Get Into Your Zone Through Music
What happens when your favorite music is added to your daily mix?
One beat. One rhythm. A guitar solo, a full energetic drum set or lyrics that lift your heart. Rhythms that enter through your ear and are capable of moving every inch of your body.
Music is all about this: Motivation. Movement. Feelings. From the time I started playing volleyball in high school until I graduated from college, I always had the need to listen to my favorite songs before every game so I could concentrate and visualize myself in the way I wanted to perform. With my headphones on and music flowing through my ears I had this great feeling of getting into the “zone”, as athletes like to say. In this way, I felt that it was a good way to get rid of pre-game shaky legs and prepare my body with energy and motivation and overall I felt I used to play better when my music routine took place.
I always saw it as a personal ritual until I realized that almost every athlete uses music to concentrate before training and matches. It´s common to see soccer players arriving at stadiums with their headphones on and their sight set on their objectives.
So how can this help me at work?
In both environments exist competence, objectives, planning, training, hard work and effort, results evaluation, teams and the satisfaction of accomplishing achievements. In the workplace, it’s necessary to have a high level of concentration when we have to do our tasks so, as a true music power believer, I get the rhythms of my favorite artists to accompany my work throughout the day. And I’m not alone, so many of my colleagues in my office and a lot of our partners do their work with music and the results of that combination are great!
Here are some benefits that music can give at work and while you train for your favorite sport:
1. Keep your mind active while doing repetitive activities
When you have a bunch of repetitive reports to do or a long list of reps in the gym, music can be a good friend to avoid tiredness. Also the music rhythm can unconsciously make us do our activities faster than if we didn’t have those beats to distract from the monotony.
2. Create a bubble in a noisy environment
Work environments are usually noisy and full of distractions. This can be bad if your task requires a high level of concentration. Sometimes our own thoughts can also be a big distraction that affects our concentration, especially before a final or a really tough training session. Music can create a “bubble” around you where you can be locked in and totally focused on what you have to do.
3. Inspire your creativity
When you let yourself move with music, you can think beyond the limits and outside the box. It can create an environment that facilitates idea creation and imagination. For example, finding a solution to a problem where your team was stuck or creating a new successful play for your team.
4. Motivate yourself
Music can get you in the zone through full energy beats and inspirational lyrics. When you feel this way, you motivate your body to perform in a better way and it helps you to visualize yourself reaching your goals or dealing with the toughest challenges.
The way music can help us to do our daily activities is interesting, especially because it’s something that anybody can try and feel. You just need an activity to do and your favorite songs. So the next time you have a race, match, task or project, play some music in your headphones and you’ll see things will change for the better. Here’s the top five tunes making my playlist at the moment:
First of all it's admirable the challenge you are preparing for, it sounds really tough but very rewarding. Like you say, music is helpful to get yourself in the "zone" and have the strength to complete any task. I wish you the best in your 5 marathons!
You describe very nicely the impact of music in our daily activities. Personally, I also used to listen music at my workplace. Normally I prefer soft music at workplace. It brings the concentration at my work.