Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a psychologist, most famous for his work on Flow.
Flow describes a state of being where we’re completely immersed in a certain task. Tasks that generate Flow are associated with a number of conditions, and the essence of Flow is a positive energy that produces rapturous joy, rather than stress and anxiety.
According to Csikszentmihalyi, tasks that produce Flow have several key components. When we are in Flow, we experience a balance between the challenge of the task and our abilities, immediate feedback or a reward, a distorted sense of time (we start something… and suddenly it’s half an hour later), a loss of self-consciousness, and complete absorption.
In my experience, part of living authentically in our work lives involves finding out what we’re passionate about, working out how to make money from that, and creating a role that evokes Flow – something that stretches us, stimulates us, and makes us excited to get out of bed in the morning.
Csikszentmihalyi talked about his theory of Flow at a TED talk in 2008. You can watch it below:
Do you have any experiences with Flow? What kind of activities help you reach Flow? Let me know in the comments below.
Photo by Yeasin Chowdhury on Unsplash
