The first time I was introduced to the term “Flow” was reading The School of Greatness by Lewis Howes. In his chapter on Champions Mindset, he describes the flow state and how it has shown up in his life and the careers of other champions in sport. This was a key in his analysis of top performers, their ability to perform in the “flow” state when the pressure is on. As it is referred to in his book, “laser focus”, the mental state is known as Flow and has been studied for many years now by psychologists and neuroscientists to get a better understanding of how to harness the power of “flow”.
As I read this chapter, I was taken back to my college years when I was working on computer drafting class in the Mechanical Engineering program at Oregon Institute of Technology. I found I had a great passion for mechanical drawing in high school, although this was all done in pencil and T-squares. Now in college and the ability to use computers to perform for more accurate drawings. The new technology allowed for three dimensional drawings to be created much easier and were fascinating to learn. I found I could spend hours in the computer lab working on drawings and would never even know it was 2 a.m. and I had skipped dinner all together. What I didn’t know at the time is that I was working in a flow state.
In The School of Greatness Lewis references the work of Steven Kotler and the book The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance. The research in this book took a deep dive into what was behind many of the amazing physical feats of extreme athletes over the last century. How was it possible for so many people to run a 4-minute mile only months after the first person had? How was it possible to go from no one ever performing a back flip on a motor cycle to now performing double or triple backflips?
In reading The Rise of Superman I then found the research of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Flow: living at the Peak of Your Abilities. In this book, the author shares experiences from his research studying human performance and what leads to happy, fulfilled lives of great achievement.
So what is “Flow” Steven Kotler and Jaime Wheal define flow as “optimal state of consciousness when you feel your best and perform your best.” They continue to spread the keys of flow states through their project “The Flow Genome Project” where they are building tools to help us bring flow into our lives on a greater scale.
Relating flow research to cinema there are several great movies where flow states are depicted. One of my favorites will always be “The Matrix”. In the movie, the lead character Neo learns of his ability to control the matrix allowing him to effortlessly dodge bullets or defeat his enemies with one hand. Time slows down where he can move out of the way of punches. Now It might be hard to believe that flow states produce super human powers, but if you look at the research and the first hand descriptions from the athletes in The Rise of Superman you might just change your mind.
My keys thus far in the study of flow are this;
- Be on the lookout for places in your life when you have limitless energy or time slips away effortlessly. There is something about that topic that is inherently connected with your core purpose. A key to flow states.
- Flow states require risk, if most of your current tasks in life do not have some level of risk, flow is not likely to occur. Push yourself to do new projects with more risk.
- Flow also requires that you have reasonable ability to complete the task. If you are still very new to a sport/job/craft, the more time you spend learning the skills, the deeper your level of flow will be.
- Working to understand flow and how to surround yourself with flow inducing situations will have significant payback in all areas of life.
Understanding what creates flow for us is just another powerful tool in developing our mindset on our way to personal freedom and winning our personal Rudius.
