You know the phrase I lost track of time? Well, chances are you didn’t actually lose track of time. You were in a state where time no longer mattered. You were involved in an experience that rendered our notion of time irrelevant. For a while.
Cool, right?
I find myself reflecting on this experience of time, again, here in Portugal, where time, well, just “feels different.”
If you’re a craftsman, for example, you were perhaps building the perfectly proportioned table. If you’re a marketing strategist, you were creating an ad campaign that turned your inside upside down. If you’re a tennis player, you were hitting balls with a friend who is just a tad more skilled than you and challenged you to raise your game.
When you stopped and looked at your watch, you were astounded. Whew, time had flown by. What you thought had lasted mere minutes had actually taken hours.
That’s the magic of full absorption. That’s what we call flow.
The real secret of life, the great philosopher/mystic Alan Watts famously said, is to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.
Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, the world’s foremost authority on the psychology of optimal experience, wrote about the factors that facilitate such complete engagement in his classic book “Flow.” Popular notions notwithstanding – like the phrase just go with the flow – flow doesn’t happen when we just coast. If an activity is too easy for us, we are likely to get bored. If an activity is too challenging, we are likely to get frustrated. Flow happens when there is a perfect balance of challenge and skills.
Can everyone have flow experiences? You bet – but according to Csikszentmihalyi, folks with an autotelic personality are more likely to have flow experiences than others. I had never heard of autotelic personalities before I read “Flow” – but the moment I dug deeper into the traits of autotelics it all made sense to me.
Here are 5 key traits of autotelic personalities. The beauty of these traits: If you have them, great. Harness them. Get into flow. And if you feel like you may not possess these traits but desire more flow experiences, go ahead and actively develop more of these characteristics within yourself.
We have a limitless desire to learn and discover. We are not afraid of the things that we do not know – we’re excited and want to find out more. We also do not feel that not knowing something is a liability. We don’t put on an “I know this” front. We are clear about what we do and do not know. This emboldens us to actively learn more.
When faced with a new task or skill that doesn’t come easily, we hang in there. I remember the first time I had a flow experience while windsurfing. It didn’t come on my first attempt. No, I kept trying to climb onto the board, hold on to my sail, and then fell off. Again and again, during 4 long sessions with my trainer.
Flow happened during the fifth session when I finally stayed on my board and caught the wind, for the very first time. Flow could not happen in the first 4 sessions – I simply did not have enough skill. Had I not persisted I would never have known the beautiful experience of riding the waves on my windsurf-board.
We are more likely to step into situations where we’re not terribly good at what we’re doing. We’re not afraid of making a mistake. Our identity is not tied up with always getting it right or looking perfect to the world. We’re likely to get a little bored when our life starts to look and feel a bit too predictable. We’re the first person in a group to volunteer for a new opportunity. We love the challenge of figuring out how to do something; we’re just fine if we don’t have all the answers upfront.
In a flow experience, when we are fully immersed in what we’re doing, we lose all sense of self. Who we are is fully merged with the task we’re performing. We’re not self-conscious. We’re not constantly observing ourselves, judging or criticizing ourselves.
The layers of how do I look, am I doing this right, and I wonder what they’re thinking of me are removed. Folks who persistently gauge how they come across are guided by a high sense of self-absorption and self-consciousness. They are less likely to be in flow.
When we are intrinsically motivated, we perform a task – any task – because we are eager to perform it. This factor alone is likely to engender a higher level of commitment to a task. More commitment invariably leads to deeper engagement. The doors to flow open. Clear, right?
Do you desire more flow at work or in your personal life but are still mystified about how to proceed? First of all, let go of the notion that going with the flow will get you there. Instead, read Csikszsentmihalyi’s book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.” Activate your 5 autotelic traits.
And then just stay curious. Flow will happen.
