Viktor Frankl – “What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.” (Pg. 111 in Man’s Search For Meaning)

(S)He’s got that look. That look when you’re in the zone, a state where you appreciate and dominate the present moment. You don’t sink to a sunken place; you instead lift to a higher place. A place where your confidence is indestructible and you’re unrecognizable to your previous self. Check out the clip below – Dirk Nowitzki has That Dead Eye Look after closing out Game 2 of the 2011 NBA Finals. He was so dialed in on winning the game that he’s expressionless when the buzzer sounds from 5:15-onward, and only snaps back to reality when a reporter asks him a question at 6:30.

How does one obtain this?

I don’t have the blueprint. I’ve been there before in certain moments where I go outside of myself, but I haven’t discovered the exact code to get there … yet. But when you have it, you feel it. And awareness that something exists is the first step in obtaining. Figuring out how to tap into it on command, will come. It will be done. I do know you must have an invincible will to accomplish something you strongly desire. That’s a requirement. As Kobe Bryant explains in this Youtube video, you must also be so present in the moment that you are oblivious to everything else. Your internal must be so strong it masks all distractions, doubt, or fear from the external.

Fulfilling your potential in a particular activity or character trait comes from a transformation. You can’t embody the same person that didn’t get the job done if you want to get the job done. Attempting to accomplish or be something different, while being the same version of yourself as before, is foolish. Prior to looking inward to fulfill yourself, you must transcend out of yourself.

“Now, rise into the sky. Rise … Now you’re in the risen place.”