Arriba, Arriba, Arriba!
Roberto Clemente
Growing up in Pittsburgh in the 1960s, I idolized Roberto Clemente. One of my prized possessions is the polaroid my sister took of him standing at Forbes Field with the University of Pittsburgh Cathedral of Learning in the background. When he spoke to us that day at the railing before the game, I was awestruck. I nodded or moved my head in some manner. He smiled. I marveled at not only his hitting, base running, ability to throw a runner out from right field, but also at his seemingly effortless catches and running at various speeds — and of the tiny white sphere falling from the sky. Years later, while playing in the Allegheny County Bar Association softball league on a team that could go a whole season without winning a game, I had an insight catching a deep fly ball. Once I heard the smack of the ball against the bat and saw it heading my way, my whole being, my life itself, was concentrated on catching that ball. As I moved automatically and effortlessly into position, nothing else in the universe existed in my mind, soul or body, as all of my energy, my very being, knew that ball was going into my glove.
Athletes commonly refer to this state of optimal confidence and performance as being in “the zone.” This phenomenon is now well-known after being studied and written about in academic journals and the popular press. This dynamic, coined “flow” in 1970 by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi of the University of Chicago, has been recognized in other forms and labels in recorded history across the globe. Flow has been extensively researched with well-documented correlations with high performance in the fields of artistic and scientific creativity, teaching, learning and sports.
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Central to contemplative Eastern philosophies and many religious and spiritual practices is focusing the mind and body on the moment, physical attribute, visualization or harmonizing intent, awareness and effortless actions for peak performance and outcomes. In 1690, the English philosopher John Locke published “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” writing about the different states of thinking ranging from deep reflection (earnest study) to an absence of thoughts, noting that everyone has experienced these differences in attention. William James, credited with founding the discipline of psychology, referred to the “stream of consciousness” as a stream of thoughts and emotions transversing our awareness as our mind responds to stimuli or simply wanders through our memories.
My challenge, often in the nature of a quest, is how to master our craft, our chosen business, to achieve flow — to visit the zone — as frequently as possible. This personal gauntlet entered my own consciousness when I started my first job as a lawyer as in-house counsel for a manufacturing company to form a legal department consisting of myself and general counsel. My first day on the job he explained that we were highly educated technicians of law who should undertake any task, no matter how big or small, with full dedication to excellence. When lawyering, I hoped to snag that dropping ball with confidence. Over the years, I integrated, first on a subconscious level and recently, purposefully, contentment as a platform for competency and effectiveness.
Minds have limited capacity and endurance. Just being alive, our biology, the five senses and automatic muscle functions demand a significant portion of our brain and energy. In microseconds, our body can spring into fight, flight or freeze modalities. We all have a fast brain that is on autopilot with defaults and shortcuts dictating our initial thoughts and reactions to our environment and stimuli. When we are awake, this data flow is constant and, in the current digital age, often fast and furious. Athletes, artists, trades, craftspeople, widget makers, drivers and others doing primarily physical actions, attain proficiency from repetition which encodes the neural network into what laypeople call muscle memory. These workers are differentiated from knowledge workers where communication, based on primary skills of reading, writing or arithmetic, is how clients and customers are serviced. Knowledge workers deliver thought products.
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Effective legal representation only comes from actions based on critical thinking after interactive engagement and communication with the client based upon the specific issues and rules at play in the realm of the legal system. Lawyers engage in advocacy, transactions, counseling, planning, regulating, negotiating and an array of other activities integral to our chosen profession. As knowledge workers operating in a system of uncertainty and risk in the age of information overload, can lawyers achieve flow and be in the zone? Yes.
The Nature of Flow
When in the flow state, people are immersed in the task at hand such that they lose awareness of all the outside environment, including time, distractions and even basic bodily needs, as all attention is only on the task being performed. There is a total engagement from energized concentration and full involvement as the works come to mind and leap to the page or from the lips. This complete surrender to the moment may result in a distortion of the sense of time. Flow blurs action and consciousness in an effortless way. In a litigation or negotiation, the words flow without pause and are spoken without premeditation. When drafting documents, the thesaurus of the years of lawyering finds the best word or phrase as it magically appears on the screen.
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