I am halfway through Mihaly Csikszentmihaly's Flow, and I've already flagged countless pages to come back to. It's a capturing read, with irony in the reality I enter into a space of flow while reading the book.
Here's what I've learned so far: idle pleasure or idleness in general is not what brings us the most joy or satisfaction. Rather, "The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something we make happen" (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p.3). This optimal experience is what Csikszentmihaly has termed 'Flow'.
Contrary to what we might believe, the moments that have the most impact on us - the times that, looking back, we cherish, or looking forward, we crave - tend to be moments of challenge. And we conceive of such moments as enjoyment.
If you've engaged in an activity that has completely absorbed you, where you think of nothing else save for what you are doing in the present moment, you've reached a state of flow.
How do you create optimal experience? The best moments of flow are those in which:
- There are clear goals every step of the way.
- There is immediate feedback to one’s actions.
- There is a balance between challenges and skills.
- Action and awareness are merged.
- Distractions are excluded from consciousness.
- There is no worry of failure.
- Self-consciousness disappears.
- The sense of time becomes distorted.
- The activity becomes an end in itself.
Given what we see above, each one of us can create moments in which we lose ourselves to a worthy challenge. What happens when we cannot enter into moments of flow? Csikszentmihaly teaches us that entropy (I had to look this up too: it means a gradual decline into disorder) is a default state for most people. Simply put, when we don't challenge ourselves, we can descend into an inner (and perhaps outer) chaos. It's harder for us to integrate ourselves. We may feel as though our grasp on our own lives is weak. As a result, we can feel despondent and listless, or find ourselves locked into negative headspaces.
Csikszentmihaly goes on to explore states of flow in various human contexts: relationships, work, pleasure, athletics, and so forth. His writing around yoga and flow in particular drew me in. There is a clear link between flow and the Buddhist concept of mindfulness: "it makes sense to think of Yoga as a very thoroughly planned flow activity", allowing people to cultivate a strong sense of inner control and harmony.
Much of Flow focuses on the individual, and how each of us can achieve and increase moments of Flow in our lives. In so doing, we create better lives for ourselves. I wonder, however: can we apply the concept and practice of flow to social impact?
What might it look like to create situations of community innovation or community flow, where each person works in tandem with another, to focus on a project at hand and achieve a given objective? Can Flow add to the conversation around areas of social innovation, especially when considering international innovation initiatives?
If we are able to create greater moments of flow between partners and organizations, perhaps we can further bridge the gaps that exist between cultures or economies. For instance, we may be able to build flow into exchanges between Canada's growing start-up landscape, and Latin America's (very large) start-up ecosystems.
Food, for thought.