critic telling you today? Right now? Why will you smack it down? How will that change you or the situation you’re in?

Dance around the kitchen.

It’s Saturday. Today’s smackdown: Turn up the stereo so it drowns out the Inner Critic’s voice and dance around the kitchen! But first click on the link and watch the video for inspiration:

All Around the Kitchen

The lead singer is Dan Zanes who used to head up The Del Fuegos, an amazing bar band in Boston in the 1980s. See Alicia’s (thanks Alicia!!!) comments under “We Interrupt This Program” for links to articles about them. Zanes now makes music for kids. So is he a sell-out? Or is he making money and having a blast?

 

To get out of a rut learn something new.

Education is an antidote for many things: depression, isolation, confusion, relationship turmoil, career dissatisfaction, poverty. The list goes on. After the birth of my daughter, I settled in to nest for a while. I took time off from work, friends, and responsibilities. I learned how to feed her and take care of her and it was wonderful. But after a while, I began to feel isolated and stuck in my house. I felt like I’d gone underground. When it was time for me to engage in the world again, I started reading everything I could get my hands on about personal motivation, emotional intelligence, business development, and personal finance. This hunger for education was a clue that I was in a rut and needed to launch myself back into the public sphere. If you’re feeling stuck, consider trying something new:

• Sign up for a class with your love. Learn how to build wooden boats, manage your finances, or appreciate wine with your partner. It gives you automatic time together and expands your horizons.
• Read a different publication every morning. Instead of reading the same old newspaper or news websites day after day, purposefully seek out new sources of information. Instead of your city newspaper, listen to the BBC. Instead of reading USA Today, try Scientific American or Plenty Magazine.
• Take a class and try something you’re really bad at. I signed up for an oil painting class even though I have absolutely no talent at drawing. I managed to paint a hot pink cow. It wasn’t pretty, but it was fun!
• Connect with people outside your industry. If you’re a teacher, meet an MBA grad. If you’re in finance, talk with an architect. If you are a stay-at-home mom, meet an entrepreneur.
• Seek out teachers with a capital “T.” Find mentors who inspire and Teach you to reach for your dreams.

Today’s post was inspired by an op-ed piece about politics and a passion for learning written by Jocelyn Hale, the Executive Director of the Loft Literary Center. Read it here.

Left Brain vs. Right Brain

Okay, this video is 19 minutes long but ya’ll gotta see it. It’s about a neuroanatomist who watched herself lose the functioning of the left side of her brain – home of the Inner Critic – to a stroke.

Are you aware that you are the choreographer of your life? Are you workin it for all you’re worth?

Can everyone alive find nirvana?

[Holla to Jen Lim for forwarding this!]

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

How do you figure out your true purpose?

This morning I was thinking about how I will teach my stepchildren and my daughter how to find their true purpose without getting sidetracked by the Inner Critic. I know from experience that The Heavyweight is so talented it’s scary. I mean, sometimes its voice sounds just like my own. And it has this fun little game it likes to do to me. First, I have this great idea about what I’m supposed to be doing because it feels like my “true purpose.” And I start doing it. Then it slams me with all the other great ideas that I could be doing and am not. So I start to spread my attention to everything, and I don’t finish anything. My vision of what my purpose is fades as I start panicking about all the things I haven’t done. I get lost in the choices.

So how do you figure out what you’re supposed to be doing during your time here on this planet? Here are some things I’m going to teach my children:

• Close your eyes. When you daydream what are you doing in your dreams?
• Find your bliss. What things make you happy? When are you most energized and excited? For the past ten years every time Clare and I discussed how to face our fears and create a life on purpose, I was totally jazzed. That was a guidepost for me.
• Follow your jealousy. Use your ugly feelings to help you identify your own desires. If you’re jealous of someone, consider why? What is it they have that you want? How can you manifest that for yourself?
• Don’t be afraid. What makes you feel connected to your personal power source? When do you feel most confident? When do you not only believe you are on the right track, but you simply know.

I’d love to hear if you have stories about how you found your true calling or ideas about how to do it!