What's The Big Idea: Barry Zito: The Secret To Flow and Self Fulfillment from A Cy Young Winner

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“The thing that brings you the most value, is that reliable and sustainable? If not, I urge people to seek and search for something that is unchanging.”

Today’s guest: Barry Zito

His big idea: How to ditch the success driven ego and rediscover flow and lasting fulfillment.

Barry Zito is a Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series champion who pitched primarily for the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants throughout his Major League Baseball career. After retiring from baseball, Barry settled in Nashville with his wife, Amber, and their two sons. Already well into his second career as a musician and songwriter, Zito recently released his debut EP, “No Secrets.”


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Key insights Shared:

Beginners mentality - there is an innocence, excitement and capacity for potential when you enter into an activity with an open mind - not weighed down by the doubts or reservations that come with ample experience in a certain field. Taking joy in the simplicity of doing what you love opens up the ability to enter a flow state and succeed. 

Chasing an achievement high: Misconception that reaching success will make you feel fulfilled, but once you reach that place of achievement (for Barry it was playing the in the Major Leagues and winning the Cy Young Award) realizing that without a love for the process you’ll constantly chase the next “achievement high” and look outward for approval without finding lasting fulfillment. 

Rediscovering flow state: Barry found that his enjoyment of the act of pitching weaned as he entered the Major League and started seeking achievement over enjoying the game. When you base happiness on factors outside of your control (the results of the game, fan’s perception of your performance) you start to lose your enjoyment. 

Self consciousness in performance: Barry began seeing himself as this celebrity outside of the field, and slowly was unable to focus on his performance during the game. Focusing on how he was being perceived on the mound sapped his mental energy and made it impossible to focus on the moment-to-moment actions involved in the game. 

Identifying as your profession: If you link your self worth entirely to your profession, when your performance starts to deteriorate, you will lose your sense self worth. Without internal markers and values, you can enter a spiral where your performance decreases further as you only focus on the results of your craft and fail to return back to the process.

Codependency: Feeling like you depend on the external attention or affirmation of others to continue. For Barry this codependency was based on his success in baseball and the admiration of his fans.

Self Transcendence over Self Actualization: Realizing that as long as you aim to reach self fulfillment (some ultimate goal or peak) you will always be left wanting. Instead we must aim for self transcendence, aline ourselves with a community or philosophy that is bigger than just ourselves. For Barry this was in the form of discovering christianity and realizing there will always be a source of love and acceptance regardless of how well he does in his career. 

  • Once reaching this point, Barry was able to appreciate that baseball was just a game, and he was able to enjoy playing again. He surrendered his need for external approval and opened a door that allowed him to feel contentment.

The best players “don’t care” - Of course they want to win, but they bring a detachment while playing where they’re not focused on the ultimate result, instead they are able to hone their focus on their actions on their personal performance and doing the best they can. When the success or victory comes, the best players will see this as an afterthought from performing at the top level. 

Fulfillment now: Understanding that what you do should be a reward in itself. There will be no success or accolade that will satiate this need for approval you need to find fulfillment now.


to learn more about Barry and his work: