Achieving Flow

You're here because you have already achieved some outer success and reached your current executive leadership position. But growth doesn't have to stop here. There is a thrill and satisfaction in challenging yourself, stretching and seeing how much you can achieve. Have an impact and make a contribution.

The talents, skills and tools that have got you to this point will not necessarily take you further. Or the approaches you've used to achieve this success may have been expensive in terms of time, energy, stress and effect on your relationships. You need new or upgraded power tools to make sure you can sustain or advance your position more easily.

The High-Performance Executive Newsletter introduces these tools, so that you can level up, as video-gamers would say. It draws on many areas of solid research into high-performance in business, including neuroscience, psychology, physiology, trauma therapy and flow-state study.

The three essential areas for high performance are neuro-regulation (to get and stay calm), clear the negative self-talk and the beliefs that create them (including imposter syndrome), and create new success habits.

This week we're looking at neuro-regulation and the flow state.

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The Peak Performance Flow State

The term Flow was defined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1970s.

He described it as a state of consciousness of peak performance; a state where every decision and every action flows seamlessly. Athletes talk about it as being 'in the zone.'

It sounds almost mystical, but the flow state is a real experience that can be measured in brain chemistry and neurological patterns. It is the ultimate experience of peak performance in the moment.

Flow is an achievable state whether you are an athlete, a CEO, a surgeon, an artist, or well, anyone really. It’s universal.

The benefit of being in flow is that it is your brain performing at its best. This means peak productivity, peak creativity and all-around excellence.

The Six Characteristics of Flow

Csikszentmihalyi found that rather than being vague, the flow state can actually be well-defined. He discovered six core psychological characteristics, and if they all show up together, we call that experience flow.

• Complete Concentration (total absorption in a demanding task)
• The Merger of Action and Awareness (a feeling of oneness with what you’re doing)
• Our Sense of Self Vanishes
• An Altered State of Time (time seems to speed up or slow down)
• Paradox of Control (a powerful sense of control over situations normally uncontrollable)
• Autotelic Experience (intensely rewarding, meaningful and pleasurable)

We can experience flow in anything we do, even writing an email.

And Csikszentmihalyi also discovered that the people with outstanding well-being and life satisfaction were the people with the most flow in their lives.

This gives us even more motivation to access the flow state as much as we can.

Triggers for Flow

There are many (22 in fact) triggers for the flow state, one of which is a challenge-skills balance.

The activity needs to be demanding enough to capture your complete attention, but not so demanding as to be overwhelming.

What’s the sweet spot for flow? It turns out to be when the challenge is 4 per cent greater than your current skill.

Flow happens when the challenge is 4 per cent greater than your current skill

Feel free to pause and reflect on what that might look like for you.

Triggered Nervous System

If the challenge/demand/stress increases so much that we slide from that peak performance state into overwhelm, then fear floods the system and we are bumped out of flow.

Your body gets tripped into the fight/flight or freeze state and a whole cascade of physiological changes happen, including changes to blood flow, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing and muscle tension.

Blood flow changes to the strategic thinking part of the brain cause a temporary drop in IQ of 13 points. The consequences of that are poor decision making, reduced emotional control, poor risk assessment, impulsivity and reactivity hostility.

This correlates well with a 2012 ESADE Business School study, that concluded ‘the most transformational leaders are those that best regulate their nervous system (and those of others).

Get Out Fast

The consequences of a triggered nervous system are severe and twofold. Firstly taking you out of the flow state and your peak performance there. Secondly, it significantly impacts your ability to perform at normal levels of your capability.

Good neuro-regulation is essential for high performance.

As soon as you notice you are in the fight, flight or freeze state, your number one goal should be to get yourself out of it as fast as you possibly can.

Vigorous movements like shaking out arms and legs, or running on the spot for a minute are good starting points for the fight or flight state. This gets the stress hormones moving out of your muscles so your body can get back to calm quickly.

Then direct your nervous system into a calmer state with some?slow deep breathing.

For the freeze state, start with some slow movements to break that?locked, held sensation. Then follow with some deep breathing too.

Everyone is a little different, and you can experiment and find the techniques that work best for you.

It all starts with self-awareness – noticing when your nervous system gets triggered.

Then get out of that triggered state fast.

This reclaims your normal capabilities and sets you up for the best chance of getting into the peak performance flow state.

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What I've loved this week:

The Art of Impossible by Steven Kotler

This is a how-to manual for peak performance covering motivation, learning, creativity and flow. The author defines impossible (lower case i) as achievements beyond what we’d previously imagined were possible for us personally.

To say it is rich in information is an understatement!

My copy of this book has more folded corners, post-it page markers and (shh) yellow highlighter pen marks than any other book I own.

I’d advise caution with the section on Grit, as too much in this direction can lead to burnout. Other than that, a fabulous book on achieving at the highest level in business.

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An action step you can do today …

Find Your Sweet Spot

Take a look at your current work activities, and see if you can arrange them to be at 4% above your current capabilities.

This means if your current goals are too easily reached, and they risk becoming uninspiring and unexciting, see if you can increase the challenge somehow to create a light 4% stretch.

If your goals are so huge they could become overwhelming, break them down into smaller chunks that give you a light stretch but don't discourage or stress you.

If you are right at the edge, or already in, overwhelm from too much challenge, then don't try to add more. You can't reach the flow state with a triggered nervous system. First, take action to reduce overall stress and get calm. From there you can plan that 4% challenge and open the opportunity for flow.

This simple re-assessment of the chunks of work you take on can put you in a position to reach that deeply satisfying, enjoyable flow state as often as possible.

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We'll cover more on neuro-regulation and flow in future issues.

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I'm Dr Tara Halliday, Imposter Syndrome Specialist.

I've been a holistic therapist and high-performance coach for over 21 years.

I'm the creator of the premium Inner Success for Execs programme - the fastest and best solution to imposter syndrome.

My book, Unmasking: The Coach's Guide to Imposter Syndrome was an Amazon #1 bestseller in 2018.

Check out the Inner Success for Execs programme for fast 'up levelling' of your internal leadership tools.

https://www.completesuccess.co.uk

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Have an excellent, refreshing and recharging weekend!

Tara