Innoveering Nebraska

Every life has a rhythm that is influenced by the people and things around us.  Sometimes our optimal rhythms, the pace of life at which we are our best selves and do our best work, can get lost.  Sometimes we don’t even realize it’s gone.

I nearly lost my optimal rhythm last week.  A situation had me a little stressed.  In the past I would have soldiered on, trying to do it all.  And as a result, I would have done nothing well.  But I’ve learned a lot in the last year. 

Instead, I took a break.  For four days, I didn’t blog or clean house.  Nothing fell apart, the world kept spinning, no one even seemed to notice that I had stopped cleaning (thankfully someone did notice I wasn’t blogging).  Because I cut myself some slack and took a break, I was able to continue experiencing flow and eventually came up with a pretty good idea for resolving the stressful situation. 

Maybe someday this process will come naturally.  I really hope so.  Until then, I plan to guard the optimal rhythm of my life fiercely.  It’s too valuable an asset to compromise. 

In a related matter,  I’ve been shocked to learn I’m a night owl.  Who knew?  (Who, who?)  I think I was always too tired  to realize it.  Life is somehow easier and more fun when you’re able to operate at your optimal rhythm.  Do you know what your’s is?  Want to find out?  Keep a little paper or electronic journal for two weeks and note the circumstances (time, location, people, surroundings) when you feel especially productive, especially not productive, miserable, happy, and especially when you experience flow. 

Below are Rick Lee’s night owl lamps. 

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Do you regularly experience psychological flow?  Do you want to?   Does the idea frighten you a little?  Do you know what psychological flow is?

I knew in my bones that flow existed before I had the word “flow” to label the experience.  I was unbelievably thrilled to stumble across Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s definition of the concept and accompanying “handle” last fall.  Having a word has made this idea much easier to discuss with others. 

Besides having an intriguing name, Csikszentmaihalyi defines flow as total absorption in an activity.  These are bare, dull words to describe the magical wonder of losing yourself so deeply in a project you feel so passionately about that you forget anything else exists. 

For flow to exist you must:

• Be involved in a project you find personally rewarding
• Have clear and attainable goals
• Be capable of handling that project, but also have the project challenge your skills
• Have control over your work  
• Not feel the least bit self-conscious about yourself or the work you’re producing
• Be able to concentrate on the project to the exclusion of other thoughts (including bodily functions)
• Lose tract of time

For me, flow is the mental equivalent of a runners high.  You find your rhythm and work your way through the process until you burst into an awareness of an amazing clear, clean feeling of accomplishment. 

As kids we seem to experience flow much more easily and regularly than we do as adults.  Think of the child absorbed in play or dancing to unheard music.  This may be attributed to our adult size responsibilities.  However, I believe we’d find more time and means as adults to experience flow  if we placed a higher value on creativity. 

I also believe that we recognize the results of flow when we see them.  They’re new, different, intriguing, alluring, clever and authentic.  They have a sense of truth and honesty about them.  Great things come from flow.  Watch for them and they’ll begin to stand out like beacons of light.   

PS3 Flow

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