Why a ‘flow framework’ can change your life (1 of 5)

Written by Stuart Haden on November 24, 2015

I am very happy ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ in my work. Right now the Flow Genome Project are really pushing the boundaries of optimal performance. I was pretty comfortable with  the concept of flow states, but when I realised a framework existed this kicked my performance into another stratosphere. I could now engineer flow in my life and work more regularly, easily by as much as 15% of my waking hours. Now if you consider flow can produce 5 times the results then this is well worth searching for. This video will show you where you need to start looking.

First up flow is not binary, i.e. it is wrong to suggest we are in or out of flow. Instead we are somewhere on the cycle of a flow framework; struggle – release – FLOW – recovery. Like any good framework if you know where you are then you can plan your next move. Endless struggle can shift to release, a powerful release of flow. But if we don’t spend enough time in recovery then we are left struggling once more, unable to escape.

Last week for instance I was late back from holiday, I had prep and travel to overcome before working with a new client (struggle phase). But when I got to my hotel rather than crashing on or crashing out I read, meditated, did yoga and watched a great Vimeo documentary (release phase). Then I was on fire for the next couple of days (flow phase). My week didn’t end there, I now had more travel to do and a new group to work with. I was keen to stay in the flow state but I knew I needed to back off and take it easy. My 10 mile run for that evening was downgraded to a 10K run and walk. Cramming in more work, was replaced by a bit of R & R in the pub (recovery phase). So not only had a cracked how to get into flow I had also worked out how to manage myself in order to return there. Deliberate, precise and aware…