Flow

Hiking in the woods, writing, programming, and rock-climbing. What do these activities have in common? They are all things that people regularly describe as being activities likely to result in “being in the flow” also described as “being in the zone” by athletes.
When we are fully engaged and in control of an activity, we sometimes feel that time passes more quickly and we are immersed in that activity excluding everything else. Furthermore, people regularly describe these experiences as some of the best of their lives. 

(From: Interfaces for staying in the flow, Benjamin B. Bederson, 2004)

Flow is a state of being where one experiences joy. Flow rather than happiness leads to excellence in life. In flow you operate at full capacity. Sports, games, singing, and playing a musical instrument provide goals and feedback structures that make flow more likely. However, flow can be found in almost any activity.

Steven Kotler describes it in his book *Bold* as follows: “Flow describes these moments of total absorption, when we become so focused on the task at hand that everything else falls away. Action and awareness merge. Time flies. Self vanishes. All aspects of performance — mental and physical — go through the roof.”

Kotler also states that flow is connected to risk (in the book *Rise of Superman*): “To really achieve anything, you have to be able to tolerate and enjoy risk. It has to become a challenge to look forward to. In all fields, to make exceptional discoveries you need risk—you’re just never going to have a breakthrough without it.” However, the challenge has to be at the right level. Kotler again: “Flow appears near the emotional midpoint between boredom and anxiety, in what scientists call the flow channel— the spot where the task is hard enough to make us stretch but not hard enough to make us snap. How hard is that? Answers vary, but the general thinking is about 4 percent. That’s it. That’s the sweet spot. If you want to trigger flow, the challenge should be 4 percent greater than the skills.”

Flow is a subjective state and experience. A certain activity can bring one person into flow and another into anxiety, frustration or boredom. Flow depends on the perceived challenges. It has to stretch existing skills, but has to be attainable (not too hard) and challenging (not too easy). Then it ends up in the flow zone. Immediate feedback on the progress is another condition for flow.

Being “in flow” has the following characteristics.

• Intense and focused concentration on what one is doing in the present moment
• Merging of action and awareness
• Loss of reflexive self-consciousness
• A sense that one can control one’s actions
• Distortion of temporal experience (time flies)
• Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding.

(From: 'Finding the Flow' by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and 'The Concept of Flow' by Jeanne Nakamura and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Research shows that flow is both a precondition and a result of success. Both of them need attainable goals and tasks, steps, focus, feedback and a growth mindset.

There are several triggers for flow, as presented by Kotler in *Bold*.

1. Environmental Triggers
   • High Consequence - Add a risk of failing (physical, emotional, intellectual, creative, social).
   • Rich Environment - Surround yourself with complexity, novelty, unpredictability, change.
   • Deep Embodiment - Use more than one sense: reading, hearing, acting, smelling ...
2. Psychological Triggers
   • Clear Goals - Recheck the section on specific goals.
   • Immediate Feedback - Create a feedback loop that can help improve your performance in real-time. This way your mind is focused in the now and not wondering how to make something better.
   • Challenge/Skills Ratio - If the challenge far outweighs our skills, fear seeps in. If it’s too easy, we’ll get bored. Find that sweet-spot between anxiety and boredom, and flow will kick in.
3. Social Triggers
   • Familiarity - If you’re working in a team, get everyone on the same page so you can establish a common knowledge base and communication style.
   • Blending Egos - Steven describes this quite succinctly as, “a collective version of humility” where no one is hogging the spotlight and everyone is involved.
   • Sense of Control - This is all about combining autonomy and mastery. Choose your own challenges and have the necessary skills to surmount them.
   • Close Listening - Be fully present in the now when engaging in conversation. It’s all about allowing organic, real-time responses to unfold.
   • Always Say “Yes, and…” - Make your interaction additive as opposed to argumentative. Build momentum by continually amplifying each other’s ideas and actions.
4. Creative Triggers
   • Pattern Recognition - Allow your brain to link new ideas together by tackling problems from completely different (and sometimes outrageous) angles...
   • Taking Risk - … And have the courage to bring these new ideas to the world. No matter how improbable you think it’ll succeed