Be Your Best

Todd Gifford in Racing Simulator

Recently I went to a car show where a company that designs and manufactures very high end racing simulators was demonstrating one of their simulator units.  I was looking on with some degree of curiosity and they asked me if I would like to give this thing a try.  I have never raced on a track for real.  This simulator was as close to the real deal as you are going to get without being in a real race car out on the track.  I am not sure exactly what this piece of equipment costs, but it had a large number of 0’s in the price tag.

To give you an idea of how realistic this thing is, they have mapped with precision all the actual major race tracks across the United States and some from around the world, so you are driving at an actual race track of choice and seeing around you what you would see at the real track.  Beyond the realism of the track and setting, the driving cockpit with all the equipment is patterned from real race cars, right down to the shifter, clutch system, brakes, steering wheel.  And to go one step further, it has all the movement and feel of driving a race car (bumps, rattles, wheel spin, leaning, etc…).  You can select the precise type of race car (Indy car, NASCAR type car, etc…).  Couple this all with a screen that wraps around you so that you can see through your peripheral vision what is going on out to the sides…It is very realistic.  This level of racing simulator is used by top professional race drivers to keep sharp and prep when they are not out in the actual race car.

Once I sat down and they had done a little bit of training with me for a few minutes, I was off racing.  At first I thought I was going super fast — until they showed me that I was actually going pretty slow by race standards…so they helped my ability to increase speed on the track.  It was so realistic that you actually feel nervous and scared to crash the car.  You feel all the sensory affects that you would on a real track, so all this information coming at you tricks your mind into believing you are really out there.  After about 5 minutes, I started to get a better feel for what the car could do on the track.  And then…I do not remember anything but 100% racing on the track.  I do not remember 

anyone around me (and there was a big crowd of people watching), I don’t remember consciously sitting in this ‘game/simulator’ vs. it feeling as if I was sitting in a real car, and I don’t have a feel for how much time I was sitting there other than what they told me after I asked them.  It was a lot longer than I thought it was.  Simply put, I was in ‘the zone’ for about a 20 minute period (felt like 3-4 minutes max).

I relate this story about the race simulator not because of how enjoyable it was (although if you get a chance to try something like this — definitely try it), but rather to emphasize some key points about mental focus and concentration.  My mental focus and concentration while driving this racing simulator was at an incredibly high level.  Plenty of scientific research has shown that our productivity and capability to accomplish things is much higher when we are in these extreme concentration and focus ‘zones’ or states.  In other words, you can accomplish significantly more in a shorter period of time when you are in a distraction-free, highly motivated mental ‘focus’ zone. It’s not so much about the time devoted towards creating the results, but the amount of focused time.  Your focused and distraction-free time really is your most valuable asset, which is a small subset of your total time.

If you ever pay close attention to how much 100% focused, distraction-free time you create and utilize during a regular day — generally, you will be very disappointed.  But the good news is that it does not take much of that kind of time to accomplish a lot.

This state of mental focus and extreme concentration (also linked to job/life happiness and satisfaction) is described as the state of “Flow” by a leading expert, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced Mee-hi Cheek-sent-ma-hi-ee).  Csikszentmihalyi identifies a few critical elements to achieve the state of “Flow”: the activity should have a sense of discovery and creativity, have a reasonable element of challenge to it, straddle the space between anxiety and boredom, and have dynamic or ever-changing complexity.  Sounds a lot like doing the racing simulator!

The Flow zone, or maximum concentration and mental focus, can be achieved in your work and important projects vs. just the ‘fun’ stuff or hobbies.  When you do get into that level of concentration and focus, you can accomplish a massive amount of quality work and results in less time, the time goes by much quicker, and your sense of satisfaction / accomplishment is higher.

The trick is to create this high focus, distraction-free, ‘Flow’ state in order to get more done.  Not an easy task with all the distractions coming at you in today’s world.  Creating high focus, distraction-free zones of time requires effort and practice.  The first step is simply to assess how non-focused your time currently is, and identify the causes of distractions.  Just doing this first step will put you way ahead of the pack.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford