Flow

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in his book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” outlines what it takes to achieve happiness – a state of flow.

It turns out that the state of flow comes more naturally to some people. Some people are Autotelic  and this means that they have self-motivation and are internally driven. This quality of their personality makes them “gifted” when it comes to being able to achieve the state of flow. But others can achieve this state as well if they know what to do to achieve it.

How do you achieve it? There are certain factors that allow the state of flow, and they are…

1. The activity must have a clear set of goals. This gives direction and structure to the task and allows the person to feel some control.
2. The person must have confidence that they can do the task or activity. They have to know that they have the skills required or could reasonably stretch their capability to achieve the task. There is a balance between feeling like they can do it and not being too overloaded to take it on.
3. The task at must have immediate feedback that is clear and continuous, so the person can adjust their approach continuously to achieve the goal. This means working in the present moment.

How do you know if you are in the flow state? Here are the factors that go along with any experience of flow:

1. The goals are clear. The challenge level is high. The required skill level is high, but you are confident.
2. You concentrate on a very narrow field. Focused attention.
3. You are not self-conscious. You are taking action while being aware. Another way of saying this is that you are not being “micro-managed” and you don’t have a feeling that you are “being watched” during execution of the task. You are working on your own time schedule.
4. You lose track of time. You usually feel like time is moving faster or slower when in this state.
5. You are getting immediate feedback directly from the task or activity. This allows you to adjust your approach.
6. The activity is not too easy, but it is also not too difficult. It has a good balance between the two.
7. You are in control of the activity or situation.
8. You feel personally rewarded just for accomplishing the activity. You may feel like you learned or did something for yourself intrinsically and not because someone told you to do it.
9. You work tirelessly. You don’t respect personal health needs during your work toward the goal. You may forget to eat or drink for example.
10. You’re completely absorbed into the activity to where you can’t really see things outside of the activity. You may put unrelated other things into the context of the activity when you talk about them.

You may experience only some of them or maybe all of them. Either way, you know you are in that state when these items appear. It may take some self-awareness on your part in identifying what you feel.

An underlying theme about the state of flow is that a person who is intrinsically motivated will naturally feel it. This goes back to the concept of intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic motivation that I wrote about in another post and I think that a good understanding of the two types is necessary in order to see how to obtain the state of flow.

What do you get by achieving this state of flow?

The payoff is huge!

People who can achieve the mental state of flow can experience intense feelings of joy and happiness! Now who wouldn’t want that?