Find Your Flow

by | Nov 19, 2012 | All Articles, For Employees, For Employers & Leaders, Happiness, Positive Psychology | 0 comments

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a developmental psychologist who’s claim to fame is his extensive research into the idea of Flow – the state you achieve when you are completely immersed in something.
What does Flow feel like?

  1. You’re completely focused, concentrated on the task at hand.
  2. You experience a sense of ecstasy, almost like being outside of your reality.
  3. You have great inner clarity – you know what needs to be done and how to get there.
  4. You know that you are pursuing a doable accomplishment, and are confident your skills are adequate for the task.
  5. You have a sense of serenity. All of your worries disappear.
  6. You experience time at hyper speed. Hours pass like minutes
  7. You are intrinsically motivated – whatever you are pursuing is not for an outside reward, like money. You are doing the task for the sake of doing it.
Think of gamers who play for hours and hours, musicians who seem lost to reality whenever they pick up an instrument, athletes who describe a game as feeling like it lasted a few minutes. That’s what we’re talking about here. When you are in a state of Flow, you are perfectly content with your reality. We can’t ever force ourselves into Flow…but we can align our circumstances to help it along. According to Csikszentmihalyi, it is more likely to occur when the individual has above average skills and is facing a higher-than-average challenge. The further from average you get, the more likely you are to achieve this divine state.

How does this apply to the workplace? Simple. Obtaining a state of Flow is inherently associated with both achievement and satisfaction – both things that employers find valuable! How can you build an environment conducive to initiating Flow?  Here are some ideas for employers/bosses:

  • Keep it comfortable: People have to be comfortable to get into this state of mind. Think of comfortable in multiple dimensions – atmosphere, dress, working relationships. Have you ever achieved serenity in a three piece suit?
  • Allow for growth: When people see their achievements being celebrated, they are more likely to tackle even more complex problems. This is good for you because of the work they produce, and good for them because reaching for bigger goals increases the chances they will enter Flow.
  • Communicate clearly: When you don’t communicate with your employees, you will be less likely to understand how to create goals that truly challenge them. Communicate early and often.
  • Plan, problem solve, and evaluate: These are three key actions that research has shown to predict Flow.

But don’t leave it up to your boss to build the right conditions – think about the things you do at work that make the time fly by and find ways to do more of them. When you find your Flow, that’s achieving a true state of happiness in your workplace.
If you have 20 minutes or so of free time, check out Csikszentmihalyi’s TED talk on Flow as the secret to happiness.

Like this article? 


Related Reading:

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *