Getting "in the zone" is what some call it. Focus, inner calm, control. Artists, athletes, executives, and others are looking for ways to master the human mind. Everything from ancient folklore to modern psychology is being employed to condition the mind and take charge of it in an effort to avoid stress, to stay in the moment, to help ordinary individuals achieve the extraordinary. Artists aspire to be more creative, athletes to be better in their field, business executives to be better competitors.

Sound good? More and more people think so, according to a cover story on this phenomenon that appeared in a recent issue of U.S. News & World Report. Some are taking an outside-in approach: training hard physically, watching what they eat, slowing down their work schedule. Others tackle personal control and peak performance from the inside out: setting goals, redirecting their emotions, visualizing what they want to achieve, using any number of internal exercises to sharpen their skills.

Perhaps what all this interest in mental control and development suggests is that in today's environment, awash in information—what one man calls "data smog"—people are looking for a survival guide, some help in thinking clearly and fulfilling their potential.

But the perception that some strictly physical or emotional regimen is the entire answer misses the mark. A couple of words of instruction drawn from the pre-Information Age—watch and pray—lie behind the success that many people are having controlling and progressing in their lives. Many of us are discovering how up-to-the-minute Jesus' counsel is for maintaining focus, self-control, and for being better at what they do.

Watching, for instance. People are finding that it's wise to be discriminating about what you take into your consciousness as fact. One man said he could feel the tension build among a planeload of passengers as they unexpectedly had to wait an extra fifteen minutes on the runway before departing. At first, he thought there might be an outburst of "air rage." But then he asked himself, why not expect an outburst of patience or understanding instead? Maybe the only reason not to expect something good to happen is that we've been told over and over that, in these rapid-pace times, an explosion of anger is the natural reaction to a stressful situation—as if that's our real nature coming through.

But it's not. We're not brutes at heart; we're actually compassionate, forgiving individuals, the likeness of God, who is Love. That's our real nature. Loving. Good. Spiritual. Which should explain why watchfulness is so important. Alert to what's influencing and ultimately governing us, we're not caught offguard. When you're on a delayed flight, in a tense game, faced with a demanding schedule, or just inundated with information, watching what you're admitting into your consciousness helps you control yourself at the deepest level and in the surest way possible.

There's more you can do to be your best. And here's where praying comes in, giving us the conviction, the strength, the compassion—the ability—to be just that. Prayer is the heart's desire, a real yearning to express more of what God has already given us as His child: unselfishness, patience, compassion, insightfulness. This kind of prayer is powerful. It literally changes us, heals us, helps us reach new heights. The author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures explains it this way: "Simply asking that we may love God will never make us love Him; but the longing to be better and holier, expressed in daily watchfulness and in striving to assimilate more of the divine character, will mould and fashion us anew, until we awake in His likeness" (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 4).

Watch and pray is counsel as old as the Bible itself. But from boardrooms to playing fields, people are realizing that this age-old instruction—and the spirituality it cultivates—is also modern-day wisdom. And this spiritual wisdom should be given credit for the long-term success people are having with self-control and higher achievement.

Russ Gerber Associate Editor