Leverageing FLOW for a Life of Purpose

Leveraging FLOW for a Life of Purpose

Insights derived from the book: FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

In an interview with Wired (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.09/czik.html?pg=1&topic=) magazine, Csíkszentmihályi described flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

The book examines how people “get in the zone” or enter a constant flow of productive activity. To understand it is to create a structure and system that allows for flow in all aspects of life. This blog extends flow to a life philosophy and structure that creates an undisturbed momentum over many years and through every aspect of life. A life Flow. A life of purpose.

Passions change. Jobs and careers come and go. Relationships begin, end and change over time. Within a constant environment of change, Flow, when limited to one activity or aspect of life, is interrupted. This leads to the importance of creative a life flow that allows you to shift energy from one activity to another. Divide your life into many aspects and try to find Flow in each. It’s not possible to find Flow in all aspects of life at every time. The reason is that Flow is all consuming.

Divide life into Mind, Body and Soul. In Mind place career and intellectual challenges. Be in a constant state of learning. Body consists of an always challenging and escalating exercise program, sport and nutrition. Soul is religion and helping others. Each of these divisions bears many activities with their own Flow states.

Understanding Flow

Flow is achieved when one’s skills are matched to the challenges at hand, in a goal directed, rule bound action system that provides clear clues as to how well one is performing. Concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over to think about anything irrelevant or any other problems. Self consciousness disappears and the essence of time becomes distorted. An activity produces such experiences is so gratifying that people are willing to do it for its own sake with little concern for what they will get out of it even when it is difficult or dangerous. Flow activities also include the ability to direct ones actions toward the activity without distractions and the ability to control the outcome.

This microcosmic definition of Flow requires application in a macrocosmic way. Find Flow in both bursts of energy at work and career accomplishments over time. How many meetings set? How many new accounts? Revenue growth? Define your career standing and recognize what you need to succeed here and how to prepare for the next challenge. These Flow activities are produce results over the long term.

Purpose Turns Activity Into Flow

One may not find Flow in every trip to the gym but when regularly challenging oneself, measuring progress and generating results, one can find Flow. This is the importance of goal setting. The challenge of a marathon, the quest to be the best in a sport or career and community recognition turns mundane tasks into Flow activities.

Purpose is important and the right goals are even more important. In a career dollars are only numbers on a paycheck and have little long-term motivational value. The same is true for weight when applied to a healthy lifestyle. Dollars and weight are by products of results from a greater purpose. This purpose must come from an inner desire and can’t be placed on an individual by others. Find yourself and find your purpose. This is the only way to the Autotelic Self.

The Autotelic Self

The “autotelic self” is one that easily translates potential threats into challenges, and therefore maintains its inner harmony. A person who is never bored, seldom anxious, involved in what goes on, and in flow most of the time may be said to have an autotelic self. The term literally means “ a self that has self contained goals,” and it reflects the idea that such an individual has relatively few goals that do not originate from within the self. For most people, goals are shaped directly by biological needs and social conventions, and therefore their origin is outside the self. For an autotelic person, the primary goals emerge from experience evaluated in consciousness, and therefore from the self proper.

To support Flow throughout all aspects of life, follow a simple life structure: Mission, Vision, Strategy, Tactics.

For Example:

My life’s Mission is to be the best person that I can be and to get the most out of life while I am here.

Vision is what I see myself becoming in each aspect of my life.

Strategy is the path or direction that gets me there.

Tactics are the day-to-day activities that enable me to succeed at each station along the path.  

Each life bucket has its own Vision, Strategy and Tactics all with unique, achievable, challenging goals and measurement systems.

The Autotelic Self is summarized in four points:

1) Setting goals - Have a clearly defined and achievable goal. Select a goal related to your challenges. Once goals and challenges are defined, practice actions and develop skills necessary to achieve each goal. 

2) Becoming immersed in the activity - Balance opportunities for action with existing skills and skills that can be developed. Activities that are too difficult or too easy reduce the chances of Flow since frustration sets in when progress is not seen in activities that are too difficult and complacency sets in for activities that are too easy. Involvement is greatly facilitated by the ability to concentrate.

3) Paying attention to what is happening - Concentration leads to involvement, which can only be maintained by constant inputs of attention. To stay involved in a complex system one must focus on the task at hand.

4) Learning to enjoy the immediate experience - The outcome of having an autotelic self - of learning to set goals, to develop skills, to be sensitive to feedback, to focus and be involved - is that one can enjoy life even when the environment is brutish and nasty. Being in control of the mind means that literally anything that happens can be a source of joy. To achieve this control requires discipline and determination.

Enjoying a Productive Life

Enjoyment commonly employs the following:

First the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks that we have a chance of completing.

Second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing.

Third and fourth, the concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback.

Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life.

Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions.

Seventh, concern for the self disappears; yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.

Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours.

The combination of all of these elements causes a sense of enjoyment that is so rewarding people feel that expending a great deal of energy is worthwhile simply to be able to feel it.

Cheating Chaos

It is easier to achieve Flow while living in a vacuum with control over every aspect life. Most times that simply is not the case. Headwinds and obstacles always exist. Some challenges are easy to overcome and ignore while others simply are not. Learn to control and master the controllable and recognize the importance of letting go of situations that we can’t. Apply common sense. Know the difference between an excuse for something not getting done and a real reason. Many people have achieved extraordinary things in environments far worse than you or I will ever experience. The difference is willpower and control over the mind. The ability to block out adversity and focus is a skill that may come more easily to some than to others but it is a skill that can be exercised and strengthened. Practice it. Build it. Strengthen it within yourself.

Dreams will go unrealized. Some goals will not be achieved. Passions will fade. This is why applying the principles of Flow to many aspects of your life and taking a long-term view is critically important. Having a diversified and balanced foundation of activities almost ensures that as one part of your life is not going as planned, you can find Flow in another. Positive momentum breeds positive momentum. Always have momentum in some aspect of your life on which you can find strength and recover from setbacks in other aspects.