Athletes talk about ‘The Zone’ a lot. It’s described as that point when whatever it is you are doing — running, swimming, playing an instrument, even selling — that point where everything is in perfect harmony and you are accomplishing and achieving with ease.

There are days when I’m speaking to my students on a coaching call and days when I’m giving in person presentations where I’m “on”, where I know I’m affecting people deeply and meaningfully. Of course I strive for that each and every time and hit the mark most days. (I also know that we all are prone to an off day and instead of getting down on myself for the rare off day, I view them as lessons on what to improve instead of dwelling in the ‘oh woe is me’ mentality.)

A friend of mine does therapeutic massage for a living. She recently told me that after nine years of doing massage, she finally felt that she had given the best massage of her career. And that, in fact, she felt it was really the first phenomenal massage she’d ever given. “Don’t get me wrong,” she said, “I’m not being self-deprecating. I have given good, passable massages before. I’ve given lousy massages as well, where I knew they weren’t connecting with the kind of body work I do. But i never really felt I was really good at it until recently. I felt like I was giving mediocre massages that people were appreciative of just because most of the time when we’re touched in a healing way, it feels good whether it’s amazing or not.”

I was absolutely blown away. I had to know what it was after nine years that she did differently that switched what she considered a mediocre massage into a phenomenal massage, so I asked, “What did you do differently?”

“It’s the strangest thing,” she said. “I didn’t have my mp3 player in the office. And usually when there’s no music, the client wants to talk, but I made a conscious decision to have it be completely silent. And then I imagined myself on the table, almost as if I slipped into their skin, and simply listened to what their body wanted. And when I was done, I felt I had been in a trance for an hour.”

In my mind, she achieved the zone. And whats more, she achieved the persuasion zone. Because what does this sound like but rapport? She figuratively slipped into her client’s skin. She could feel what they needed and knew how to meet them at that level.

You can achieve the zone in all situations — one on one, group interactions, work situations, personal situations. And this can be done more often than not (barring a ‘bad day’). Just as she got used to giving mediocre massages, my friend has recently gotten used to giving phenomenal massages.