Before reading and watching in full I want to you to pause. Reflect on something you enjoy, in or outside of work it doesn’t matter. Something that lives long in the memory, something that you’ve kept up for some time. A hobby, regular task, relationship – anything that you’ve enjoyed and probably excelled at.
Now watch this short vid where I share my example of a running route in Italy, circumnavigating Mont Blanc. See if you can tick off all four factors
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For years I have been promoting the importance of daily activities that energise and help you to achieve flow states more frequently. The intention is simple, commit to daily activities that are deliberate and precise, things that either energise yourself and/or others around you. However, there has always been one barrier to this practice for me. How can I record my progress? Believe me I’ve tried all sorts of methods from old-fashioned pen and paper records to more sophisticated means and back again.
I have finally struck gold.
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Hopefully on reading and watching this posting you won’t end up in A & E. But I do want you to be more accident prone, but I want you to be prone to finding yourself in flow – a state of optimal performance. Check out this vid and a great Zen story that puts this theory to bed.
Whilst shooting this video I must have been in flow because I accidentally came up with the phrase ‘Flow Fit’ to describe a workshop that
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Are you strong at multi tasking? I am, I’ve developed it over the years. So I hope you won’t mind taking a ride in my car. I’ll keep to the speed limits but as a proficient multi tasker I will also be making phone calls, eating my lunch, playing with the radio and picking up my emails. Latest research has shown that being over the legal alcohol limit is actually safer than attempting any of the above. So actually I
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I was running a workshop in London recently, I asked the participants to tell me about what motivated them at work. As a leading insurer I knew what was coming. Money, money, money… I paused as we heard from everyone in the group, the response was unanimous. But then I ventured onto another lap, this time the responses were slow, paying lip service to my invite.
To provoke the group further I asked them why they hadn’t chosen one of the
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Flow states and optimal performance are practiced and researched in three well known parts of society. These areas keep them a secret, for good reason. Sharing these secrets has never been part of their game, a secret kept from their enemies or wrapped under a research cloud. Sport, military academia all rely heavily on the science of flow.
Last years gold medalist is hardly going to write an article on how he/she found flow so that the silver medalist and other stragglers
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The science of optimal performance reminds us that flow is reliant on psychological, environmental, social and creative factors. However, if you take a look at this video you’ll notice that playing a waiting game will rarely lead to high performance.
Robert M Pirsig wrote, “The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.” Thus the only flow you find in your life is the flow you bring there. So what are you bringing?
This is
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Being present has long been held as a state of optimal performance. Being in flow is recognised as a zone of peak performance. But even if you make it this far then I bet there is still another gear left in you.
Being present or in flow is the booby prize, there are yet more rewards within your grasp. Herein lies the power button – awareness. Awareness of presence. Awareness of flow.
When you are aware you can be more deliberate and precise. Stay
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I often refer to a compass as a great analogy for keeping on track. Are you headed in the right direction? Does your bearing need to shift slightly? A moral compass, the route to optimal performance.
How do you fancy your own compass, and for free? Well I was delighted to find out that Srini Rao the host of The Unmistakable Creative Podcast has written an ebook that does exactly that! A short punchy read, provocative and beautifully illustrated. Here is my 2
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Questions really do drive us – drive us to change, drive us into the now. For a long time my ‘Flow Fit’ workshops have addressed the importance of harnessing physical, emotional and cognitive energy. I have recently developed 3 questions that encourage drive in these areas. They are deliberately closed questions, so of course if you answer no to any of them then you know where you need to focus your attention.
In this video I present these for you as – Are
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