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October 27 - October 31, 2018
Unlike their present-hedonistic peers who live in their bodies, the futures live in their minds, envisioning other selves, scenarios, rewards and successes.
The optimal time perspective combines the energy, joy, and openness of Presents, with the strength, fortitude, and long-term vision of the Futures.
It is an escape forward from current reality, whereas stimulants like drugs lead backward.”
When doing what we most love transforms us into the best possible version of ourselves and that version hints at even greater future possibilities, the urge to explore those possibilities becomes feverish compulsion.
when it comes to time perspectives, flow allows Presents to achieve Futures’ results.
Futures who find themselves in flow don’t need to find new ways to slog toward the future. The state is intrinsically motivating so the slogging takes care of itself.
once the sensation seekers jump on the flow path, they don’t need to delay gratification to achieve success—gratification becomes their path to success.
This means that flow doesn’t just provide a joyful, self-directed path toward mastery—it literally shortens the path.
DOUG AMMONS AND THE STIKINE
Ammons is a true polymath. He holds degrees in math, physics, and psychology, is a classical guitarist, black belt in karate, successful businessman, acclaimed author, respected philosopher, and, without question, one of the most revered kayakers in history.
What matters is not the amount of time you’re present, but the amount of time that you’re working at your full potential.
Evolution hardwired humans to pay attention to certain stimuli more than others and, as these athletes have discovered, nothing catches our attention quite like danger.
As risk increases, so do norepinephrine and dopamine, the feel-good chemicals the brain uses to amplify focus and enhance performance.
Once danger becomes its own reward, risk moves from a threat to be avoided to a challenge to be risen toward.
When risk is a challenge, fear becomes a compass—literally pointing people in the direction they need to go next (i.e., the direction that produces more flow).
A shy man need only cross the room to say hello to an attractive woman to trigger this rush. In casual conversation, merely telling someone the truth can serve the same purpose.
And the average person—you and me—must be willing to fail, look foolish, and fall flat on our faces should we wish to enter this state.”
Certainly, risk is needed for flow, but if you don’t want to take physical risks, take mental risks. Take social risks. Emotional risks. Creative risks.
A “rich environment” is a combination platter of novelty, unpredictability, and complexity—three elements that catch and hold our attention much like risk.
If you’ve ever stood before a vast canyon and felt awe—well, awe is a state of total absorption and the front end of flow.
When sucked in by the incomprehensible complexity of geologic timescales and epic beauty, reality pauses, if only for a moment. And in this moment, we taste the pinpoint focus, loss of self-consciousness, and time dilation that are deep zone companions.
“The brain’s reaction isn’t dependent on real, external information. It’s reacting to a constellation of inputs from the sensory system. If you can light up that same constellation—say replace the novelty found in a natural environment with new routines in your daily life—you’ll get the dopamine and norepinephrine.
Deep embodiment means paying attention to all of these sensory inputs at once.
More inputs means more information. Way more information. The brain can’t process this deluge consciously. Too slow. Too inefficient. In many situations, too dangerous.
“Action and adventure sports demand deep embodiment,” says Ammons. “Especially kayaking. Big rivers accelerate you in every direction at once. This puts the vestibular system into overdrive. This isn’t just your mind paying more attention—suddenly your entire body is paying attention. When this happens, it’s outside our conscious capabilities. There are no words. Our language becomes that of the river. All the features of the river speak to you and you to them through motion. There is tension, threat, there is joy and release, and overall, a deep, deep sense of flow. You are literally part of
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“Consciousness and emotion are there to correct your trajectory; when what you are doing is seamlessly perfect, you don’t need them.”
Humility moves in the other direction, it opens us up and increases incoming information. As a result, there is more opportunity for pattern recognition, more dopamine, and less need for judgmental metacognition.”
flow is our aim, then the emphasis falls on “clear” and not “goals.” Clarity gives us certainty. We know what to do and we know where to focus our attention while doing it.
Applying this idea in our daily life means breaking tasks into bite-size chunks and setting goals accordingly. A writer, for example, is better off trying to pen three great paragraphs at a time—the equivalent of moving through Mandy-Rae’s kick cycles—rather than attempting one great chapter. Think challenging, yet manageable—just enough stimulation to shortcut attention into the now, not enough stress to pull you back out again.
Tighten feedback loops. Put mechanisms in place so attention doesn’t have to wander. Ask for more input. How much input? Well, forget quarterly reviews. Think daily reviews.
Seriously, who can’t push 4 percent further than the last time around? Or, for that matter, clarify goals or tighten feedback loops?
The absence of self-knowledge makes it harder to tune the challenge/skill ratio. Equally vexing, if the resulting feedback is unflattering, fixed mindsetters tend to distort the bad news—making it even tougher to remain dialed in.
Yet flow is not binary. The state is just one step in a four-part flow cycle. It’s impossible to experience flow without moving through this entire cycle.
Struggle is a loading phase: we are overloading the brain with information.
The next stage in the cycle is “release.” To move out of struggle and into flow, you must first pass through this second stage. Release means to take your mind off the problem, to, as Benson says, “completely sever prior thought and emotional patterns.”
And the zone, the flow state itself, is the third stage in this cycle. Struggle gives way to release gives way to flow—hallelujah.
Yet if we want to flow from cycle to cycle, we need to take full advantage of recovery to regroup and recharge. In short, on this path, you have to go slow to go fast.
Why does group flow show up most frequently in work conversations? Because they tend to involve shared goals, carry an element of risk (because there’s money involved in work), include familiar partners, and require more concentration. How easy is it to produce group flow? Merely chatting on the job can be enough to put you in the state.
mean, sometimes they’re taken, sometimes not, but those physical risks are a by-product of a much deeper desire to take creative risks. Don’t be fooled by the danger. In action and adventure sports, creativity is always the point.”
Every time we have a creative insight and share it with the world, we come up against some very primal terrors: fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of social ridicule, fear of loss of resources (time, money, access, etc.). There’s significant risk involved in every step of this process.
At a fundamental level, then, coming up with original, valuable ideas always requires risk taking and pattern recognition—and this means dopamine.
“when you can’t proceed on automatic pilot, that’s when flow shows up. That’s creativity to a T. Once you’ve thrown out the rule book and begun making creative decisions, the risk involved tightens focus and triggers a neurobiological cascade—it sweeps you right into flow.”
the combination of autonomy (the desire to direct your own life), mastery (the desire to learn, explore, and be creative), and purpose (the desire to matter, to contribute to the world) are our most powerful intrinsic drivers—the three things that motivate us most.
This is what the self-help books don’t tell you. Fully alive and deeply committed is a risky business. Once you strip away the platitudes, a life of passion and purpose will always cost, as T. S. Eliot reminds us, “Not less than everything.”
“Bliss junkies are people who think the magical ease of the flow state is the goal,” says Wheal. “When they confront the difficulty of the day to day, they’d rather reach for a pill or a new lover or another meditation retreat than get down to hard work.
There’s long tradition here—the tradition of honoring someone who has died trying to live their life to the fullest by, in turn, living your own life to the fullest.
when innovation leads to death, powerful tradition ensures that death leads to more innovation.
“When I’m trying a trick,” he says, “I try to block everything else out. I just try to stay calm and focused on what I’m doing.”
As a result, both his baseline for reality and his spectrum for possibility are a quantum leap forward from almost anything anyone born in the twentieth century can imagine.
We move to, ‘That’s crazy, far out, unreal.’ Pretty soon, we accept this new reality and shift our paradigm further and this engages imagination.
