FINDING (MORE) FLOW
I leaned intently over the steering wheel, gloved hands gripping both sides as I took the steeped bank of the California Speedway. With the instructor’s voice steady in my headset, I pushed the IROC stock car up into the higher gears. 130 mph, then 140. Steady, keep pace with the car in front of you, don’t freak out. Don’t. Freak. Out! Each banked turn pulled me down into my seat with G forces I’d only experienced in very daring carnival rides. I stared intently at the car ahead of me, peering out of a racing helmet proudly displaying my last name across it. By the fourth or fifth lap I was still terrified and exuberant, but also IN THE ZONE. Time and adrenaline melted away and it was just me and the machine and the road. I was 23 years old, driving a race car, and I had found flow.
That trip to racing school was my first and last foray into driving race cars. I had won the trip my first and last time winning anything through sheer luck. With my appetite for racing whetted, realized the sport was well beyond my resources. Yet it’s an experience I will always carry with me, and the first thing that comes to mind when I think about the concept of flow. Many of us find flow in the everyday activity of driving. We get in the car and a half hour later, we’re at our destination and can’t recollect the process of getting there. Even without the racecar engine and open track, we’ve become absorbed in our task and lost our sense of time.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist credited with popularizing the concept of flow, describes it as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time Flies. . . Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” Csikszentmihalyi posited that to achieve flow, we need two main things:
The right level of challenge for our skills (think stretch but not impossible)
Clear goals and instant feedback on progress
By matching challenge and skill level, we’re able to become fully involved in the task. We leave behind the anxiety of an overwhelming challenge, and the apathy of an underwhelming one. Our self-consciousness disappears and we experience full engagement in a task that is both enjoyable and intrinsically motivating.
Think about one of your favorite activities. Maybe it’s cooking or biking or whittling or race car driving. When you’re doing it, do you lose time? When you’ve finished, do you reflect back and feel gratitude or deep satisfaction? This is why flow matters. Csikszentmihalyi argues that it is the engagement in flow, rather than the emotion of happiness, that leads to an excellent life. Flow draws us towards new learning and skill development, and promotes an enriching life.
If increased experiences of flow lead to a greater sense of wellbeing, how can we find more flow in our lives? Passive entertainment like watching TV doesn’t often lead to a flow state, because it doesn’t pose a challenge. Instead, Csikszentmihalyi describes activities that lead to flow as “active leisure” or “mental work.” This could take many forms, including solving a problem at work, playing a team sport, crafting something by hand, or playing an instrument. In my own quest to find more flow in my life, I considered these questions:
Out of all the activities I spend time on, which ones feel challenging in a good way?
Which ones do I lose time doing, and feel great after the activity is over?
Of those, which activities do I wish I spent more time on? How can I make more time for them?
How can I find new ways to challenge myself within activities I’m already proficient in?
What have I always wanted to try, and haven’t yet?
I know, easy questions to ask and much harder to answer. But I promise, so worth the effort.
So what are you ready to double down on, pick back up, or try for the first time? Whatever it is, I guarantee that it will bring greater satisfaction and sense of purpose to your life. In a time of great change and uncertainty, we could all use more flow.
For more reading, check out Csikszentmihalyi’s excellent book Finding Flow. If you’d like some help achieving more flow in your life, a coach is a great place to start. Contact me for an exploratory conversation about what coaching can do for you.
