Peak Performance – Go with the Flow

in #psychology7 years ago

How is it possible to stay focused? How can we push our own performance beyond our own imagination? How to be completely satisfied with what we do?
With this article I am going to introduce you into the secrets of unlocking the “flow state”.



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"Be water, my friend."
Forgive me the catchy introduction, which sounded more like a motivational keynote speech than a scientific explanation. But if you are reading this, it worked, and you know it. And now you are smiling. Perfect start for an article about a concept of positive psychology.

Do you know the feeling of becoming completely “lost” in your current task? You start something and suddenly you realize, that several hours have passed, the work you have done looks amazing and your stomach tells you, that you were incredibly focused for eight hours straight – and forgot to eat at all.
Sounds familiar? Congratulations, you have achieved a mental state, which the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (this is probably the most unpronounceable surname I have ever seen) discovered and named in 1975 as “flow” (1).
During his dissertation he conducted a study with artists, who created art and measured their experiences. It happened, that at some point the lost any sense of their surroundings and were extremely focused on their tasked. When asked about their feelings, they described it similar to stream of water carrying them around, which made everything they did feel incredibly easy and enjoyable. Therefore, the name “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975).
Years later, in 1990, he finally published his most famous book Flow: The Psychology of Happiness (2) which contained most of the available research regarding this topic.
Let’s take a look, why the flow state is so special and which conditions have to be met in order to experience it.

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A matter of balance and focus
Like most amazing things in life, it is not always easy to get to them. The experience of the flow state is no exception to this rule. There has to be a very specific set of conditions in place to make the occurrence of flow likely. The balance between your own skills and the challenge of the task need to be in almost perfect harmony or uncomfortable situations are bound to happen.
The danger of becoming anxious, if the challenges are beyond your skill level is always there. As well as Damocles’ sword of boredom, if the challenges cannot keep up with your skills (Boniwell, 2012) (3). According to Csikszentmihalyi (I was never happier about the copy & paste feature), there are three necessary conditions to achieve a flow state (4):

  1. Clarity of goals
    You know exactly what you want to achieve and how to do it.

  2. Immediate Feedback
    You know exactly how you are doing at your task (e.g. winning or losing).

  3. Control
    You know, you are in control of the situation and are able to deal with whatever comes next (the above-mentioned balance).
     

If these conditions are met, you are not far away from transitioning into a flow state. In their Handbook of Positive Psychology (2015) Snyder and Lopez are describing, how this mental state is actually defined:

  • Merging of action and awareness
    You are fully aware of what you are doing (you achieve your goals) and that is the only thing which matters.
     
  • 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.

  • Distortion of temporal experience
    Remember when I spoke about working eight hours straight without realizing it? That is, when you experience time passes by faster than normal.

  • Autotelic behaviour
    You do a certain task, because doing it is rewarding in itself. You can find joy in the process of pursuing an activity, the end goal is just an excuse. The journey is your goal.  

Sounds awesome, right? And it holds true for a variety of different activities. This idea has proven itself in studies of art and science, aesthetic experiences, sport, writing and other activities (Snyder & Lopez, 2015).



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Attention is key
Yesterday I wrote about the disadvantages of multitasking and flow is another way to prove, how important focused attention can be.
As William James (5) famously put it:

My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind.

The ability of entering the flow state is therefore mainly connected of how well you are able to focus your attention. Clear goals, immediate feedback, well-balanced level of skill and challenge are your tools to get to this point. Especially the feeling of being in control is quite important to achieve this. If you feel unsecure, doubt your skills or fear the challenges ahead, you will ultimately feel more likely despair than flow. Over the decades of positive psychology research, it has been proven again and again (e.g. Ghani, 1994) (6) that the mechanism of control is quite important. You can maintain this control, if you set yourself achievable goals, which match your skills, so you do not get bored or disappointed. If you get up each day, knowing that whatever you do will bring you joy, because you chose to do it and you have the necessary skills to do it in the best possible way, you will feel satisfied.
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 know, I am closing with a motivational speech, but if my articles provide anything useful for your own life, than this is all I can ask for.
Feel always free to discuss my ideas and share your own thoughts about the things I’m writing about. Nobody is omniscient and if we all walk away a bit smarter than before, we’ll have achieved a lot.
Thanks for reading and stay focused.
Ego     


Make sure, to check out #steemstem for more science related content.
References
(1) Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Beyond Boredom and Anxiety.1975. Jossey-Bass Publishers   

(2) Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Happiness. 2013 (first 1990). Ebury Publishing

(3) Boniwell, Ilona. Positive Psychology in a Nutshell: The Science of Happiness. 2012. Open University Press

(4) Snyder, C. R.; Lopez, Shane J. Handbook of Positive Psychology. 2015. Oxford University Press

(5) James, William. The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1. 2013. Cosimo Classics  
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I learned in martial arts that you need to be fluid while you opponent is hard, but be hard when you opponent is being wispy.

Ah, yeah, I remember of hearing something similar when I was training martial arts :D
Not sure if I would translate this into flow, but that's some kind of adaptation which is good as well :)

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.

Hey @egotheist, first of all, Congratulations!

I'm the literal version of Go with the flow. Meaning the exact opposite of what you described above having clear goals and all. I do not have a plan, as much as I hate myself for this, but I do think that It's ok to not have a plan, a clear view of where you're going.
After all there's so much to learn, We're still young :)
Personal Opinion though! I might end up being broke, though ;) Haha.

Thank you :)

I do not have a plan, as much as I hate myself for this, but I do think that It's ok to not have a plan, a clear view of where you're going.
Trust me, I know your feeling. I am still figuring out, what to do with my life in general. I'm trying different things and some are successful, others aren't. I am far from having a perfect plan, but the things I do, I'm trying to do as focused as possible :)

Haha. That's the kind of focus i need in me. Hey sorry for replying so late. The Last few days has been pretty hectic.

No worries, I'm a patient man :)

Be like water my friend! Bruce Lee my dude

You got it :)

This post in fact reminded me of many times during college - my 4th grade especially. I would be so engrossed in making researches that many hours would pass and I wouldn't know. And as you said, the stomach is many times the victim.

This looks complex to achieve though. But it's a state to aim for.

Thanks for sharing

My stomach hates me for doing it :D

Trust me, it's crazy how it happens

I had a problem with this. I used too use drugs. Heroinen and amphetamin and many more.

When i am high i can have the flow you are speaking about for many hours.. sometimes over days. 4 years ago as i went clean i never experienced the flow.

I har to learn how to do it sober.

Today it's more easy to me to achieve this feeling/state of beeing.
But not for an long time as on drugs.

But i guess it is a progress and all i all i am way more happy about my life sober.

I have more quality, i am more precent, no need to stress ør hustle for enough drugs( which you really cant get enough of)

This was a interesting reading. Made me more focused about how i should focus and that it is important for me to dont stop making creative projects only because i am sober.

Thanks man. Have a great day!

Wow, I'm really happy to hear, that you were able to get clean!
Some of my friends are really struggling with this, so I know how incredibly hard it can be :/

Thanks a lot for your appreciation. Take care! :)

It's a lifelong struggle. Can never be sure you wont relapse.

But life is better clean.

You got a 11.55% upvote from @upmewhale courtesy of @egotheist!