The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance

by Steven Kotler

In flow, we are so focused on the task at hand that everything else falls away. Action and awareness merge. Time flies. Self vanishes. Performance goes through the roof.

We call this experience flow because that is the sensation conferred. In flow, every action, each decision, leads effortlessly, fluidly, seamlessly to the next. It’s high-speed problem solving; it’s being swept away by the river of ultimate performance. “Flow naturally catapults you to a level you’re not naturally in,”

Flow is an optimal state of consciousness, a peak state where we both feel our best and perform our best.

The great civil rights leader Howard Thurman once said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs most is more people who have come alive.”