Pre-Ramble: After a weekend of nothing but golf and more golf, I have been introduced to a whole new, life-altering concept — The Caddie.

By way of background, a group of us went for a golf weekend at the Whistling Straits Golf Course in Wisconsin (shown at right).  One of the most “challenging, expansive and elegant golf destinations in the world … site of the 2004 PGA Championship“  … blah, blah … “Sculpted out of rugged, windswept terrain along the western shore of Lake Michigan … “ … Suffice it to say that the course was well-designed, tough and full of surprises.

Houston, we have a problem. I totally had no business being out there.  I have played 18 holes maybe 3 times in my life, at courses that were nowhere near as challenging as this. Seriously, when I stepped onto the first tee-box I thought I was looking at the lunar surface … Grassy mounds as far as the eye could see, punctuated by clusters of sand traps that can only be described as evil. I’m not even going to talk about the series of holes that clung to the edge of Lake Michigan … basically, one continuous water hazard.

If I hadn’t been with some very good friends (and wearing a brand new golf outfit), I would have run from the course screaming faster than my husband could say “That’s another quadruple-bogie for you, Honey …” I knew, however, that in order to feel good about life, I needed to get out there and give it a go; no matter what. I was resigned to my fate … I had to play that round … and then …

Enter, … the Caddie.

OMG – where has this service sector been all my life?? Up until this point, I had always thought that a caddie was some young punk you paid to snicker during your backswing. Technically, …

“… a caddy (or caddie) is the person who carries a player’s bag and clubs, and gives insightful advice and moral support. A good caddy is aware of the challenges and obstacles of the golf course being played, along with the best strategy in playing it. This includes knowing overall yardage, pin placements and club selection.”

Well, hello; come to mama!! Turns out that the caddie assigned to my friend and I was the golf equivalent of Richard Gere in American Gigolo. He was amazing (in his appointed golf duties, I mean). He not only carried our bags, cleaned our clubs and provided pertinent yardage to the holes, he also gave invaluable off-hand advice on how and where to hit each shot, and just the right amount of moral support to mitigate ”errant events.”

This guy was a professional. Part butler, coach, trainer, shrink and fairy-god-mother, he knew every inch of that golf course and had enough social awareness to maintain a conversation with anyone about nearly any topic. He was steady, proactive and resourceful. The proper club always magically appeared in his outstretched hand, and among other feats, I swear I saw him rappelling down into a snake pit to fetch my ball.

Even though we were playing on a super tough course … in the driving rain (my shoes were so drenched that I had to buy another pair to play the next day), this round was easily the best of my life. I attribute my level of enjoyment and upgraded level of play directly to the caddie’s attentiveness to the strategic and administrative aspects of the game, which then freed up my mind to focus on the singular task at hand.

The Take-Away: How much more effective would we all be in our appointed rounds if we had a way to off-load the barrage of extraneous activity running in the “background” of our brains?  Simplification and organization are two strategies that can foster a more fluid state of focus, and then, what I’m thinking would really be helpful is to have a life caddie.  … Somebody to attend to the minutiae of the day, … cooking, gardening, grocery shopping, house-keeping, laundry, fixing random stuff, listening, advising, suggesting … waiting around to see if anything needs fetching …

How awesome would this be??  And, it would free me up to focus on other stuff … thinking brilliant thoughts or reading obscure books, … or busting open that big blank canvas and painting a masterpiece … Or, maybe actually learning how to golf …

Pre-Ramble: In my last post, I gave a few overview details about the Learning and the Brain conference that I attended a couple weeks ago.  One of the big themes was the concept of “flow” … specifically, being in it and the remarkable performance boost that comes from this relaxed, yet heightened state.

No-show conference presenter, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined and defines “flow” as “the optimal experience” … one where an individual takes part in “activities that stretch their capacity and involve an element of novelty and discovery … they experience … an almost automatic, effortless, yet highly focused state of consciousness.”

In his research, Csikszentmihalyi identified nine elements that seemed to characterize the flow experience for everyone he interviewed, regardless of the subject’s activity or demographic …

1. the process is clear (you don’t have to “think about” what to do “next”)
2. there is immediate, in-the-moment feedback in response to action (… a sense of, “Yay – you’re doing it right!“)
3. there’s a balance between challenge and skills (not too easy, not too hard … just right)
4. action and awareness are merged (there’s focus)
5. distractions are excluded from consciousness (intense focus causes a kind of “tunnel-vision” to kick in)
6. there is no worry of failure (everything is clicking and that’s the over-riding vibe)
7. self-consciousness disappears (see “everything is clicking” above)
8. sense of time becomes distorted (“Wow – how long have I been writing this blog post??“)
9. the activity becomes “autoletic”  ( self-rewarding … worth doing for its own sake)

MC suggests that “place” is an important factor in creative endeavor/flow as well. The optimal confluence of information, stimulation and resources ($$$) greatly depends on the environment in which a pursuit or experience takes place. Silicon Valley is a great example of the value of “place” to innovative, creative outcomes.

Speaking of place, I had another experience of flow while in Chicago for the conference — more like synchronous happenstance that just makes you shake your head and think “What are the odds?”

Well, so, I had wanted to take my conference buddy to this really great Thai restaurant that I had been to while in Chicago a couple of years before. Saved that for the last night we were in town … go out with a big hoorah, blah, blah … But when I went to look up the address online, I discovered that the place had closed — !!?

Well, great. NOW what were we going to do?  In a state of hungry frustration (the worst kind) I suggested that we just “walk toward the big bean and see if we could find a good spot.”  Could that plan have been any less of a plan?

So, we walked down Michigan Avenue (tulips were unbelievable!) through Millennium Park and eventually found ourselves on a narrow aluminum walking bridge up to what looked like a museum or field house of some kind.  Great, yeah, whatever … Not a restaurant in sight, but, hey.  Almost to the top, we were approached by a uniformed security guard who politely, but firmly, informed us that the rest of the bridge was closed and we needed to turn around and make our way back down.

Now even more hungry and ornery, I casually leaned in toward the guard and asked, “So, where should we have dinner? … Can you recommend a good place around here?”

He looked at me like I was from Mars and then pointed randomly across a nearby street and said, “Well, I don’t eat around here, but folks seem to like that place over there … (he actually said, “dat place over dare”) … and gave me a faint smile, still shooing us off the bridge.

Long story short, (well, … less long) …  my friend and I went over to dat place and it turned out to be a hip, happening, packed bar/restaurant, hopping with hip, happening Chicago urban professionals meeting up after work on a Friday night for some fun. The wait for a table was 2 hours, so we decided to take a seat in the bar area and watch the lively scene.

Not only were the French fries divine (French fries are experiencing a resurgent status as an “it” food, you know), but we struck up a conversation with a gentleman and his companion who were seated across from us at the long communal table, only to discover that he was involved in international education and communications initiatives in Third World countries … precisely the subject area of a project I had just finished working on.  We had a total “flow” conversation and may find a project of mutual benefit in the future.

The Take-Away: Sometimes the best things happen when you just “go with the flow” … it could even become autoletic.

Pre-Ramble: Just back from the Learning & the Brain Conference sponsored by The University of Chicago – and my brain is PACKED with new, fascinating ways to look at learning and performance through the lens of cutting-edge advances in neurological research.

This three-day “interdisciplinary forum” brought together researchers, clinicians and educators who provided insight – both heavy on the research and in a user-friendly practical realm – into the dynamics of motivation and focus in academics, athletics and all-around achievement. This was the perfect storm of psychologists, teachers and regular folks, exchanging ideas in a number of different break-out forums.

The line-up of speakers was varied and impressive:

• Sian Beilock, Director of the Human Performance Lab at UC set the tone with a presentation on performance under pressure. Whether you’re hitting the wrong note, dropping the ball, or choking on a test – her research on the brain reveals the how and why and offers lab-tested strategies to improve performance. (Her book - Choke, 2010)
• Author, Daniel Siegel, MD, gave an experiential explanation of how practice (lots of it) and mindfulness (meditation) can make a staggering difference in the ability of the brain to support excellence, and how stress physically diminishes the brain’s capacity to perform. (His most recent book - Mindsight, 2011)
• Psychologist, Ben Bernstein, PhD, provided an entertaining take on the mind-body connection using a three-pronged approach – calm, confident and focused – to mitigate any type of stress. His “seed packet” analogy was particularly powerful, underscoring the importance of “vision” of an end state in pursuit of personal, professional or educational goals. (His book - Workbook for Test Success, 2010)
• Journalist, Daniel Coyle (could the guy look and sound any more like Tom Hanks?) In researching “talent hotbeds,” Coyle came across a Russian tennis club called Spartak that had produced more top-20 women players than the entire U.S. … “on a single club with one crummy indoor court, in a freezing climate.” That plus a deep inquiry into the behavior of the myelin sheath structure in the brain went into The Talent Code, his recent book about “getting really good at sports, art, music and anything else.”  (Where do I sign up??)
• Sadly, one of the scheduled keynote speakers, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhD, researcher and author of several books on creativity ( … he was the first to identify and expound upon the concept of “flow”) … was unable to attend the conference. The only person I felt sorrier for than my disappointed self, was the woman (his close colleague) who was sent to speak in his place.  She actually did a very nice job, (and effortlessly breezed through pronunciation of Mihaly’s last name several times).

The Take-Away: In addition to the realization that you need to write a book if you’re going to be a presenter at these elite conferences, there were many interesting and memorable take-away concepts.  In spite of the fact that it is finally spring, the one which I will leave you with here is Daniel Coyle’s comparison of mental processes in the brain to a snowy sledding hill.

As he describes it, each thought or action is like a sled going down that hill, making a “track” in the snow. The more times you think or do the same thing, the deeper and more entrenched that pathway becomes; and the stronger and faster it becomes as well. If you repeat the action enough times (10,000 is the estimate), it becomes pretty much your default zone.

Apparently it’s all about practice habits. Skill circuits are grown and maintained through deep practice. And, it turns out, the most valuable part of deep practice is mistakes; they point right to the next piece of skill that needs to be mastered in order to progress! Viva la mistakes!!

Post-Note: Chicago was decked out in full spring regalia … Planters of lush tulips bursting with color lined Michigan Avenue and Millennium Park (and the “big chrome bean” shown above … which is actually a nice representation of the inner workings of the brain … I thought … ) were a sight to behold as well. This location was a total value-add for the conference experience.