In the Zone: Achieving Optimal Performance in Business-As in Sports [Hardcover]

J. Mitchell Perry (Author), Steve Jamison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

Like a runner hitting stride or an athlete on a winning streak, there are times when everything falls into place. The feeling of being totally lucid and completely in control means you're "in the zone".

This compelling playbook for success reveals how the nation's most effective coaches, athletes, and teams use mental techniques to reach an optimal performance level -- and stay there. In the Zone explains how to use sports superstars' methods to meet personal goals and achieve and maintain maximum results in the business world. Readers will learn how to deal with aggressive competition, eliminate self-doubt, recover from professional setbacks, prepare for contract negotiations, develop presentations, and become a team leader.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Popular management literature is replete with analogies to sports and competition, but Perry and Jamison go for the gold. Perry is founder and president of a company that conducts "adventure training" seminars to foster corporate teambuilding; Jamison is a journalist and coauthor of Winning Ugly: Mental Warfare in Tennis (1993). The "zone" used here is a commonly referred to sports phenomenon--a state of peak performance that is more mental than physical--and the authors argue that those in business can also enter the zone to achieve success. In a section titled "The Opponent," they identify mental management techniques to overcome "performance-inhibiting thought processes," and in a section called "Your Team," they examine the internal resources all individuals possess but tend to neglect over time. Finally, in "Your Game Plan," they lay out steps (ritualize, visualize, optimize, and capitalize) to take to attain the zone. David Rouse

About the Author

A human behavior specialist, Dr. J. Mitchell Perry has been a performance trainer, professional speaker, organizational psychologist for top business leaders around the world. As the keynote speaker at the annual Entrepreneur of the Year Awards for the last seven years, Dr. Perry is a master at teaching you practical skills in and entertaining and enjoyable fashion. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: Contemporary Books (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809231956
• ISBN-13: 978-0809231959
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,530,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everything you want it to be, March 4, 2001

By 

Joshua Hillis "RKC, NASM-CPT/PES, author of T... (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In The Zone (Paperback)

The basic idea of this book is to look at your business from the same perspective you may have looked at sports. Sports are fun, why isn't business fun?

This book tells you how to systematically and consistantly put yourself in a peak state. I used to be a very competetive cross country runner, and this helped me translate the things I did instinctively to put myself in the best mental state for competition to the sales setting that I've been in in the last five years. I've read it several times, and I'll probably read it several more. It's just good stuff.

Just one caveat: This book does assume that you have the technical competency to perform your task. I've given this book to new salespeople who still weren't totally clear on exactly what to do, and by virtue of that fact the book was pretty useless.

So, assuming that you know the rules to your game, this book will help you get in the best mental state to play it. And it will teach you how to have fun doing it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Content is good but disjointed in many places, July 6, 2000

By 

Irby F. Stewart (426 Heather Cr., Thunder Bay, ON P7E 5K7) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In The Zone (Paperback)

The content is probably good but it is very disjointed in many places. Large print is good. Mitchell Parry's book "The Road to Optimism: Change Your Language, Change Your Life" is less disjointed. I think that the content could be written better if only one author was writing it. I found the first half of the book was much better in content and flow than the last half of the book. It didn't flow for easy understanding. I find that a good book makes me want to read it again. I have little interest in reading this one a second time. NOTE: I only read non-fiction books.

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything you want it to be, December 6, 2000

By 

Joshua Hillis "RKC, NASM-CPT/PES, author of T... (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In The Zone (Paperback)

This book tells you how to systematically and consistantly put yourself in a peak state. I used to be a very competetive cross country runner, and this helped me translate the things I did instinctively to put myself in the best mental state for competition to the sales setting that I've been in in the last five years. It keys in on the fact that if you aren't having fun, you're doing it wrong. I've read it several times, and I'll probably read it several more. It's just good stuff.