Finding and Sustaining Flow: Listen to The Incrementalist, Episode 5

How do you make the impossible possible? How do you tackle goals that seem impossible? When you get into the flow state, it’s much easier to learn, grow, create, turn your ideas into action, and bring your dreams into reality.

To move in the desired direction, you need more flow in your life, says Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, renowned psychologist and author of the groundbreaking book, Flow. He defines flow as the optimal experience in which you’re so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. You enjoy it for its own sake and will keep at it even with great cost. Flow is a key ingredient of a meaningful and happy life. 

But amped up flow doesn’t lead to ongoing success. While flow is necessary for peak performance, it’s not enough to sustain it, says Steven Kotler. He’s the author of many neuroscience books, including The Art of Impossible. He’s a peak performance expert and Executive Director of Flow Research Collective. 

In episode 5 of The Incrementalist podcast, I review the 5 intrinsic motivators, the 3 tiers of goal-setting, and the 6 levels of grit, and how they all come together to trigger flow.  I also discuss the 9 elements of flow, which means your biology is working for you to perform at your peak. 

You will learn how the flow cycle leads to reliable and repeatable results. Through compound interest, the minutes, hours, days, months and years of focus and effort add up to make the impossible possible.

Resources cited: 

  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
  • Steven Kotler, The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer 

Cheers,

Dyan Williams

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Dyan Williams is a productivity coach who helps working parents, lawyers, small business owners and other busy people turn their ideas into action, reduce overwhelm, and focus on what truly matters. She is also a solo lawyer who practices U.S. immigration law and legal ethics at Dyan Williams Law PLLC. She is the author of The Incrementalist: A Simple Productivity System to Create Big Results in Small Steps

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