The Inner Game of Work: Focus, Learning, Pleasure, and Mobility in the Workplace

Since the publication some two decades ago of his bestselling The Inner Game of Tennis and The Inner Game of Golf, Timothy Gallwey has come to believe that those books' overriding principle--eliminate negative internal interference to bring about positive self-change--is applicable to virtually any activity. Now, in The Inner Game of Work, he applies that principle to the arena where the biggest turn-of-the-millennium game of all is being played. "We are constantly told that we live in an age of change," Gallwey writes, "and nowhere are we told more frequently that we have to change than in the workplace." As on the court and the course, he contends, those changes necessary to survive and thrive can be effectively realized by quieting our inner doubts and learning to rely on our own natural instincts and behavior.

How does Gallwey suggest we do this? His method is twofold: "focus of attention ... the quintessential component of superior performance in every activity" and "clarity of desire behind the focus." Through example and clear instruction, he shows how to minimize self-distracting thoughts that serve to undermine our confidence in the workplace and similar settings, and subsequently to begin "playing in the zone" like elite athletes who have learned to visualize their goals unerringly and proceed unremittingly (and almost unconsciously) in their pursuit. It will take no small amount of dedication to put these ideas into practice, but those who do should find that Gallwey's advice relates as well to the working world as it does to the sporting world. --Howard Rothman