Peace of Mind News

Sometimes, a crazy little thought bounces into my head. When this happens, I’ve learned to make a note of the thought, meditate on it for a while, and wait for the insight to appear.

A few months ago, I heard, “Sports is a portal.”

A little background will be helpful to the reader.

My favorite pastime is sports. I especially enjoy the team sports of basketball, baseball, football, hockey, and soccer. I keep an eye on tennis, golf, and NASCAR too.

As a kid, I played pickup games at every opportunity. Now, I play a lot of basketball because it is convenient. We have a short full-court on our property.

I watch sports. I play sports. As a businessman, I follow the financial decisions involving sports.

A portal is a doorway, an opening. In spiritual terminology, it is a gateway into another dimension.

When I heard “sports is a portal,” this background information ran through my mind.

I know that athletes often talk about getting in “the zone.” It is a place where the game slows down, everything becomes easier, and the participant does the impossible.

I watched this happen yesterday while playing basketball.

Paul, my son, was playing on a team that needed one more basket to defeat my team. He stood fifteen feet away from the basket. His defender guarded him closely, so close that Paul had to turn his back to the defender and to the basket to keep from losing the ball.

Suddenly, Paul flipped the ball over his head, over the defender, and into the basket to win the game.

Yes, you read that correctly. It was a blind, over-the-head shot, from fifteen feet.

Making a basket is hard enough when a player’s form is correct and his eyes are firmly locked on the basket. The fact that Paul made the shot without seeing his target defies explanation.

I have seen other athletes do the same thing. They perform the seemingly impossible.

They don’t understand it when they do it.

Even though Michael Jordan was a great basketball player, shooting three-pointers was not the best part of his game. However, in Game One of the 1992 NBA finals, he hit a record six three-pointers in the first half. After he made the last one, he just turned, looked at press row, and shrugged.

He had no logical explanation for his suddenly-gained skill. He was just in the zone.

Athletes often hire sports psychologists to help them learn how to get into this zone. They visualize. They analyze. They meditate.

Debates rage over what is most important: practicing physical skills or visualizing accomplishments.

It seems obvious that practicing a task repeatedly trains the muscles how to do something so it can be perfected. However, after years of playing and watching sports, I suspect there is something else happening.

I believe these people are using their practice as a portal. They have stepped into a dimension where the impossible become possible. They have found a sweet spot in life where things become easier.

Paul’s over-the-head shot demonstrates that.

Jordan’s sudden ability to shoot three-pointers demonstrates that too.

Does this ability have anything to do with the shift we are experiencing our spirituality, our finances, and our leadership?

I believe it does and I will explain that tomorrow.