There is a high performance state known as flow. A psychologist from the University of Chicago, Mihalyi Csíkszentmihályi, spent 25 years investigating this phenomenon. Flow is the mental state in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing and includes a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Flow is about completely focused motivation and positive thinking. It’s about being so immersed in something that you harness the emotions while performing or learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. It’s about clearing your mind of discouragement and distractions. Other terms for flow you might have heard are in the grove and in the zone. He discovered that flow can be achieved by anyone who follows the right steps.
Csíkszentmihályi started with a simple question: Why are so many people unhappy? With all the modern day advantages and conveniences we all have, he wanted to find out why people end of feeling their lives have been wasted and spend their time in anxiety and boredom instead of being filled with happiness. He wrote:
“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile… Such experiences are not necessarily pleasant at the time they occur. The swimmer’s muscles might have ached during his most memorable race, his lungs might have felt like exploding, and he might have been dizzy with fatigue–yet these could have been the best moments of his life.”
It’s the struggle, not the easy life, that makes us happy. We achieve flow when we are totally absorbed in a difficult but worthwhile task. When we achieve flow or are in the zone, we lose track of time. We are at one with the task. The task at hand becomes as easy and natural as breathing. In a flow state of mind, people have accomplished some amazing feats. Anyone can achieve this high performance state called flow if you follow certain steps. Tomorrow we’ll talk about the steps to achieving flow.
Have an awesome day.
