Have you ever experienced “the flow” while working, it is indeed a surreal experience, time comes to a stand still and you are at your productive best. Each and every thing that you do flows beautifully.
Energized Focus
In the heart of your hearts, you have that magical feeling of being content with your output and the glow on your face is a testimony to this state. Talking of positive psychology, this state of seamless flow, also referred to as the zone is a mental state of being and operating, wherein the person performing a given activity is fully immersed in a feeling of highly energized focus, complete involvement, deriving utmost pleasure and enjoyment during the process of the activity.
Magical Feeling
Being completely absorbed in what one is doing is what characterizes flow in essence. This magical feeling is referred to as flow. By now you must have gone through your share of intensive reading on how to boost your productivity at the workplace, however if you truly want to understand the real secret of productivity, you would definitely need to understand what flow is in effect.
The Yerkes-Dodson Law
The Yerkes-Dodson Law has empirically investigated the relation between enthusiasm and performance, it postulates that performance increases with physical or mental stimulation but up-to a certain point only. When the levels of stimulation become too high, performance starts degrading.
Perfect Point
If we have a graphical representation of the phenomenon we would invariably observe a curvilinear depiction, that would come across as an inverted U shaped curve which increases initially and then goes on to decrease with higher levels of enthusiasm. You may adopt various ways and means that enable you to hit that perfect point when a task you are performing at the moment happens to be neither too challenging nor too boring.
Tricky Business
To strike that particular perfect spot is indeed a tricky business. To begin with you would never be able to reach that mental point of enthusiasm, if you do not love what you do, do not enjoy your current work, which brings us to the assumption that finding something you are passionate about is the key to taste lasting fulfillment and success.
Day to Day Life
Essentially it boils down to flow being the secret to everlasting happiness. One must also note that flow is not just restricted to the world of work, it can surely and effectively be applied to other areas of our life with equal aplomb. Matter of factly speaking the secret to a happy life lies in incorporating the flow into our day to day lives.
Maintain the Flow
Learning to get as well as maintain the flow is of paramount importance and for this you need to find the right environment, that enables you to produce your best output. The right time of the day has a significant role to play as well, it is the special time when you are at your productive best. Finally it is of utmost importance that you remove all sorts of distractions that come in your way of getting into a flow be it the cell phone, the TV, extra programs or tabs on your computer.
Final Words
Getting into the flow is indeed such an incredibly hard thing to do, count yourself fortunate as and when you are able to attain that state, and when you are literally flowing it makes eminent sense to harness that power in its entirety, try and stay in that state for as long as practically possible and reap bountiful rewards.
