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

by Steven Kotler

Forget 10,000 hours of delayed gratification. Flow junkies turn instant gratification into their North Star—putting in far more hours of “practice time” by gleefully harnessing their hedonic impulse. In other words, when it comes to time perspectives, flow allows Presents to achieve Futures’ results. On the other side of this coin, flow pulls Futures into the present. Because there is no time in the zone, there’s no way to worry about tomorrow. There’s literally no tomorrow. Flow provides Futures with blissful release from all that endless striving. And since the release is autotelic, 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.