Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Posted on November 28, 2007
Filed Under Business & Entrepreneurship, Ideas, Leadership, Psychology |

Last year I read the book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. More than a year later I keep thinking about this idea. Here is an excerpt that explains this concept better than I could:

“Why are these things fun? Strangely enough, when we try to answer that question, it turns out that contrary to what one would have expected, the enormous variety of enjoyable activities share some common characteristics. If a tennis player is asked how it feels when a game is going well, she will describe a state of mind that is very similar to the description a chess player will give of a good tournament. So will be a description of how it feels to be absorbed in painting, or playing a difficulat piece of music. Watching a good play or reading a stimulating book also seems to produce the same mental state. I called it “flow,” because this was a metaphor several respondents gave for how it felt when their experience was most enjoyable–it was like being carried away by a current, everything moving smoothly without effort.

Contrary to expectation, “flow” usually happens not during relaxing moments of leisure and entertainment, but rather when we are actively involved in a difficult enterprise, in a task that stretches our mental and physical abilities. Any activity can do it. Working on a challenging job, riding the crest of a tremendous wave, and teaching one’s child the letters of the alphabet are the kinds of experiences that focus our whole being in a harmonious rush of energy, and lift us out of the anxieties and boredom that characterize so much of everyday life.

It turns out that when challenges are high and personal skills are used to the utmost, we experience this rare state of consciousness. The first symptom of flow is a narrowing of attention on a clearly defined goal. We feel involved, concentrated, absorbed. We know what must be done, and we get immediate feedback as to how well we are doing. The tennis player knows after each shot whether the ball actually went where she wanted it to go; the pianist knows after each stroke of the keyboard whether the notes sound like they should. Even a usually boring job, once the challenges are brought into balance with the person’s skills and the goals are clarified, can begin to be exciting and involving.

The depth of concentration required by the fine balance of challenges and skills precludes worrying about temporarily irrelevant issues. We forget ourselves and become lost in the activity. If the rock-climber were to worry about his job or his love life as he is hanging by his fingertips over the void, he would soon fall. The musician would hit a wrong note, the chess player would lose the game.

The well-matched use of skills provides a sense of control over our actions, yet because we are too busy to think of ourselves, it does not matter whether we are in control or not, whether we are winning or losing. Often we feel a sense of transcendence, as if the boundaries of the self had been expanded. The sailor feels at one with the wind, the boat, and the sea; the singer feels a mysterious sense of universal harmony. In those moments the awareness of time disappears, and hours seem to flash by without our noticing.

This state of consciousness… comes as close as anything can to what we call happiness….”

This book isn’t a step by step self help book. I hate those. It is more like a good, readable, academic study that is also applicable. Nonetheless, there are 8 components of Flow.

The 8 components of Flow

1. Confronting tasks that we have a chance of completing.
2. Concentration.
3. Concentration is possible because the task has clear goals.
4. Task provides immediate feedback.
5. A deep, effortless involvement removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life.
6. Enjoyable experiences allow one to exercise a sense of control over one’s actions.
7. Concern for self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.
8. Sense of time is altered - hours pass by in minutes.

Think about the above components and how they relate to the things you enjoy. When I was on the rowing team in college I often wondered why I enjoyed working out for 3 hours each day and pushing my body to its limits. I felt like crap most of the time because my body was ripped to shreds and I had almost no time for anything else I deemed ‘fun.’ But I loved it and it was because we were setting big goals to win races with achievable small goals along the way - and it was easy to measure the results. I used to get lost in the sport.

Could this be why startups are so much fun and big companies suck out your soul?

This idea is being applied to a number of different fields and it is becoming especially popular in video games. Here is an online game designed around the idea of Flow, and even called flOw. It has become so popular that Sony Playstation has picked it up.

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