The Skill of Flow
January 6th, 2007 | by Ryan Stewart |“Entering and maintaining the highly creative flow state is a skill, not a blessing, an accident, or a fluke.”
The truth is, I heard of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi long before Steve Pavlina ever entered my feed reader. I learned about the concept of Flow from a mentor nearly ten years ago and even bought and read Csíkszentmihályi’s first book on the subject, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
I’m not sure if I wasn’t paying attention or if the book was addressing a different need that I had at the time, but I do know that I didn’t take away the fact that entering flow is a skill. I owe Steve a word of thanks for making that clear. I can enter the flow state rather easily although it’s a rare occasion when I can enter it deliberately. If I consider the times when I’ve sought to enter the state of flow and failed, I can almost always find the reason why among one of Steve’s 7 Rules for Maximizing Your Creative Output
- Define a clear purpose.
- Identify a compelling motive.
- Architect a worthy challenge.
- Provide a conducive environment.
- Allocate a committed block of time.
- Prevent interruptions and distractions.
- Master your tools.
Recent decisions about the direction I’m moving in my life require that I be able to enter the flow state at will. These 7 Rules will certainly guide me in the right direction and I look forward to putting them to use in the months and years to come.
