Buy on Amazon
What is flow?
Flow is being completely involved in living your life. In every task you are deeply involved in it and you know exactly what to expect. When you live a life of flow you are fulfilled and this fulfillment brings happiness.
The Eight Components of a Flow Experience
- Clarity of goals: You know exactly the outcome you should expect as well as the small goals along the way to help you accomplish the larger one.
- Feedback is immediate: You pay attention to the feedback and if it is getting you closer to your goals or not.
- Appropriate challenges and skills: the challenge is not too hard to give up and not too easy to get bored.
- Gain a feeling of focus on an activity.
- Escape the frustrations of life: forget about the regular frustrations of life.
- Feel you are in control of your life .
- Lose consciousness of self: you stop thinking about how you look or what others think of you. Also after you finish a state of flow you gain more self confidence.
- Time expands or contracts: either a pirouette that takes only a second can seem like 10 minutes or a task where it seemed only 2 hours passed but instead 8 hours have passed.
Difference Between Pleasure and Enjoyment
Pleasure is attached to something that helps us as a species survive. Eating is good because it gives us nutrition. Sex feels good because it helps our species continue. However, doing more of these things don’t help you progress as a person. Enjoyment is derived from flow experiences. Finding enjoyment in flow experiences does help us achieve goals and progress as a person.
As humans we have gotten into a state where we see work as important but not enjoyable and we see play as enjoyable but not necessary. Because of this we don’t truly enjoy either. When you achieve flow you will be able to enjoy both and see both as necessary.
My Personal Takeaways
This books was a tougher read than most. It seemed like the culmination of multiple college lectures jammed into one. However, I was able to grasp a few concepts that have stuck in my mind.
When you get into a flow state it makes you mindful and present. You can get into a flow state in whatever situation you want, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a in work or athletics. The author gives examples of paying deep attention to all of your senses through art, eating, yoga, etc. When you create clear goals and continually monitor feedback it can lead you to this flow state. As you get into these flow statues you are continually present and mindful in situations and you get more out of life.