Book Review: Finding You Zone: Ten Core Lessons for Achieving Peak Performance in Sports and Life

Title: Finding You Zone: Ten Core Lessons for Achieving Peak Performance in Sports and Life
Author: Michael Lardon, M.D.
Pages:162

From Barnes and Noble

The first research-based program to offer concise, clear ways to realize your best performance.


As a therapist, physician, and mental coach, Dr. Michael Lardon has dedicated his career to helping athletes understand and better achieve peak performance. In Finding Your Zone, he shares with readers what he's discovered about reaching the state in which “thoughts and actions are occurring in complete synchronicity,” and how this state is accessible to all, not just the few.

In ten key lessons—illustrated by personal anecdotes from his clients—Lardon teaches readers how to access the zone not only in sports but in all aspects of their lives, by understanding how to:

• Transform desire into will

• Channel emotions to victory

• Trust instincts and keep it simple

• Conquer fear through acceptance

• Perform under pressure

My Thoughts

At first I was a little skeptical about this book. Sometimes when I come across these books I have to be cautious that it is not some flimsy book trying to showcase a mental training program that costs money or have you believe that you can turn your life around instantly. These types of programs are scams.

This is not a program. This is not a scam. This book is just good sound practical advice to help you think about yourself and actions. This book gives you key insight into helping you guide yourself to finding your own "Zone". That is what I liked best about this book.

I ended up taking 5 pages of notes(front and back) as I just could not get enough of the information. Nothing here is groundbreaking information. If you have read other books dealing the mind, then you have read some of these things before. What I liked about this book is the approach. It was simple with great examples. It came with simple exercises to help work on the ten core lessons.

I am a quote lover and there were some new quotes that I wrote down to use with my basketball team.

The key element of this book is that these lessons can apply to anyone whether you are a pro, high school athlete, a non athlete just trying to find a job, businessman, etc.

I have already tried some of the ideas in the book and am finding them to work.

I am rather impressed by this book. I am glad that I took the time to actually read and absorb the material. I sometimes rapid read books just to get them done. This book I took my time and found it beneficial.

I am now in pursuit of some other books that are just as helpful as this one to help me become a better person, runner, and basketball coach.

I am also going to be adding posts to my blog where I will be documenting my journey using some of the techniques offered in this book. These will be posted soon.