Penalty Shoot-Outs How To Be Sure Of Scoring
Below is a MRR and PLR article in category Self Improvement -> subcategory Goal Setting.
Penalty Shoot-Outs: Ensuring You Score
Summary
How can you make sure you find the back of the net during a penalty shoot-out? This guide will help you maintain focus and succeed.Keywords
focus, soft focus, hard focus, shoot-out, competition, success, flow, zen, zenning, concentration, absorption---
Article
The whistle for the cup final blows. It's 1-1, and extra time concludes without a score. The referee signals a penalty shoot-out. Five players from each team must step up and score. Despite their talent and experience, at least one will miss. How can such skilled athletes fail in crucial moments?
This dilemma spans centuries. The 3rd century BC Taoist writer Chuang-Tzu discussed the pressures of competition. When we fixate on rewards rather than the task, we compromise our skills. He noted: An archer shooting for clay aims effortlessly. But for gold, his confidence wavers. The challenge is in allowing external rewards to cloud our focus.
This issue isn't unique to athletes. Business negotiations also show vulnerability at the final stages. An Indian proverb warns: "Beware the tiger at the end of the fight." It's when we sense a prize that we might prematurely relax, just as an experienced negotiator might employ the "Salami trick" ?" silently winning concessions by taking advantage of a relaxed opponent.
Failures in these moments are often due to distraction; we lose focus. True concentration allows us to remain present, setting aside past regrets and future anxieties.
Types of Focus
Focus, deriving from the Latin for hearth, evokes warmth and centrality. In the past, the hearth was the heart of a home. Today, a roaring fire can captivate us, sparking dreams much like the two types of focus: hard and soft.
Hard Focus
Hard focus resembles tunnel vision, where all attention is on the immediate task, akin to a sprinter's gaze on the track. Achieving this requires stillness and eliminating distractions, leaving only the task in view.
Soft Focus
Soft focus, or single-minded immersion, expands awareness. Instead of a laser-like concentration, it embraces a broader, dream-like perspective, connecting with the environment and oneself. Imagine being a blue feather drifting on the wind, with no destination or obstacles, simply freedom.
Daniel Goleman calls this state "flow": a deep absorption in the task that erases self-consciousness and daily worries. The secret of focus lies in enjoying the action itself, not its outcome.
In "Thank God It's Monday," Charles Cameron and Suzanne Ellusor describe a Zen monk persistently sweeping snow during a storm. He wasn't trying to defeat the storm but found fulfillment in the act itself. This "zenning" embodies true success.
The Path to Success
There are two main paths to failure: giving up and trying too hard. At crucial moments, like taking a decisive penalty, you must slow down, let go, and trust yourself. When you do, you'll find energy and success naturally align with you.
You can find the original non-AI version of this article here: Penalty Shoot-Outs How To Be Sure Of Scoring.
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