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- FLOW and the Art of Living
We all crave meaning and purpose in our lives.
Although we might not admit it, each of us has felt a lack of it at some point.
Whether we realize it or not - we all attempt to generate meaning, or else hid from the lack of it.
Most often we attempt to distract ourselves by seeking meaning through some form of escape:
Drugs and alcohol
Social media consumption
Even a system of religious beliefs
These things allow us indulge in the belief that our lives have meaning or, disable our critical faculties - letting us drift temporarily away.
Similarly our attempts to make our lives meaningful through the pursuit of luxury is also doomed to fail.
If you have ever tried to solve your problems by shopping you know this to be true.
Studies increasingly show that over consumerism makes us feel emptier, and our lives less fulfilling (in the attempt to facilitate meaning through the accumulation of more stuff)
If none of those routes bring us happiness, what does?
Know the difference between instant gratification and true enjoyment.
Instant gratification
Quick burst of pleasure right now. Pleasure is needed but does not have the power to sustain us.
True enjoyment
Motivates us to complete ambitious goals, push ourselves and gain control over situations. What we get when we learn a new skill.
Yet we rarely choose the the pursuit of lasting enjoyment over the temporary pleasure of turning our brains off.
In doing so we train ourselves to take the path of least resistance when it comes to finding happiness.
“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times. The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”
A Better Way
FLOW = The mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment (AKA “The Zone”)
People report being ‘in FLOW’ when:
Having fun and doing sports activities
Athletes and musicians when performing
When we are working and we feel like ‘we’re one and loosing track of time’
How can you achieve FLOW?
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi looks at the relation between difficulty of task vs skill you bring to it.
Bad states we want to avoid are: worry, apathy, boredom, anxiety and relaxation (occurs when we are not challenged enough or we are too low in skill for a task)
Good states are in the top right quadrant: arousal and control with ideal FLOW state being this sweet in between that we wish to capitalize on to produce our best quality work and have an optimal experience doing so. (goal is to seek out careers/activities that enable this)
LEFEVRE 1988 - ran an experiment that tapped into people’s happiness in any given moment throughout the day. Whether they were at work, at home, or relaxing watching Netflix.
They did so by - surveying 100 workers throughout their day using experience sampling paging.
The questions they asked these people are;
“How are you feeling?”
“How is your concentration?”
“What would you rather be doing?”
They were measuring peoples happiness, challenge and also prediction of what they thought they would rather be doing.
What they found is for most people who had interesting jobs, when they were at work they describe being happy - (they’re skills are being challenged to match the task at hand.)
These people report higher levels of success and happiness when in these environments.
WORK = HIGH CHALLENGE/HIGH SKILL SITUATIONS
WORK = SENSE OF EFFICACY/SELF-CONFIDENCE
An interesting and counterintuitive finding was that when these same people were sitting around and engaged in leisure activities they reported feeling not good.
LEISURE = LOW CHALLENGE/LOW SKILL SITUATIONS
LEISURE = APATHY AND BOREDOM
We are often choosing to put ourselves in these states by using our free time to engage in low skill/low challenge activities, that as we have learned do not lead to us being very happy.
RATHER BE DOING? LEISURE > WORK
PREFER TO KEEP DOING? LEISURE > WORK
All this data points to a disconnect in our beliefs about work vs leisure.
Main takeaways:
Our job/homework is not so bad as we might think (especially if we are able to find ways to challenge ourselves at that sweet spot of our skillset)
Many leisure activities that we often engage in are making us more bored and apathetic than we know. (If we found leisure activities that challenge us a bit more we actually enjoy them a whole lot more)
Recap
We all crave meaning and seek happiness in our lives.
True enjoyment is a more sustainable and fulfilling way than chasing the dopamine high of instant gratification.
FLOW is an ideal state in which we are feeling our best and able to perform well.
FLOW is engaged by balancing the challenge of task with our skill level by pushing it to the upper most limit (without exceeding it).
There is a disconnect in our beliefs about what we want when it comes to work vs leisure.
Next Steps
Identify a few ways in which you can increase FLOW in your life
i) In your workplace
ii) In your leisure activities
Take action by implementing your plan.
Track your progress and results.