Articles & Career Stories,Career Articles Finding Flow

Finding Flow

June 8, 2025June 8, 2025| danmacydanmacy| 0 Comment | 12:29 am
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Finding Flow

”Flow” refers to ”those times when things seem to go just right, when you feel alive and fully attentive to what you are doing.”  “People seem to concentrate best when the demands on them are a bit greater than usual, and they are able to give more than usual,” 
     Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Sounds pretty intriguing, doesn’t it?

  • When’s the last time you lost track of time?
  • When are you totally absorbed in what you’re doing?
  • When do you enjoy being challenged for its own sake?

Think about how these questions may apply to you. 

Here are some elements that exist in all Flow states:

  • The activity has a goal and clear guidelines or rules to follow.
  • You are using and developing a skill to a higher level.
  • You are feeling challenged but not overwhelmed.  
  • The activity must be enjoyable.
  • There is a sweet spot between anxiety and boredom where we are applying and developing and mastering a skill. 
  • We become so absorbed in the activity that we may lose all sense of time, or our sense of time becomes distorted.
  • We become so absorbed our sense of self disappears. 
  • We become lost in our work and work for its own sake.
  • We pursue a purpose greater than ourselves.
  • We pursue our activity for its own sake, thus being driven by intrinsic motivation.

Flow has also been called getting into the zone; a phrase used by many athletes when they experience the Flow state. Michael Murphy, co-founder of the Esalen Institute and author of both Golf in the Kingdom and the Psychic Side of Sports writes about these “zone” states in his books.

  •  Flow can show up in any activity that provides enjoyment and active engagement.
  • For the purposes of this article we are exploring how we can utilize flow in our work.

There is an overlap between Flow and Positive Psychology. Both focus on fostering a sense of well being and personal growth. Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi worked together on researching positive psychology and looking for the best of what individuals have to offer and asking questions such as, “what makes life worth living?”  

You may ask yourself these questions:

  • When have I been in the flow state?
  • What activity was I doing?
  • Where was I? What was the setting or environment?
  • What aspects of your work can you get so engaged in that you lose track of time?
  • Does the pursuit of happiness bring about a flow state for you? Csikszentmihalyi called this pursuit of happiness Optimal Experience.
  • How can you change your work to bring about  the opportunity to get you into the Flow state ?

The three essential components of Flow are: 

  1. Developing a skill
  2. Being challenged when developing that skill. 
  3. Being in that sweet spot or flow state between boredom and anxiety.
  • Does the work that you do now give you the opportunity to be in the flow state? 
  • What aspects of your work do this?
  • Ask yourself. In your work when do you lose track of time? 

Here’s an example of Flow in a work setting from the book Flow from one of many interviews conducted of those in the Flow state: 

“Joe was in his early 60’s , a welder in a South Chicago plant where railroad cars are assembled. About two hundred people  worked with Joe in three huge, dark, hangar-like structures where steel plates weighing several tons move around suspended from overhead tracks, and are welded amid showers of sparks to the wheelbase of freight cars. In summer it is an oven, in winter the icy winds of the prairie howl through. The clanging of metal is always so intense that one must shout into a person’s ear to make oneself understood. 

Joe came to the United States when he was five years old, and he left school after fourth grade. He had been working at this plant for over thirty years, but never wanted to become a foreman. He declined several promotions, claiming that he liked being a simple welder, and felt uncomfortable being anyone’s boss. Although he stood on the lowest rung of the hierarchy in the plant, everyone knew Joe, and everyone agreed that he was the most important person in the entire factory. The manager stated that if he had five more people like Joe, his plant would be the most efficient in the business. His fellow workers said that without Joe they might as well shut down the shop right now.

The reason for his fame was simple: Joe had apparently mastered every phase of the plant’s operation, and he was now able to take anyone’s place if the necessity arose. Moreover, he could fix any broken down piece of machinery, ranging from huge mechanical cranes to tiny electronic monitors. But what astonished people most was that Joe not only could perform these tasks, but actually enjoyed it when he was called upon to do them. When asked how he had learned to deal with complex engines and instruments without having had any formal training, Joe gave a disarming answer. Since childhood he had been fascinated with machinery of every kind. He was especially drawn to anything that was not working properly. Like when my mother’s toaster went on the fritz, I asked myself: ‘If I were that toaster and I didn’t work, what would be wrong with me?’  Then he disassembled the toaster, found the defect and fixed it. He used this method of empathic identification to learn about and restore increasingly complex mechanical systems. And the fascination of discovery has never left him.

When I asked myself what activities get me in the Flow state this is what I came up with. For me it has always been developing new skills such as teaching, writing articles, working collaboratively with others in a team environment, solving problems, and working with clients one-on-one while being of use to them.

What you enjoy doing when you are not working may provide some clues as well.  For me I enjoy learning new personal development skills, being outdoors in nature, walking, being with my dog, cooking, reading, expanding my consciousness, spending time with my family, listening to music, playing the guitar and singing, dancing with my wife, playing games with others, and sharing puns and jokes.

What about you?

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