When was the last time you experienced flow at work?

With this post, I'm beginning a new series, on discovering what you're made to do.

There's a sales executive. Let's call her Samantha.

Samantha feels like every week is a roller coaster. (Oh, and by the way, she doesn't like roller coasters!)

Last Tuesday, for instance, she had a super challenging day. Her weekly review with her boss ran 30 minutes long, and the lost time dominoed everything else for the rest of the morning. She had to cut her lunch with Jill short just to get back on schedule.

Then she spent the afternoon digging through her sales team's activities and accomplishments. She hates this stuff. Jon was still over-estimating his chances of landing deals, and Lane hadn't entered half of her meeting notes. Correcting these details was like pulling teeth. No, actually . . . it was like having her teeth pulled.

Samantha got so frazzled by 4:00 that she decided to cheat and spent 15 minutes on LinkedIn, searching for a path to get connected to Acme's head of research and development. She found it! And, well, actually, more than 15 minutes had gone by. It was already 4:45. But this was a priceless lead, and likely the most valuable thing she did all day.

Even though she's experienced it, Samantha has never heard of flow. And that's exactly why she's only ever experienced it by accident.

Flow is evidence.

If Samantha could see her story like we can see it, she'd realize a couple things:

1. She hates meetings that run long. It affects her negatively for hours afterwards.
2. She also hates minutiae.
3. But she loves sales research.
4. And she enjoys making headway on tough challenges in the lead process.

Let's be honest for a minute. It's not just that she hates some of Tuesday's work, and loves other parts of it. She's actually much better at some of it than others.

She does her best work when she's doing sales research, chasing leads. She struggles to do even good work when she's catching up from late meetings or analyzing sales minutiae.

So, where's my evidence that this is a matter of better and worse, not just Samantha's preferences?

Flow.

Flow is a beautifully aerodynamic idea, popularized by psychologist and man-of-many-consonants Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. (By the way, it's pronounced Me-high Cheek-sent-me-high).

Flow is a mental state of complete immersion. It's being "in the zone" and looks like delightful focus and total involvement. People experiencing flow notice the line between themselves and their work disappear, and they often lose track of time.

Flow is the source of any person's best work.

So, what are the ingredients that add up to flow? Well, you're only going to experience flow if you're good at doing something, and you care about achieving it.

Let's hear from Mihaly. (Or, if you don't have 20 minutes right now, skip ahead to my summary).

Flow is findable.

According to Csikszentmihalyi, there are 7 factors that describe flow. Here they are:

1. You're completely involved in what you're doing.
2. You experience a sense of ecstasy.
3. You have great inner clarity about what needs to be done.
4. You know that the activity is doable.
5. You have a sense of serenity.
6. You lose the sense of time passing.
7. The work is its own reward.

Now, do these factors cause flow, or are they just the description of flow? Hard to tell.

But I want to tell you something.

Your flow is findable.

You've either experienced flow in the past, and you can retrace your steps to figure out the conditions . . . or you haven't experienced it, and you could start making intelligent guesses as to what might need to change in order for you to disappear into your best work.

Sometimes it's even just knowing the idea of flow that helps you realize the barriers you're experiencing.

Flow is worth finding. Not just because it's thrill-seeking or fun. It's because your best work is waiting on the other side.

Flow is also evidence of what you're made to do.

Here's the thing: people experience flow about completely different kinds of work, kinds of creation.

And that makes complete sense.

Because flow is evidence of what you're made to do.

If you eavesdropped on Samantha's Tuesday, as we did at the beginning of this article, you'd learn something . . . something about Samantha. There are some kinds of work that Samantha will struggle to do, although she can do them. And then there are other kinds of work that feel effortless to her—in fact, they're even a source of energy!

Samantha's flow, in other words, is evidence of what she's made to do. It's just as insightful as realizing that a hammer is fabulous for installing nails, but really awkward as a wrench. But much more so, since every human being is

If you were her, you might want to think about how you could respond to these insights. After all, if you can learn and adjust, you would start getting more of her best work. For instance:

1. You might give yourself permission to leave a meeting if it's running long (or at least, let your boss know the negative effects this has had on your work).
2. You might see if there's a solution that will keep you from having to dig into minutiae. Maybe it's technological. Maybe it's a matter of holding people accountable.
3. You might give yourself permission to see sales research as the core of your job.
4. And you might reward yourself for cracking tough sales challenges.

You're not Samantha.

I know. But you experience flow too. If you're anything like her (and most people, for that matter), it's only ever happened by accident.

But you can start to pay attention to your days and your weeks. You can start to keep notes about the kinds of work and the environments that lead to flow . . . and the kinds that never do. And I believe you can then do something about that.

If you've ever experienced flow, you know it's worth finding again. I hope you now also believe it's worth finding because it's like finding yourself—your true self.

Dr. Will Gray helps people and organizations discover who they are and what they're made to do. Through Vocationality, he and his team help individuals like you discover your gifts and how to navigate your career proactively. Through ALIGN, he helps small companies and organizations ($1-25M) experience a "Grow Up" stage to capture their magic and to put systems in place so they can be themselves well at a larger size.