Enter the Zone
The fabulous science of “flow”
Do you want to be happy? That’s a silly question, right? Who wouldn’t want to? It’s one of mankind’s main motives. So no wonder, it was — and is — a hot topic amongst philosophers, social scientists and psychologists alike.
In the last century, M. Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian-American psychologist, was fascinated by the scarcity of really happy people in the aftermath of the 2nd World War. His research hinted at a psychological state he later referred to as ‘flow’¹. Let’s take a deep dive into the definition of flow.
The Gate to Happiness
Do you know this feeling of being fully immersed in a task? You lose all perception of time and other sensations, your hands work seemingly autonomous. You are deeply focused and not even self-conscious. This is how flow is described in literature².
Being in the zone has many benefits to it, the biggest being well-being. Flow allows us to escape the tortures of daily life, and dive in a different, ideal world. Many people, who experienced this, describe it as an ecstatic state. This highlights how much of an impact it can have on our feelings.
Ok, great — but is there a button to activate this mode? Research suggests no, but there are simple tricks to make it easier.
Entering flow
Imagine having to wash your dishes. Do you think you could be fully immersed in the task? Probably not. Let me explain:
In order to enter flow, the perception of the task at hand must neither be too hard, nor too easy. If you think that a task is going to be easy, you’ll feel bored. And if you think that a task is too hard, you’ll be intimidated and anxious. You have to find the sweet spot, where you can barely solve the problem with your skills.
That’s not the whole story, though. There is also another factor that influences how easily we get in the zone. An immediate feedback loop helps facilitate a focused state. By getting feedback, you adjust your skills and try to hone them.
Generally speaking, every skill has more or less a kind of immediate feedback, but it can’t be measured equally. Take for example language learning and programming. When programming, you can run your code and immediately see results and errors. Language learning is in contrast to that: You may test yourself on the vocabulary you learned in order to get feedback, for example. It’s not as intuitive as in coding, but it’s possible.
It’s not about money
The flow state offers a different approach to happiness than the consensus of the West. We think that buying new things, getting a raise and driving an expensive car will make us happy. What we forget is that we adapt to these rewards quickly, and they lose their meaning.
How often were you really excited for something, and since you got it, it’s normal to you?
Maybe not buying will make us happy?
What Csikszentmihalyi presents us is that being good at something, providing value to others, developing ourselves and our skill set really is what makes us happy in the long run. I think that we have to shift from being a society of consumerism to being a society of creation. Not only will our community benefit from this, but we will also be happier. Only you can change your mind, and inspire others to do so as well.
The flow state is described as a focused, joyful state, where one fully immerses in an activity. Tackling challenging tasks and getting immediate feedback are ways to enter flow state more easily. This theory underlines the fact that happiness doesn’t come from consumerism, but rather from adopting a creator mindset.
REFERENCES
1: M. Csikszentmihalyi's TED talk on flow
2: Handbook of Positive Psychology, pp. 89 ff. | M. CsikszentmihalyiFurther Reading:
- an interesting paper on flow
- the above linked TED talk is an absolute must-watch if you’re interested in the topic
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