How World Cup Can Improve Work Engagement
Let me say this upfront: if you’re trying to get someone you love to watch any sports game with you, or at the very least, to leave you in peace as you’re watching the game, this article will be a powerful weapon in your arsenal.
Since the start of the World Cup, all the boys in our house have been deeply engaged in watching soccer. All four of them, ages 3 to 30-something, seemed to have lost themselves in each match, screaming: “YES!” “Go, go, GOOOO! Oh, NOOOOOO!!!!” “CHEATING! That guy was cheating!” “Mom, COME QUICK!!! You HAVE to see this replay!”
Not being a sports fan, I still love seeing those replays, because every goal is executed so beautifully that it’s a masterpiece. I don’t know the current ranking of the teams in World Cup. So, when I watch World Cup, I pick a favorite team at the beginning of each match, and root for “my” team.
Why?
Because I’ve learned that allowing yourself to be engaged in watching a game can change your ability to feel deeply engaged in other aspects of your life, even if you don’t start out as a fan of the game.
“The only time I feel truly happy is when I’m a watching a game. I scream, I jump, I curse, and I feel like myself.”- a client once told me. He has a successful career, a beautiful family, and still, the time when he feels most like himself is when he’s watching a game.
Does it sound odd or unbelievable? In fact, this account is pretty common. I’m sure you’ve encountered people expressing satisfaction that they experience from being deeply engaged in sports or technology:
“When I see a new gadget, my hand start trembling: I have a physical urge to immediately get that gadget in my hands. I want to click on everything, go through all the features instantaneously. I’m completely absorbed by exploring the new device.”
“When I see a car’s new design, when I think of the incredible speed at which the car can go, I feel in my gut that this is a thing of beauty. It is perfection. This perfection is like a drug.”
“Watching an apocalypse unfold on screen gives me an adrenalin rush. With controls in my hands, I feel like I’m really on a mission to save the world, even though I know it’s just a game. It feels real.”
I take this moment of passion, engagement, and connection, and help clients create the adrenalin rush of a “guy on a mission” in their daily jobs, and in all other aspects of their lives.
What’s the secret? How can this be done?
What makes people feel so alive during a soccer match, and so dead inside during a business meeting?
Here are some ideas that you can try on your own:
1. Use World Cup to learn to Allow yourself to care. Then, actually care.
Can you remember the last time you allowed yourself to be moved by something so deeply that you actually cried? Perhaps, what triggered it was an unexpected, much needed act of kindness that you witnessed or experienced. Possibly, a musical piece performed to perfection, or a powerful film. What about a point that was scored on the last second, changing the outcome of the final game? (If you can’t remember, please read this article: “50 Signs You Need a Change”).
Understandably, you might not allow yourself to be moved to tears, because it leads to vulnerability. If you care that much, you’re vulnerable, and being vulnerable feels unsafe and uncomfortable.
Well, then, there is always an option of not taking things to heart.
Not looking. Not caring.
Not doing anything that really matters because it feels too vulnerable.
What will you miss?
Being vulnerable allows you to experience connection: with your work, with your loved ones, with the world around you. Being vulnerable is your portal to experiencing intimacy.
You choose: do you want to go through life feeling unmoved or feeling connected?
2. Use World Cup to teach yourself to walk away if you can’t allow yourself to care, or if you can’t bring yourself to care.
If you realize that you need a change, and you just can’t continue acting as if you care, when you really don’t, here are some ideas for what to do when you need a change.
3. Use World Cup to see how players (and you) can create such a build-up of energy that deeply moves everyone who comes in contact with it.
Watch the players’ moves, polished to perfection, putting everything that they have into each pass. Similarly, do something that really matters to you, doing it well and honestly, doing it so beautifully that even someone who knows nothing about your field would be awed. Try this:
– Start a soulful conversation, and put your heart into it.
– Streamline a process, helping people save time and attention.
– Mend without a trace – a shoe, a fence, a heart.
– Be the one carrying tissues, always.
– Invent something. Anything.
– Share a really good story.
– Cook something delicious, and watch someone eat it.
– Sing a song – to a baby, to your lover, to a friend. Pick a really beautiful song.
– Answer questions honestly. You’d be surprised how refreshing and moving it could be.
– Be the one unaffected among the chaos, so that you can help those who are suffering. Allow yourself to be vulnerable after the whole thing is over.
– Allow yourself to be vulnerable sometimes when you are in a position of power.
4. Use World Cup to practice deep engagement.
If you’re a soccer fan, I’m sure you’re sitting at the edge of your seat at every World Cup match that you get to watch. Notice what it feels like to deeply care about the team’s performance. Notice how you feel about your favorite team at the end of the game: are you still a fan if the team loses? Are you over the moon if the team wins? Notice what deep engagement feels like, so that we can start having a conversation about recreating that feeling in other areas of your life.
If you’re not currently a soccer fan, set aside the time to watch one match, just one. Pick your favorite team – either one of the teams. You can go by their country, by the color of the uniform, or by your friend’s recommendation. Observe the mastery of the players, and allow yourself to cheer for “your” team. Pretend that their success depends on the quality of your cheering. Allow yourself to practice deep engagement, and notice what it feels like.
Clients often tell me that something is missing for them, but they can’t exactly pinpoint what it is. Very often, what’s missing is deep engagement, but it’s hard to put your figure on it unless you know exactly what deep engagement feels like (the context of it doesn’t matter). So, World Cup is a great opportunity to practice feeling deep engagement and learn what it feels like.
5. Use World Cup to practice dealing with situations where you have no control of the outcome, learning to manage your wait time and expectations.
You can scream at the TV screen all you want – you can’t control the outcome of the matches, much like you can’t control the weather. Things that are completely outside of your control happen all the time, and sometimes, all you can do is learn how to manage your situation while waiting for news.
You can’t bulletproof your life, but you can learn to live well even with uncertainty.
You can’t make your team win, but you can figure out how to manage your expectations, allowing yourself to dream up the best outcome and not get broken-hearted if your outcome doesn’t materialize.
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Deep engagement is the key to doing fulfilling work and having fulfilling life. The good thing is that it is a skill that can be learned and practiced. Let me know if you want us to work on it together. And I’d love to hear your success stories about getting your friends & family deeply engaged in the World Cup!
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Are you in NYC/NJ area on Wed. 6/25? If you want to learn to use your gut feeling for improving your life consistently and reliably, please come to my workshop!
INTENT & ALIGNMENT WORKSHOP: Using Intuition to Help Things Happen in Your Life
Has it ever happened to you that you wanted something So much, but just couldn’t reach it, no matter how hard you worked on it? What about the opposite, when something that you’ve been dreaming about just fell into your hands, without you making the slightest effort? This workshop is designed to help analytical people (left-brainers) to:
– Understand how to use your energy to set clear intentions
– Align your intentions, actions, and energy for materializing your wish
– Learn how to re-wire your brain to help you create what you want rather than mull over what you don’t want
By the end of the class, participants will be able to develop a clear intent for something that they deeply want to happen in their lives. Participants will also acquire useful tools for creating alignment for their wishes, using both intuition and logic. BONUS: One personal intuitive question for each workshop participant will be answered, as a demo of intuition in action.
WHEN: Wed., June 25, 2014, 9-10:30 p.m..
WHERE: Fair Lawn, NJ
PARTICIPATION FEE: $25
ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED, as spaces are limited. Please REGISTER HERE by Fri. 6/20.
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I recently did an interview for Kirsten Marion of “Notes from a Broad” on helping analytical people understand intuition. We talked about things like reasons why people are forgiving of meteorologists making wrong predictions, but not psychics; where in the brain (or really, physically, in the gut?) does intuition “reside”, and much more. ENJOY and SHARE, please.
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