Entering the flow state

Quoting Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's research on flow and its psychological underpinnings, this brief will discuss how to effectively balance skill level and challenge level.

Have you ever witnessed someone completely engrossed in their work without giving a thought to the surroundings? Perhaps a football player who scored a goal on his own by dribbling the ball from his foot to others' feet without passing at all? Or were the pianists foolishly preoccupied with the keyboard and even unaware of the large crowd that had gathered around them? Maybe even those people who just studied using the pomodoro technique and didn't even hear mom calling throughout those 25 minutes?

We have all had moments when we felt in control of our actions and in charge of our own lives rather than being tossed around by irrational forces. On those rare times when it does occur, we experience a rush of adrenaline and profound delight that we desire to remember as the ideal of what life should be. This is what we mean by optimal experience. Optimal experiences are not passive, receptive or even relaxing. The very best moments typically happen when a person pushes their body or mind to the limit in a conscious effort to do something challenging and important.

As Mihaly stated, those who fully immerse and enjoy themselves in their task have entered the flow state -the condition in which people are so absorbed in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so delightful that people will engage in it even at significant costs just for the sake of doing it. 

Gaining control could be really difficult. But, over time optimal experiences or entering the flow add up to a sense of mastery - better words exist - a sense of participation in how life is lived. When there is order in consciousness, the optimal state of inner experience is at its best, occurs when psychic energy—or attention—is invested in realistic goals, and when skills match the opportunities for action. To put it simply, it is when our abilities equal the challenges, below is how Mihaly Csikszentmihaly depicted it.

To put it simply, let's use the example of a football player. The striker is responsible for performing the primary role when it comes to scoring goals. To make the striker's point, the midfielder—let's call him or her the offensive midfielder—will only pass to him or her and provide an assist. Their skill and challenge in these circumstances were in A1; they entered the first stage of their own flow, their talent was in line with the challenge they had to deal with, and they enjoyed the position they held. 

They will sometimes come across A3, which is the circumstance where the challenge is more than the skill and causes anxiety. This might happen when the other team is strong or the match simply has a higher level.

Or perhaps they will enter the A2 situation, where their skill is greater than the challenge and lead to boredom, if they continue to practice passing, giving assists, and scoring but their coach tells them to only do passing and providing assists. 

Neither boredom nor anxiety are positive experiences, so the offensive midfielder will be motivated to return to the flow state. If they are bored and want to get back into the flow, they basically have one choice: inform their coach that they will score a goal on their own while still giving the primary striker an assist. If they are anxious (A3), the way back to flow requires that they increase their skills. Theoretically they could also reduce the challenges they are facing, and thus return to flow where they started (in A1), but in practice it is difficult to ignore challenges once one is aware that they exist.

A1 and A4 represent situations in which the OMF is in a flow, both equally enjoyable but have different complexity. A4 is more challenging since it presents a higher challenge and needs greater skills. In addition, A4 is not a stable environment; the OMF will experience boredom and anxiety over time if they are not motivated to enjoy themselves and push themselves back into the flow state. This dynamic aspect explains why flow activity encourages growth and exploration.

Entering the flow state and gaining the optimal experience required significant costs.. People who opt to do this - all the athletes and artists who decide what matters to them and happily sacrifice other things. People who were uninformed of this referred to it as a worthless sense of pride. 

Cheers.