Making Room for Achieving Flow

We’ve all probably heard of flow.

We know that reaching a state of flow is good, making us more likely to do good work or play well in a sporting event. Flow takes us to a deeper place, one from which we can pull extra concentration and creativity. But rarely, it seems, do people really linger on how to find it.

People celebrate what flow is--it’s hard to open a psychology book that doesn’t mention it--but most people probably don’t give nearly as much thought to creating the space for it.

Wait, to back up, is flow even findable? Is it the case that some people are more disposed than others to lose themselves in their work or play? Is it only something for gifted athletes or artists to be concerned with? What about everyone else? Can you even do anything to boost it?

Absolutely. Like most qualities pertinent to human beings, flow is eminently findable. Not only that, but it’s cultivable as well, something you or I can deliberately home in on and improve.

It’s largely a question of mindset. Even if you’re not a professional athlete or artist, much of what they do is open to you. You or I can use the same playbook for our own benefit.

It begins with flow triggers. There are 17 of them, says Steve Kotler, who’s written several books relating to achieving flow states.

• Intensely Focused Attention
• Clear Goals
• Immediate Feedback



• Challenge/Skills Ratio
• High Consequences
• Rich Environment



• Deep Embodiment
• Serious Concentration
• Good Communication



• Familiarity
• Equal Participation
• Risk



• Sense of Control
• Close Listening
• Always Say Yes



• Creativity

He goes into greater depth here.

I’ve grouped them like this to be more digestible (and I only have 16 above because I think “shared goals” and “clear goals” are close enough to each other). Besides, creativity likes to go its own way.

This list is quite a bit to chew on. Each one of these points is worth implementing, but the ones that stick out most to me at the moment are immediate feedback and the relationship between challenge and skill in what you’re doing.

Immediate feedback--or quick and frequent feedback, anyway--is taking the world by storm. As more and more of my fellow Millennials work, and as we collectively make up more of the working population, our desire for regular evaluation is becoming the norm. Brought up in an age of Yelp and Amazon reviews, we expect something similar. Maybe this’ll help lead to flow-inducing work environments. Score one for flow!

I can confirm from my own experience that having more ambition than ability, biting off more than you can chew, is enough to throw you off the rails. Discovering for oneself how to discern the right amount of challenge--or what is too much--in a given activity is a huge part of self-awareness. More self-awareness is definitely good for triggering flow states. Score again!

This week, I’m thinking about flow triggers (and, oppositely, what doesn’t trigger a flow state.)
I find it inspiring that there’s a wide range of things I can do on my own to work better and think better.
Unless this image is what your life looks like, I bet there’s something in this list for you too.