Jackie Danicki

What’s flow? From my friend Chris Yeh’s post on Ask the Harvard MBA about whether happiness makes you less of an achiever in your career:

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s work on flow shows that one of the most important motivations we have is the desire to experience that mental state.

“Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.”

In many ways, flow is a prerequisite of success; how often have you done great work without the feeling of being “in the zone” or “in the groove”?

More importantly, whether you are content or not is irrelevant to your desire for flow. Flow can only occur when you act; you must strive in order for it to occur. Striving is not a negative which we only perform because of discontentment with our lot in life; it is a positive action we seek out in our pursuit of flow and meaning.

For me, flow is the ultimate state of being. No matter how productive I am or how high the quality of the work I produce, I am not satisfied unless I have spent a great deal of time in flow. There is a certainty inherent to that zone which makes the quality of one’s work assuredly high.

I’m always interested in personal stories of flow and how one maximizes time spent in the zone. For example, I’ve found that the right amount of caffeine can help, but even a little too much and the walls of the zone become awfully porous. Combine a need to exist in flow with a shared work space and things get more difficult. If you tend to work at home a lot, good luck explaining to your significant other why the merest interruption can set you back hours on a project.

The whole thing is great, and the conclusion is typical Chris:

So if you can, stop using your desire for success as a motivator; focus instead on your intrinsic aspirations and your innate need for flow.

But if you’re like my unhappy friend, don’t despair. Contentment won’t blunt your edge, because the research shows that even if you achieve success beyond your wildest dreams, you’ll likely never be content!

Filed under: Life