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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If you consider yourself to be a ‘jack of all trades and master of none’ then do not fear, you are only a few degrees away from optimal performance. You just need to drop the letter N from the above sentence and strive to being a ‘jack of all trades and master of ONE.’ You are probably already a master without realising it. Being a ‘jack of all trades’ allows us to relate to others effectively. We need to be
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If you over exert yourself physically then the next day your aching body will let you know just how far you pushed yourself. However, if you find flow and the state of optimal performance the prompts to recover are never that obvious.
In sport high performance athletes know full well that you must recover just as hard as you trained in the first instance. I’ll happily tell people I am on rest day because I ran 10 miles yesterday. The same is true in life
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Having worked through the struggle phase, if we successfully locate the release button we are now optimised to access flow. The science is absolutely compelling, an altered state where we can be up to 500% more effective. That’s X5 our usual ability – 5 times more likely to clinch the sale, 5 times more likely to land the new job or 5 times more likely to make someone around you feel valued.
Remember precision is key here, struggle will not equal flow unless
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If you add struggle to struggle then all you get is more struggle. By now you will know that flow follows a framework; struggle, release, FLOW and recovery. In order to access flow we have to find our release mechanisms. Unique to you. Let go of the tension, break away and reduce the friction. Or just watch this video where I describe release in more detail…
Take a walk, do something creative. Play with the kids, read, meditate or have a cup
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