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Discovering Flow States

29/8/2017

High performers in every field do it; professional athletes do it; musicians and poets do it; and the SAS and Navy SEALs do it. When the stakes are high and the cost of any mistake is nothing short of disastrous, it’s crucial that you know the secrets to stepping into the optimum state of mind required to deliver at your very best – to play your very best game.

Such a state of mind can occur in individuals engrossed in their activity – whether it’s work or play – but it can also be seen in teams that have stepped into a state of togetherness, of unity that has them operating is perfect sync with their colleagues.

“The Flow State is what takes life to the next level, for enjoyment and performance. It has been critical to reaching a string of excellent performances.”
Rebecca Soni – Winner of 8 Olympic Medals

Manifesting the Magic

Once all the plans and preparations are done and the activity rehearsed as many times over as time has permitted, every performer knows it’s time to step out and deliver the goods. Those who are paying with high stakes; whose careers, even their very lives, depend upon their performance know that moments after they take the plunge, something kicks in that seems to be beyond their direct control. It’s as if they have accessed a live current; tapped into a stream of awareness that carries them forward and empowers them beyond their natural abilities.
In such a state, when the richness of the moment floods the senses - time seems to vanish, actions become effortless and even the sense of self becomes blurred as the performer and the performance merge into one.
Such a state is common to numerous lines of activity and so a variety of terms have been coined to label these moment: Jazz players call it ‘being in the pocket’ and other musicians ‘the Groove’, marathoners call it ‘the Runner’s High’, cricketers call it ‘the Zone’ and the US Navy SEALs speak of activating ‘the switch’.

When I asked Floyd Woodrow, a former Major in the British SAS, to describe these states he surmised,

‘They occur when you’ve quite simply got out of your own way – and you achieve that through an unending cycle of Preparation and Practice.’

What actually is flow?

Many descriptions abound but the one that seems to sum it up best for me would be:

FLOW is a period of intense focus when you find yourself completely absorbed in what you’re doing and, when you need to deliver the goods, you’re also performing at the very edge of your capabilities.

Practically everyone has been there at one time or another. In a moment when time seems to disappear, your sense of self vanishes as you are completely caught up in the demands of the task at hand; in the action, in the challenge and in the joy that seems to envelop you.

Long distance drivers know it well, computer programmers go there often; book readers, gamers and singers get so absorbed in it that the feel like they’re on another planet.

The experience of flow is:

Intense and focused concentration on the present moment
Merging of action and awareness
Loss of reflective self-consciousness (loss of awareness of oneself as a social actor)
A sense that one can deal with the situation because one knows how to respond to whatever happens next
Distortion of temporal experience (typically a sense that time has passed faster than normal)
Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, such that often the end goal is just an excuse for the process

As a leader it is vital that you understand how to get the best out of yourself and of your team. This can only really be achieved through an understanding of the factors that enable each one to get into their personal state of FLOW.

With this understanding, you’ll learn what you can do to set yourself up to spend your hours in your own flow state and achieve much more – whilst also enjoying what you do a whole lot more.

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