GO WITH THE FLOW

In a world riddled with emerging technology and AI advancement, I am but a human being with flaws. As much as I would love to tell you that I’m a perfect specimen who never becomes trapped inside a blackhole of brain rot on the internet, I can’t. Because then I would be imperfect and a liar. And I’m only willing to be one. 

 

Over the years, normalcy has changed. I was the kid playing outside with skinned knees and bruised elbows. Social media didn’t exist, and I was able to create movies in my mind. Now, society has developed in a way that, as Sune Lehmann puts it, moves quickly and spews information at us like a firehose. It’s as if I am constantly being blasted by information on all fronts, and my mind never has time to relax or focus. Sadly, the movies in my mind have become SMPTE color bars. But there is hope! There is a peak at the top of this mountain of information we are all climbing.

 

Recently, through the book Stolen Focus by Johann Hari, I learned about the world-renowned psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and the idea of a flow state. 

“It is the deepest form of focus and attention that we know of.”

Being in a flow state is absorbing yourself into what you’re doing while everything else around you fades away. Don’t get me wrong, I have heard of flow state before. I am a rock climbing, mountain biking, skiing, and mountaineering outdoor enthusiast. All sports, adventure or not, require one to “be in the zone” at times. But I never thought that I could incorporate this into my day-to-day work. Getting into a flow state requires three important components:

• • Choose a goal 

It’s important to have a set goal in mind. For example, reading three chapters of a book. This is a very straightforward goal which makes accomplishing it more realistic.

• • Make it meaningful

Reading three chapters of a book sounds pretty… uninteresting. So how can we make a mundane task more meaningful? For me, it’s simply by doing it outside. Breathing in fresh air and allowing myself to escape into whatever it is I am reading by heightening my senses. I am no longer reading a book. I am experiencing it. 

• • Hard but achievable

To some, reading three chapters might seem easy. To others, it could be the hardest challenge they face. This component comes down to your comfortability. The goal you choose should make you put in the work, but it also needs to be obtainable. 

 

When I combined these three components, I found myself entering a flow state I was unfamiliar with. I wasn’t hiking up the side of a mountain, but I was sitting outside with a book in my hand accomplishing a goal. Of course I had to put my phone on silent, but once I did, I was able to free my mind in a way I hadn’t before and finally focus.