فصل 10

Chapter 10

FLOW

Why is flow so important to becoming limitless?

How do I achieve a flow state?

What are the key enemies of flow?

I’m sure there have been times when you were so completely caught up in what you were doing that everything else disappeared and it just felt like the most natural thing you’ve ever done. Time probably melted away for you during these experiences. People regularly tell me about focusing so deeply on what they were doing that they had no idea that afternoon had become night or that they’d missed multiple meals in the process.

This experience is flow.

In his groundbreaking book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” To Csikszentmihalyi, flow is an expression of “optimal experience.” Dr. Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as having eight characteristics:

1. Absolute concentration

2. Total focus on goals

3. The sense that time is either speeding up or slowing down

4. A feeling of reward from the experience

5. A sense of effortlessness

6. The experience is challenging, but not overly so

7. Your actions almost seem to be happening on their own

8. You feel comfort with what you are doing

As you’ve likely experienced yourself, being in a flow state dramatically boosts your productivity. Reports have suggested that flow can make you as much as five times more productive. The people at McKinsey have even imagined a workforce where flow is commonplace:

When we ask executives during the peak-performance exercise how much more productive they were at their peak than they were on average, for example, we get a range of answers, but the most common at senior levels is an increase of five times. Most report that they and their employees are in the zone at work less than 10 percent of the time, though some claim to experience these feelings as much as 50 percent of it. If employees working in a high-IQ, high-EQ, and high-MQ environment are five times more productive at their peak than they are on average, consider what even a relatively modest 20-percentage-point increase in peak time would yield in overall workplace productivity —it would almost double.

3 WINNING WITH FLOW

Patrick, a member of our community, struggled constantly with ADHD and an inability to focus. It had been a problem for him throughout his life. He was easily distracted, or, in the reverse, he was hyperfocused to the detriment of everything and everyone around him. He even experienced this during his Brazilian jujitsu tournaments. He had difficulty deciding which technique to use with opponents and felt as though he was trying to use every move at once, even though many of them weren’t appropriate for the situation. His inability to focus affected his work, his family life, and his favorite sport, and he felt a high level of stress nearly all the time.

Then one day he started listening to episodes of my podcast, where he heard about the stages of flow (which we will get to in a moment), as well as several other high-performance habits. Patrick applied what he was learning to his everyday life and saw immediate results. He was finally able to identify and understand what he was struggling with, and he immersed himself in his pursuits more fully than ever before. Finding flow was the key.

In his next tournament, Patrick was able to release his intense focus and take his mind off the problems that had distracted him in the past. He found his flow quickly . . . and felt like he was in The Matrix; he could see his opponent’s moves coming before they happened. Even better, he was able to find flow in other areas of his life too. The better he did in his martial arts tournaments, the better he did in life. Patrick finally felt a release from the stress that dogged him endlessly, at last believing that he could let go and enjoy his life more.

THE FOUR STAGES OF FLOW

The flow state has a predictable arc to it. Our podcast guest, Steven Kotler, founder of the Flow Research Collective and the author of The Rise of Superman, has identified the four stages of flow:4 Stage

1: Struggle

This is when you’re digging deep to access whatever it is that you need to reach the flow state. It could be a workout regimen, extensive research, an intense bout of brainstorming, or anything else that you are focusing on.

Warning: This often feels like a struggle and, in fact, the opposite of flow.

Stage 2: Relaxation

This is the break you take before fully diving into flow. It is an essential step, as it keeps you from burning out over the struggle you’ve just been through. This break—a walk, some breathing, anything that helps you relax —is decidedly different from a distraction such as moving on to another task or checking sports scores.

Stage 3: Flow

This is the stage that Kotler describes as “the superman experience.” This is that flow state that hopefully you’ve experienced at various points in your life, where you’re doing your absolute best work and it almost seems to be happening automatically.

Stage 4: Consolidation

In this final stage you pull together everything you accomplished during the flow stage. Often, this is accompanied by feeling somewhat let down. All kinds of positive chemicals have been running through your brain while you’re in flow, and now that high is ending. But another cycle can be waiting just around the corner.

Kotler believes that finding flow is the “source code” of motivation.

When you find flow, you get “maybe the most potent dose of reward chemistry” your brain can give you—which is the reason he believes flow is the most addictive state on Earth. Once we start to feel flow in an experience, we are motivated to do what it takes to get more. But it’s a circular relationship—if you have motivation to accomplish a task but you have no flow, you will eventually burn out. Motivation and flow need to work together, and they must be coupled with a solid recovery protocol, like good sleep and nutrition.

KWIK START

Have you ever experienced the flow state? Where were you? What were you doing? How did it feel? What did you achieve at the end of it? Visualize that state. Even if you can’t visualize, imagine that you can.

FINDING FLOW

If you’re going to become limitless, you’re going to want to get yourself into a flow state as often as possible. So how do you do this? I can offer five ways:

1. Eliminate Distractions

Earlier, we talked about the importance of keeping distractions to a minimum. If you’re going to find yourself in a flow state, eliminating distractions is absolutely essential. It can take you up to 20 minutes to reconnect with what you’re doing after you’ve been distracted from doing it. How are you ever going to get into the flow if you’re constantly rebooting because a text drew away your attention, or because you just wanted to make a quick check of social media before you got back to work?

So, put everything else aside and concentrate completely on what you’re doing.

1. Give Yourself Enough Time Make sure you have a block of time set aside to get into flow. It’s commonly believed that, when conditions are right, it takes about 15 minutes to achieve a flow state and that you don’t really hit your peak for closer to 45 minutes. Clearing out only half an hour or so isn’t going to allow you to accomplish much. Plan to set aside at least 90 minutes, and ideally a full two hours.

2. Do Something You Love

When we think of flow, we tend to think of people achieving at extremely high levels: the athlete perfecting her game, the musician crafting the ideal guitar solo, the writer quickly putting words down on the page as though taking dictation rather than creating. What’s common among all of these people is that they are doing something that matters to them a great deal.

They wouldn’t be satisfied with only being moderately competent, as they aren’t performing a task with which they have a casual relationship. They’re doing things they love.

I’ve been talking to people about flow for decades, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone mention being in a flow state about something they were doing only to pass the time. It’s like the difference between driving an old junker and driving a brand-new Aston Martin. Both might get you to the office, but you’re only likely to really get into the driving experience with one of them. If you find certain annoyances in something you’re doing, or if you find it to be dull much of the time, these negatives are going to prevent you from truly getting into the flow.

1. Have Clear Goals

One of the most efficient flow preventers is a lack of clarity. If you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish, it’s likely that casting around for a mission will keep flow at bay. A novelist friend of mine separates the plotting of his novels from the actual writing for precisely this reason. For him, plotting is an arduous task with lots of fits and starts, whereas he takes tremendous pleasure in choosing the right words for his stories and making his characters come alive. By plotting ahead of time, he knows exactly what he’s going to write about on any given day and regularly finds himself disappearing into the flow of his work for hours at a stretch.

So, once you’ve carved out the time, give yourself a clear purpose for how you are going to use that time. If you set yourself on a mission at the outset, and it is something that you’re excited about achieving, you’re likely to find yourself deeply immersed in that mission.

1. Challenge Yourself . . . A Little

When I talk to people about flow, I consistently hear that they are most likely to achieve flow when they’re doing something that is a little bit of a challenge. In other words, they’re outside of their comfort zone, but not way outside of it. The logic here is clear. If you do something that you can do with both hands tied behind your back, you’re probably going to become bored fairly quickly, and boredom and flow are incompatible.

On the other hand, if you do something that you find extremely difficult, you’re likely to become frustrated, and that frustration is going to keep flow from happening. But if you do something that you love that also has a moderate level of challenge to it—trying to hit a baseball to just one part of the field, trying a new form of tuning on your guitar, or writing from the perspective of a new character, for example—this level of challenge is likely to keep the task exciting for you and therefore engage you deeply.

CONQUERING THE ENEMIES OF FLOW

Training yourself to achieve flow regularly and even in multiple sessions in the same day will have you performing like a superhero. But we all know that superheroes are constantly challenged by supervillains, and a number of them are lurking around every corner, stalking your flow and trying to extinguish it. Here are the four supervillains you need to keep at bay if your flow is going to thrive:

1. Multitasking

We’ve talked about this before, even in this chapter, but it bears repeating.

Being a “master multitasker” is not synonymous with being limitless. In fact, research repeatedly shows that people who multitask are considerably less productive than those who focus on one task at a time. Given what you now know about flow, it should be obvious that multitasking is the mortal enemy of this feeling. You’re never going get into the flow state to craft that epic solo or create that jaw-dropping presentation if you’re also checking in with colleagues, sending off a quick note to a friend, and reading your company e-mail. The only way to vanquish the supervillain Multitask is to ignore him completely. Clear your schedule of everything else and get into the flow.

1. Stress

This is a particularly deadly supervillain and one that sometimes requires a monumental battle to defeat. If you have lots of outside stressors in your life—deadlines, relationship issues, family problems, worries about your job security, etc.—they’re likely to sneak up on you at any given moment.

I’m sure you’ve had the experience of thinking about something entirely different when you’re suddenly ambushed by an anxious reminder that you’re facing some troubles at home. Once that thought is in your head, any opportunities for flow are crushed. Defeating this supervillain requires two expert moves. The first is to look the supervillain in the eye before you start and ask yourself if there’s anything that you absolutely must deal with before you can get into flow. If the answer is yes, address that first. But in all likelihood, the answer will be no. It isn’t that the stressors aren’t real, but they often don’t need your immediate attention, and they aren’t going to be worse two hours from now. If that’s the case, contend with this supervillain by putting up your force field. Make your space impenetrable by outside stressors so you can concentrate completely on the task at hand.

1. Fear of Failure

“Perfectionism reduces creativity and innovation,” writes Hara Estroff Marano, editor at large and the former editor in chief of Psychology Today.

“It is a steady source of negative emotions; rather than reaching toward something positive, those in its grip are focused on the very thing they most want to avoid—negative evaluation. Perfectionism, then, is an endless report card; it keeps people completely self-absorbed, engaged in perpetual self-evaluation—reaping relentless frustration and doomed to anxiety and depression.”5 If you go into a task with the belief that you absolutely must perform this task perfectly and that failure will be devastating, you’re going to be so focused on not failing that you’ll never get into a state where you can truly excel.

Remember earlier when we talked about how one of the ideal conditions for flow is pushing yourself just a little outside of your comfort zone? When you do this, you increase the odds that you’re not going to get everything right the first time. If you allow the supervillain of perfectionism to master you at this point, your flow will be forfeited. To best this villain, you need to convince yourself that lack of perfection is not only okay but is a clear sign that you’re pushing yourself in ways that you must.

1. Lack of Conviction

Nearly as devilish a supervillain as perfectionism is a lack of belief in what you’re doing. “The brain perceives uncertainty as a threat, which sparks the release of cortisol, a stress hormone that disrupts memory, depresses the immune system, and increases the risk of high blood pressure and depression,” writes Travis Bradberry, president of TalentSmart.6

If you don’t believe you’re going to accomplish anything of importance, you’ll guarantee that will be the outcome. If you go into a task doubting your ability to complete it, ask yourself these questions: Do I have the necessary skills to do this? Do I have all the information I need to do this?

Do I have enough passion for this project to do this? If the answer to any of these is no, set the task aside until you can answer each of these questions in the affirmative. But if the answer to all three of these questions is yes, take this supervillain down and get into the flow.

BEFORE WE MOVE ON

The flow experience is one of the greatest highs any of us will ever experience. It is also fundamental to becoming limitless. By this point, you should have a better sense of what flow is and how to get there. Before we move on, take a little time to try out the following:

Reflect on a few times you’ve been in the flow. What were you doing?

What was consistent about those experiences? How can you get back there more often?

Take out your calendar and find a spot in the next few days where you can carve out 90 minutes to two hours. This needs to be a time when you can free yourself of all distractions. Now, what are you going to do with that time to dramatically boost your productivity?

How often do you go into a project with one of the supervillains we talked about in this chapter stalking you? What can you do right now to defeat that supervillain before going into your next project?