go with the flow?
Yo Wassup Chimps,
In today's edition I'm going to talk about hitting flow state. More specifically about doing the kind of activities that help you hit flow state.
Now why is this even important?
Allow me to explain.
We live in the day and age of endless distractions. Constantly looking left and right, giving the worthy reels 2-3 seconds of our attention and the unworthy ones a total of 0.1 seconds.
Our minds are in a perpetual state of chaos, not being able to hold on to one thought for long enough before jumping off to another one.
In these distracted times, being present and lost in the state of flow feels like a precious gift from god.
Most of us can recall back to instances where we immersed ourselves into deep and meaningful work and felt like we got rewarded, not in currency but in experience.
I don't know about you but I want to keep chasing that feeling of being immersed in meaningful work. I love to lose myself in deep work.
So having done this plenty, I'm eligible to give some advice on it and it's this -
Find your flow state activities.
It may be different for different people, but for example these are the activities that always send me into a flow state.
- Writing (writing this blog sends me into a state of flow but even writing poetry works for me)
- Reading (the key is to find something you're very interested in reading, to follow your innate curiosity)
- Weight Lifting (it makes me only think about lifting weights and doing it right)
- Football (the activity itself is so pleasurable that you don't even need to force yourself to do it)
- Combat sports (fighting requires you to focus only on your opponent, you can't be distracted because there are harsh consequences like getting knocked out or choked out)
- Playing music (music is an easy one because everyone loses themselves in music, although playing music will send you into a deeper flow state, I'd say just listening to music can do that as well.)
- Extroverts high (this might be something that's exclusive to extroverts like me but being in social interactions sends me into a state of flow where all my fears and anxieties disappear and my vibe is at an all time high. Not to get descriptive but beautiful women also send me into a flow state hehe)
- There's a couple of other ones like skipping ropes, driving, painting, comedy, etc. You get the gist.
There's one commonality among all these activities. It is the fact that these activities demand that you to only focus on one thing, which is the activity itself. To not do that is to not participate in the activity.
For example, fighting requires you to focus only on fighting and nothing else. The activity itself demands that you focus on it otherwise you can't do it.
So no multitasking or doing activities that require you to focus on more than one thing at a time.
The side benefit of doing these activities is that you really don't have the time and mental space to think about things other than the activity.
In fact, that thought doesn't even cross your mind. Why would you want to think about something else when you're enjoying the process and deriving deep joy from being completely engaged in the activity.
Flow state is absolutely necessary for peak human performance and achievement.
So I implore you to find your own flow state activities, they maybe the same as mine or you may have your own activities.
But I strongly recommend doing that because apart from that our daily lives will always start with instagram and end with youtube. I definitely don't think that this kind of life has any meaning to it.
Once you start getting into flow state regularly, it can become really addictive. That's why some people become obsessed with their hobbies. It is hard not to be obsessed with flow state activities when obsession is the very nature of it.
So when it comes to doing your own flow state activity, remember the 3 second rule.
Start doing the activity within 3 seconds of thinking about it.
Alright that's it for today, may you flow in the river of bliss.
See ya next time.
