. Achieving the Flow of Great Performance by Tom Terez . This article is available for free reprinting in your newsletter, e-letter, magazine, Web site, intranet site, or training materials. Sign up for instant access to the Reprint Center.   . On August 22, 1741, George Frideric Handel shut the door, sat down at his keyboard, picked up a quill, and began to compose. Twenty-four days and nights later, he emerged with 260 ink-filled pages, some of them streaked from his own tears. The result came fully to life on April 13, 1742, at Dublin's New Music Hall, with the debut of the majestic oratorio now known to the world as Messiah. Recalling the creation of his two-and-a-half-hour masterpiece, Handel told a friend, "Whether I was in the body or out of my body when I wrote it, I know not." He worked nonstop, frequently skipping meals. The effort so captured his heart that he often wept as the music flowed. After composing the section known as the "Hallelujah Chorus," he wrote in his journal, "I think I did see all Heaven before me and the great God Himself." What exactly happened in that room during those three weeks and three days in 1741? How did Handel create such a magnificent work in so little time? Are there things we can do in our own lives to create our own Messiah equivalents on a smaller scale? Part of the answer lies in a concept called "flow." Made famous in his book by that name, author and psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains: "The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." Early in his research, Csikszentmihalyi studied photos of visual artists at work. The photos had been taken at three-minute intervals, allowing him to be a fly on their studio walls -- a bit like watching Handel in his composing room. All the photos showed a stunning degree of involvement and absorption, with the artists intensely and exclusively focused on their work. The mental noise and distractions that afflict so many of us appeared to be absent. Csikszentmihalyi looked beyond the art studio and found that this phenomenon exists elsewhere -- among rock climbers, dancers, chess players, athletes, composers, musicians, and others. In fact, wherever he found peak performance, Csikszentmihalyi found "flow." Athletes refer to it as "being in the zone." Basketball champions have left their best games saying that the basket somehow seemed to widen in diameter just for them. Baseball great Ted Williams reported after multi-hit games that he could see the seams on incoming fastballs. Gymnastics standout Carol Johnson once said that the balance beam would seemingly grow wider for her on days when everything came together -- to such a degree that "any worry of falling off disappeared." Was Handel "in the zone" when he wrote Messiah? Pelé would likely think so. The Brazilian soccer star often experienced "flow" in his Messiah-quality performances on the soccer field. It's a "euphoria," he said. "I felt I could run all day without tiring, that I could dribble through any of their teams or all of them, that I could almost pass through them physically. I felt I could not be hurt." Perhaps you'd like to run all day without tiring and achieve results like Handel or Pelé. If so, the good news is that you can. The bad news is that flow can't be turned on like water from a faucet. In fact, thinking too hard about putting yourself "in the zone" is probably the worst way to go about it. That's because the best performance is largely an unconscious proposition -- something that emerges from deep within us. But there are things you can do to create the right conditions. For starters, you need to like what you're doing; if you don't, you'll never achieve flow. Try to stretch yourself, striving for a performance that is above your skill level but still within the realm of doability. Make a habit of this "stretch" process, always aspiring to a higher level as your performance improves. Remove all removable distractions -- so turn off that cell phone and stop the multi-tasking. As your work unfolds, stay in touch with the emotional feedback you're getting from yourself. Monitor progress, enjoy the glow of achievement, and roll it back in so you can achieve even more. This is vital if you're working on a big project that will span several weeks or more. If it seems like a lot of work, go back to Handel. In the first half of 1741, the 56-year-old composer thought his best days were behind him. Chased by creditors, suffering from rheumatism, and coming off of two poorly received operas, he was planning to pack up and return to his native Germany. Then he received a letter with inspired lyrics. The writer was seeking music for his words and felt that only Handel could do the job. That's when he picked up the quill and worked miracles. What about you? Are you staying open to opportunity while exercising a Handel-like work ethic? Are you creating the conditions to turn work into "flow." Are you transforming those mundane tasks into a meaningful mission? Are you doing ordinary things in extraordinary ways? These are the questions that can turn ordinary notes on a page into beautiful music. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tom Terez (TomTerez.com) is an international consultant and frequent speaker on organizational performance (BetterWorkplaceNow.com) and personal excellence (InnerBest.com) Copyright 2004 Tom Terez. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2008 Tom Terez Workplace Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. P.O. Box 21444, Columbus, Ohio USA 43221-0444. Tel. 614-488-9721. 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