Find flow in everything you do

 What does "GOING WITH THE FLOW" mean? 

Imagine you are traveling to your favorite hill station which is full of snow. Powdery snow flies up on both sides of you like white sand. Everything is going perfectly. You are fully focused on skiing as well as you can. There is no future, no past. There is only present. You have no worries about what’s going on around the world, no distractions, you are only living that special moment. 

When we immerse ourselves in an activity we love, our sense of time vanishes. What makes us so immersed in tasks that we love is the POWER OF FLOW. There is no magic for finding happiness, but there is one key and that is, the urge to reach this state of flow, and through this state, we can have an "optimal experience". To get the optimal experience, you need to create your environment in a way that allows you to focus on what you are doing without any disturbance. You have to focus on the time you spend on activities that brings you to the state of flow rather than on the activities which offer immediate pleasure- like eating junk too much, abusing drugs or alcohol, binge-watching, etc.  

I know it's not possible to always do things that we love. Sometimes we have to do a task that we don't want to do, and every minute feels like a lifetime. The funny thing is that someone else might really enjoy the same task, which we want to finish as quickly as possible. It is very important to find your flow before starting anything. 

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That is relativity" - ALBERT EINSTEIN 

Conditions for finding flow : 

1. You must know what to do. 
2. You must know how to do. 
3. You must analyze how well you are doing. 
4. You must know where to go (where navigation is involved). 
5. You must consider significant skills. 
6. You must consider significant challenges. 
7. You must avoid all the distractions. This is the most important condition.  

Strategies for achieving flow :  

• Choose tasks that lie outside your comfort zone : 

Activities that are too easy lead to a lack of interest, hence choose a task that is slightly difficult for you so that you can stretch yourself which will give you an experience of dealing with challenges. Try to add something extra, something that takes you out of your comfort zone. 

“To be able to concentrate for a considerable amount of time is essential to difficult achievement.” – Bertrand Russell 

• Have a clear, concrete objective : 

Before starting any task you must have a clear objective about what you are doing. Having no objectives is like heading out to sea with a map but no destination. It is much more important to have a compass pointing to a concrete objective than to have a map. 

  As soon as you are clear with your objectives, just start working on your task don’t waste any of your time. Start taking small steps first, it will help you vanish your anxiety and you will achieve a pleasant flow in the activity you’re doing.

• Concentrate on one task at a time : 

Concentrating on a single task at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow. We often think that combining multiple tasks will save our time but the effect of it is actually the opposite. When we say we are multitasking, we are actually doing a quick switching back and forth between tasks, and we end up spending all our energy alternating between tasks, instead of focusing on doing one task properly. 

Find your Flow in things you do: 

 After reading this blog, you should have a better idea of which activities in your life make you enter the 'flow'. Make a list of all of them on a paper, then ask these questions: 

 Q1. What are the activities that drive you to the flow? 

Q2. Why do those activities drive you to the flow? 

Try new things that are not on the list of what makes you flow but are similar and which makes you curious. For example, If photography is something that drives you into the flow, then you can also try painting. 

Find your flow and start enjoying your lives.