RE: Peak Performance – Go with the Flow

According to Csikszentmihalyi (I was never happier about the copy & paste feature)

😂

Clarity of goals [...] Immediate Feedback [...] Control

Reading this about flow and especially its 3 conditions, it makes me thing about online and video games, about how you immediately know whether you're winning or losing, there's a clear goal, and you're in control. There's a reason they're so addictive.

Loss of reflective self-consciousness
You lose the ability of being aware as yourself as a social actor. You are completely focused at the task beforehand.

This kinda reminds me of Buddhist attentive mindfulness meditation, losing oneself in the object of one's contemplation, and the principle of anatta, no-self.

If the things you do, are not able to shift you into a flow state, then they are probably the wrong things to do anyway. Find the work, which satisfies you while doing it, where the journey itself is more rewarding than its goal could ever be.

I must say though that there's often work required before reaching the level of proficiency where you enjoy an activity. Learning how to read, learning to play the piano, learning how to ride a bike or drive a car — those were probably not enjoyable activities to begin with. So people should definitely not drop things they don't enjoy doing, unless they've really made an effort.

Reading this about flow and especially its 3 conditions, it makes me thing about online and video games, about how you immediately know whether you're winning or losing, there's a clear goal, and you're in control. There's a reason they're so addictive.

Exactly. There a quite a few studies which examined this phenoma :)

This kinda reminds me of Buddhist attentive mindfulness meditation, losing oneself in the object of one's contemplation, and the principle of anatta, no-self.

Yeah, I guess there are different words describing the same experience.

I must say though that there's often work required before reaching the level of proficiency where you enjoy an activity. Learning how to read, learning to play the piano, learning how to ride a bike or drive a car — those were probably not enjoyable activities to begin with. So people should definitely not drop things they don't enjoy doing, unless they've really made an effort.

You are right. I maybe should have added this as well. The beginning of something new is probably not enjoyable at all, but after a while this might change. I had more the things in mind people are doing for years and still don't enjoy.