Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace) by Tan Chade-Meng

Author:Tan, Chade-Meng [Tan, Chade-Meng]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harper Collins, Inc.
Published: 2012-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

1. The work is deeply meaningful to you

2. It generates a state of flow in you

This is, of course, in perfect alignment with Tony Hsieh’s pleasure, passion, and higher purpose framework.

Flow

Flow is so important, it is worth mentioning in some detail. Daniel Goleman calls it “the ultimate motivator.” Flow is a state of peak performance discovered by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who spent more than two decades studying it in individuals. Csikszentmihalyi describes it as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”2 Athletes know this state as being in the zone. Flow has been reported widely in a very diverse number of fields, such as climbing rocks, performing brain surgery, filing papers, and even in sitting meditation (in fact, one way to think of flow is as Zen in action).

Flow occurs when the task at hand matches the skill level of the practitioner, such that it is difficult enough to provide a challenge but not so difficult that it overwhelms the practitioner. If the task is too easy relative to skill level, the practitioner will be bored or apathetic. In contrast, if it is too difficult, the practitioner becomes anxious or worried. Flow occurs when difficulty is just right.

Flow is a state of focused attention, so people skillful in focusing their attention, such as meditators or martial arts experts, are more likely to find themselves in flow. If you have been doing the mindfulness exercises in the early chapters of this book, you are already halfway there, Grasshopper.

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