Examining Your Goals and Achieving Them

As we near the mid-point of the year, Spring can be a positive time to re-evaluate your goals for the year. A helpful book to guide you through the process is Achieve Any Goal by Brian Tracy. Just the other day I was reading in Psalms 119:59 “I pondered the direction of my life, and I turned to follow your laws.” (NLT) and that reminded me of the need to slow down and ponder, think through, and evaluate how the direction of my life is going. Brian Tracy’s book helps in this process. I have looked at a couple of his books in past blog posts. I have reflected on his books – The Power of Discipline as well as Bull’s Eye: The Power of Focus.

One reason I am a big believer in creating personal goals in living the Living More Than OK life, is that they aid in giving direction to our life purpose. Brian Tracey near the beginning of his book describes the power of goals: “Living without clear goals is like driving in a fog. No matter how powerful or well-engineered your car, you drive slowly, hesitantly, making little progress on even the smoothest road. Deciding upon your goals clears the fog immediately and allows you to focus and channel your energies and abilities toward what you really want.” (pg. 20) It is a choice we must make do we want a bumpy and choppy life journey or a smooth life journey? With the chaos of life no one can be guaranteed a perfectly smooth life but with clearly established goals our life can be smoother. In this book Achieve Any Goal he provides 12 steps to help in the achievement process. This week in my blog I will focus on a few that stood out to me.

His step 2 jumped out at me in which Mr. Tracy says, “Believe that your goal is achievable”. If you have created a clearly stated realistic goal throw out the “I can’t” thinking and have faith in yourself. High achieving, successful people believe they can reach what they are reaching for in their goals. Have an inner conviction that you will reach the goal you created. He includes in this section one of my favorite Napoleon Hill quotes: “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” (pg 47). Negativity in our mindset will limit our success in our goals. Of course we need to keep our eyes open as I said last week, to life changes in which we may have to tweak the goals but the goal keeps us moving forward.

The second thought from his book I would like to share is step 3 “Write Your Goal Down”. I have read other books on goals and research articles on goals and there is just something about taking the step to write down you goals. He points out that putting the goal down on paper makes use of our visual, auditory and kinesthetic senses. We can then place that written goal someplace where we will regular see it and the process then works in our subconscious mind to help us achieve it. I encourage creative people to even go so far as to make a poster with creative graphics that relate to the goal. This activates the imagination to think big with the goal.

In his step 5 section “Determine Why You Want It” Mr. Tracy’s thoughts on “Blue-Sky Thinking” was enlightening. This is the third thought from the book I would like to share. He says of this: “In blue-sky thinking you imagine that all things are possible for you, just like looking up into a clear blue sky with no limits. You project forward with several years and imagine that your life is perfect in every respect. You then come back to where you are in the present in your own mind, and you ask. ‘What would have to happen from this point forward for me to achieve all my goals sometime in the future?’” (pg. 74). I have done this for myself in the past and with clients in the form of having them write out what their life looks like 5 years from today. It is a helpful visualization process.

The other steps of the 12 in the book are important as well, but I hope if you are interested in finding them you will check at your local library or you can purchase the book from Simple Truths website or other book sellers. The important thing beyond the book is take time to create clear, concrete, and specific goals for the different areas of your life where you want to see growth and success.

Reflection: What are important areas in your life you could write a goal about to achieve? Are you working on a goal right now? What is it? Maybe this is a good time to review the goal. Try out some blue-sky thinking with a couple of your important goals.

Keeping a Mindset for The Very Next Thing Paradox

This past Sunday my family were grateful to enjoy a Casting Crowns concert in San Antonio. Unspoken and Danny Gokey were part of the concert tour as well. I’ve always appreciated the depth in the lyrics to Casting Crown songs. Their musicianship is superb and in the concert, Mark Hall’s sharing is clearly from the heart and very real. So as I was thinking what to write about in my blog this week one of their songs came to mind. The Very Next Thing. Take a listen and enjoy the video.


The Very Next Thing by Casting Crowns (Click on title to hear the video)

I spend all my time
Dreaming what the future's gonna bring
When all of this time
There's a world passing by right in front of me
Set my sights on tomorrow
While I'm tripping over today

Who says big things
Are somewhere off in the distance
I don't want to look back
Just to see all the times that I missed it
I want to be here and now
Starting right here, right now

With the very next words of love to be spoken
To the very next heart that's shattered and broken
To the very next way you're gonna use me
Show me the next thing
I'll do the next thing

Let my very next breath
Breathe out a song of praise to you
With my very next step
Be on a road that was planned by you
Lord, wherever you're leading me
That's where I want to be

With the very next words of love to be spoken
To the very next heart that's shattered and broken
To the very next way you're gonna use me
Show me the next thing
I'll do the next thing

Eyes wide open I see you working
All around me you're on the move
Step by step I'm running to meet you
In the next thing, in the next thing

Eyes wide open I see you working
All around me you're on the move
Step by step I'm running to meet you
In the next thing

With the very next words of love to be spoken
To the very next heart that's shattered and broken
To the very next way you're gonna use me
Show me the next thing

Eyes wide open I see you working
All around me you're on the move (I'll do the next thing)
Step by step I'm running to meet you
In the next thing, in the next thing

Eyes wide open I see you working
All around me you're on the move (I'll do the next thing)
Step by step I'm running to meet you
In the next thing, in the next thing

Eyes wide open I see you working
All around me you're on the move
Step by step I'm running to meet you
In the next thing, in the next thing

They played many of their old favorites in the concert but this new song stood out to me. From my book, Living More Than OK, to some of my blog posts I am very much a promoter of dream lists and reaching for goals in life. Yet from my study of Dr. Jim Bright’s works on Chaos Theory of Careers and Dr. John Krumboltz’s written works on being open to happenstance, Luck Is No Accident, I understand the need of being open in our daily journey to the things and people that come across our paths. This year I have attended mindfulness workshops and mindfulness relates to this song as living mindfully we are aware of the moments in our lives appreciating each moment and learning from the moments.

The phrases “There's a world passing by right in front of me
Set my sights on tomorrow, While I'm tripping over today” spoke to me about how often do we miss out on important relationships or miss positive possibilities because we let the present moments pass us by. We wind up tripping over the obvious and too often later say to ourselves, “I should have helped that person” “Wow, I blew that great possibility”. If we are mindfully aware and keeping our “Eyes wide open” we may be able to skip over the “should have” statements times and take advantage of life changing possibilities.

Of course as a Christian with the same spiritual mindset of Mark Hall, I also appreciate his thoughts on the daily relationship of walking with God in this song. As in the phrase “Eyes wide open I see you working, All around me you're on the move (I'll do the next thing)”. The Christian if walking in communion with God sees the Godwinks behind the chaos and happenstance events of life. If we are spiritually mindful, God will “Show me the next thing”. It is an encouragement to keep in a step by step walk with God.

I believe the song is a positive reminder to be mindfully aware during our walk through each day. As for goals I still believe they are an important way to keep moving forward and provide purposes for direction. At the same time don’t focus so hard on the goals that we trip each day and miss out on the flowers along the daily journey.

Reflection- When was a recent time where you felt you tripped up during a day (missed an opportunity to help or did not appreciate the little things in a day)? What does going through the day with “Eyes wide open” mean to you?
Do you think you can walk through each day mindfully and still have future goals?

Moving Into the New Year with the Power of Focus

As we start the New Year I want to share some thoughts from a book I think is perfect for moving into 2017. I could mean my book, Living More Than OK, as it is a thought provoking positive book to begin the New Year; but that would be rather self-serving of me. Of course you then can say, why mention my book with a link to the Barnes & Noble site for it? Maybe because I am a little self-serving and I believe in what I wrote in my book. Back to the topic at hand – what book do I want to share thoughts on? It is Bull’s-Eye: The Power of Focus by Brian Tracy. It comes from one of my favorite motivational companies, Simple Truths.

Tracy’s book came to mind while reflecting on a church service we attended on January 1st. The pastor had his minister team share their objectives for the coming year. A recurring theme was to write down the goals and plans that you have for the New Year. What the various ministers there were saying fit so well with what Brian Tracy is saying in Bull’s-Eye. The beginning for the book states the importance of writing down goals that we want to obtain along with the plan to accomplish the goal. As he states in the book, “A person with a goal and a plan is like an archer or a dart thrower with everything they need to step up to the line and hit a bull’s-eye” (p27).

He makes an important point in creating the goal to make it personal, positive and present. So write the goal as if it has been completed in the present sense of the moment. For example for the PhD I am working on using his thinking I would write down “I have my PhD in Psychology”. It is like making a declaration that the mind can visualize. Imagine your goal has already happened. It is a different concept than the traditional future tense goal with a timeline. Of course it is then important to create an action plan to reach the goal otherwise it is simply a Pollyanna wish. The idea is similar to Stephen Covey’s Habit 2 “Begin with the end in mind”. He follows up the goal thoughts with a solid section on building a personal mission statement.

He moves into the importance and hard work of being focused and building up concentration to reach the goals by following your plan. Many people don’t reach what they want due to not following basic time management principles or are too easily distracted in our distracting world. We need to manage time and social media or they wind up mismanaging us and stopping us from getting what we want for our lives.

Tracy also in the book shares the importance of building up a mindset of excellence. He brings out an important research point from a professor at Florida State University, Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, “According to Ericsson, people in the bottom 80 percent will work during their first year of employment to learn their particular job or craft. After that, they slow down, level off, and never get any better. They don’t read any books, listen to any audio programs, or take any additional courses. They simply flatten out.” (p.77). This relates well with my thinking in my book, Living More Than OK, as I emphasize one problem in our life journey is that we settle for the plateau of OK living and just getting by. So Tracey encourages an excellence mindset along with the discipline of skill building and lifelong learning.

Those are just a couple of key thoughts that helped me as I am looking forward to new goals and readjusted goals for the New Year. There are many other fine points in his book to help with your life. As usual I want to simple peak interest so you can look for the book in your local library for purchase a copy for yourself. The beginning of a year is a time to gain a fresh start and begin moving on goals you want to accomplish.

Reflection: Has your life leveled off? What area of your life do you want to improve in 2017? How can you move towards being a seeker of excellence?

Learning Lessons From The Rich

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Just a few years ago the news was filled with the protests against the rich with Occupy Wall Street. The topic of income inequality is still strongly debated in some news circles and with certain politicians catering to the Occupy Wall Street types. Are all our problems caused by the rich? Do the rich pay their fair share? A study in 2008 showed that the top 1% paid 38% of all the federal income tax. The top 50 % of wage earners paid 97% of the federal income tax while the bottom 50 % paid only 3% (http://blog.heritage.org/2011/10/04/in-pictures-how-much-the-top-earners-already-pay-in-taxes/ ). So is the answer just keep squeezing the top earners for more money or can we learn from them to better our own economic lives?

Learning from the rich is the basis for a book by Thomas Corley who is a CPA. His book is Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals. His book is not a dry fact filled non-fiction work. He shares in the introduction that he had spent years studying the lives of successful wealthy individuals. His books shares common principles he found that helped these individuals take advantage of what he calls “opportunity luck”. That luck is described as the results that comes from keeping good habits that improves life rather than tears down life. I will go through the principles here. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book as it is an engaging read as he shares fictional stories of characters who you can see are down on their luck and are open to change personal habits to improve their lives.

The first principle Thomas presents is that the Rich follow good daily habits every day. I had a Sociology Professor in Chicago who always started each lecture reminding us that man was a creature of habits. The issue is what kind of habits – good or bad? So the first point is to be aware and take some time to look at your habits and see if they are helping or hurting you?

The second principle is to be a goal setter. The author states that the rich commonly have a habit of following daily, monthly, yearly and long-range goals. I have mentioned this point many times in past blogs as to the importance of being goal oriented. Having long range plans for a big picture mind helps with your future. I of course temper this with the thoughts of Dr. Jim Bright with his thoughts on chaos theory. With our goal mindsets be flexible is the chaos of life as chaos can make changes in our long range goals.

Photo credit: LUZ-2011 / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Moving on to principle three which is to be intentionally engaged in self-improvement. Thomas states, “Successful people read for self-improvement. They are perpetual students.” (page 45). Being a Bookhead this principle is my favorite. I was listening to Ravi Zacharias in a presentation he was doing in Sweden the other day. In the Q & A time he told one attendee to “read well”. “Read for the heart and for the mind.” Also in reading well Ravi said to read a breadth of information to develop the mind. Mr. Corey on reading emphasizes rightly the importance of reading up on journals and books that relate to your career of choice. Many say there is no time to read? He suggests just read 30 minutes a day -- journals and books that will help with your success. That short time does not seem like a lot. But if you read just 30 minutes a day that would be over 182 hours a year. Imagine the knowledge increase that would add to your career life.

His principle number four is that the successful rich devote their habits to caring for their health. Exercise and healthy eating is important in their daily regimens. This gives them more energy to be at their best every day.

The fifth principle of successful people is making it a habit to build strong relationships. An important issue in career building today is networking. The successful know the importance of networking. They are not about using people instead of how can they help others. An important question is how can they keep improving relationships?

The sixth principle is that the successful live in a balanced state of moderation. They do not live in excess. This may be a surprise as many think of the rich living lives of wild excess. Of course some do but that is why the author keeps the focus on the truly successful.

The seventh principle is a mindset habit of doing things now instead of putting things off to later. This goes back to the goal orientation they carry with them.

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His eighth principle is that the successful engage in what he calls rich thinking. By that he means positive thinking and making use of positive visualization. They carry with their thinking a thankful attitude about their lives.

The ninth rich principle is the habit of being a saver. He mentions that the successful pay themselves first. I would differ in this from a Christian viewpoint, I believe the concept of the tithe in giving back to my church and charities that help the poor. That always comes first to my mind. Yet at the same time I agree with him that to be successful there needs to be a saving and investment mindset.

His final tenth principle is the habit of controlling thoughts and emotions. Thomas states, “They use the following technique when faced with a difficult situation that presents itself: ‘Think , Evaluate, and React’”.(65). Too many run into trouble by having that backwards – react, evaluate and by then it is too late to think as the damage is already done.

Will Thomas Corley’s book make you rich? Maybe yes maybe no. I do believe by following the guiding principles he has researched, you will be definitely moving more towards a Living More Than OK life. In the book he adds tips and ideas that go along with each of the principles. The book shows that it is more helpful to learn from the rich their habits instead of hating them out of jealousy.

Reflection: Which of the 10 habit principles are you strongest in? Which of the habit principles do you need to work on to improve?

No Luck With Resolutions…Try Goals

On New Year’s Eve while watching the festivities in New York on Fox News there was much talk of New Year’s resolutions. Many on the station were stating their resolutions for 2014. Just from my past experience in work settings I have not observed many who kept their resolutions. This is one reason I stopped doing them. That made me curious about how many actually keep their resolutions. With an online search I found an article in Forbes magazine’s website from 2013 that stated research from the University of Scranton on the subject. They stated that about 40% of us make resolutions. The surprising or not surprising point was that only 8% keep their resolutions.

So if you have already broken your resolution for 2014 don’t feel too bad as you are in the 92% majority. That low number made me think of how can more people stay steadfast on the changes they want to make. The word goal came into my mind. First just looking at the word resolution Merriam Webster online defines it this way -- something that is resolved (to make a definite serious decision to do something). Now the definition for the word goal -- is something that you are trying to do or achieve. Both words seem very similar.

Let’s go back to the low success rate with resolutions. Even though the definitions are similar if you think about it how much thought goes into most New Year’s Resolutions? Generally they are done off the cuff at parties. So there is a quickly stated emotional aspect to them. Also in many cases they are stated after the person has had a few alcoholic drinks so he definitely has not thought through the resolution. So this could be reasons that resolutions go by the wayside so quickly.

What about goals? In the book A Life Worth Living edited by Mihaly & Isabella Csikszentmihalyi there is an essay, "What Works Makes You Happy: The Role of Personal Goals in Life-Span Development". The authors state that goals help in satisfying motivational needs. They show in the article from research how goals aid people in having a satisfying life. Here is what some of the research shows on the effectiveness of goals:
•
Those with goals related to their needs report well-being.
• Those who have a disciplined commitment to their goals have higher life satisfaction.
• Those who see progress in reaching their goals have less stress and higher life satisfaction.
• Those who create realistic and feasible goals have more life satisfaction. (p186)

These are just a few of the positive aspects of creating and following goals. So maybe it is better to think through goals for the year instead of spouting off a quick resolution at a party.

Usually at the end of each year I take some time to think through and formulate new goals for the new year. One point that is seen in the statements from the research is make the goals realistic and feasible. You want to go for big things in life but if they are too undoable that just brings discouragement. So along with goal statements you need to think through a few panning steps of commitment to reach your goal. I believe it helps to write your goal and the planning steps down as well. This helps to solidify in your mind what you want to achieve. Also if it is written down you can you can post it somewhere as a reminder to help keep your commitment level high. That is another aspect to failed resolutions they are just spoken at the party and forgotten quickly. Often they are remembered only after noticing you gained 10 pounds instead of losing the 10 pounds.

So if you have already failed your New Year’s resolution don’t worry over it. Instead take some time and write out a clear concise concrete goal to accomplish. Jot down a few action steps to be committed to in helping you reach the goal. Then post it somewhere where you will regularly notice your goal to keep it in remembrance.

Reflection: What do you want to accomplish in your life in 2014 to keep Living More Than OK? Write down a goal for the year along with relevant action steps. Then place it where it will be noticed as a reminder.

Connecting Persistence With Goals

Persistence – As long as we are persistent in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day and the time we fully bloom. It will happen in its own time. –Dennis Waitley--

Goals – What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. – Henry David Thoreau –

For the past couple of years with the blog I have been writing I have had a long term goal of turning the blog into a book on Living More Than OK. I am a big believer in the importance of having short term and long term goals to accomplish more in life. The accomplishments vary from person to person depending on their dreams. Of course just having a goal written down in a journal or on a poster does not make it come to pass. There is another key ingredient needed to make the goals come to life or blossom.

Persistence is that other ingredient. According to Merriam Webster persistence is “the quality that allows someone to continue doing something or trying to do something even though it is difficult or opposed by other people.” Trying to accomplish a goal in life is difficult and there often numerous obstacles trying to stop us. The obstacles can be people or things. Persistence is that internal drive that keeps us plodding towards the finish line of our goals. This internal driver helps us to not give up when the mountain feels too high to climb.

My long term goal of the book had come down recently to a short term goal. I couple of quarters of my PhD in General Psychology ago I thought I could have it done but life got in the way. As I neared the end of my Summer quarter I made a short term goal to have my final editing done of the book project during the 3 week break before my Fall classes. Pesky obstacles still cropped up but this time I finished my final edit before the Fall quarter classes began. Now I am at the point of contacting a self-publishing company to get the final product finished.

Thinking of the two words Goals and Persistence we can learn from the two quotes listed above. The Thoreau statement on goals challenges me as I have always focused on achieving through goals. In his statement Thoreau makes me think of character and values that are enhanced through accomplished through goals. For example in the goal of my book for focus should be what I have learned through the process instead of gain from the profit of the book. Writing especially is a risk you don’t know with self-publishing if you will recoup the costs expended. The important issue should be getting thoughts and ideas out that may help someone in their search for truth or personal self-development improve in their life journey.

In the Dennis Waitley quote on persistence the key word for me is grow. Persistence helps us to keep up with the hard work even during difficulty to keep spiraling up into higher levels of personal growth. If we stop growing we stagnate then whither and shrivel up instead of blossoming. God in his timing causes us to blossom in the goals He has placed in our minds. Think of a flower bud such as a rose. A person can’t force the bud to open into a flower without tearing it up or deforming it. Our goals need hard work and the patience of persistence to allow them to come to fruition.

Reflection:
What goals are you working on in your life? How do you see your personal persistence driving you internally to finish your goals? In your past have there been times of difficulties that with persistence you overcame?

Improving Our Lives with Brain Power

Our amazing brain that we have is an important resource we need to consider in building the Living More Than OK Life. In the past year I have noticed a number of books about the Brain in bookstores. One is The Winner’s Brain by Dr. Jeff Brown and Dr. Mark Fenske with Liz Neporent. Jeff Brown is a cognitive behavioral psychologist and Mark Fenske is a neuroscientist . Liz Neproant is a author that helped with the writing of the book. This book gives a brief simple to understand review of our amazing brain and then goes into how we can best use it’s power for our success in life.

They wrote the book from the positive psychology standpoint of looking at successful winners in life and seeing what works instead of looking at problems of what doesn’t work and trying to find solutions. They pinpoint 5 psychological tools the brain uses to help us win in life if we make use of them. Then these tools are applied to 8 factors that can aid in guiding our lives to the success we want for our life journey.

I just want to go over the 5 tools mentioned so you can reflect over them in your journey. The first tool they call Opportunity Radar. Now we don’t have antennae on our heads but we can be in tune with what life sends our way, as Dr. John Krumboltz terms it-- Happenstance events. How do we respond? If the radar is not working we just ignore them or complain about them unless it is a good luck type thing that comes our way. But winners intuitively look for the kernel of good in happenstance events for their benefit. For example the book uses an example I have used with students when I discuss creative thinking. George de Mestral a Swiss engineer, was out in the woods one day with his dog. The dog wound up with thistle burrs in its furr that de Mestral had to comb out. What would be a nuisance to anyone of us opened de Mestral’s mind to the idea which turned out to be Velcro. What could each of us find in our happenstance events to improve lives of our families and others if we kept our radar on?

Tool number two they call the Optimal Risk Gauge. Winners take risks but not foolish risks. To live a life without regrets and live more than ok we need to be willing to try to move beyond the comfort zone. At the same time the gauge helps us to look at potential consequences if the risk produces failure. I am not a great risk taker I become anxious just thinking about it. Starting this blog was a risk in trying to find time each week to have something new written and wonder if my thoughts and ideas were worth the effort. I have had a few people say they appreciated what I wrote so it has paid off.

Where I am not too much into risk taking, the third tool I am a big believer in. That is what the authors call the Goal Laser. This is the ability to focus in on goals that we set for ourselves and follow through to attain them. Goals give us a sense of direction to guide our purposes. With no goals we are aimless and just drifting. Now not every goal is achieved or should be. Dr. Krumbolts’s work on Happenstance and Dr. Bright’s work on chaos theory show that life events can come along and interfere with our goal plans. Based on our use of our opportunity radar,(tool # 1) we can change our direction to our goal or we may shift to a newer goal that will be better for us.

The fourth tool is the Effort Accelerator. This is the internal gas of motivation and discipline that keeps us moving towards what we want. I may have a goal but if I put no effort towards getting it I won’t get it. There is an anecdotal story of a woman who spoke with the famous violinist Isaac Stern after hearing him in concert. With an emotional outburst she said, “ Oh Mr. Stern, I’d give my life to be able to play the way you do.” To this statement the great violinist replied, “Madam, I have!” To be great in whatever area you wish to be you need to put disciplined work to the goal.

The fifth tool is the Talent meter. This is our brain’s thought processes on what we are good at and also what we are not good at. We all have talent, some in music, sports, some are good encouragers, others are good listeners. Using this tool of the brain is taking time to look at your strengths and tap into your talent and strengths and build on them. Then with the talent uncovered the effort accelerator can help in building up the talent even more so. It is also pointed out the talent maker tool can help us see our weaknesses as well. By knowing our weaknesses we know what we need to improve on in our lives.

This is a synopsis of the 5 tools mentioned and then the authors move into 8 factor strategies that the tools can be applied in for our personal success. The book is very practical with Prime the Brain exercises throughout to put into practice their ideas.

Reflection:
What are your top talents? What are your weak areas to grow in? Which of the 5 tools do you use more often? Which tool do you need to increase the use of?

Living More than Ok with Flow

In considering overcoming the boredom in life which is part of Living More than OK, we can move to more than OK by becoming aware of Flow moments and activities in our lives. Writings and research such as Finding Flow and Beyond Boredom and Anxiety; fully describe the Flow process and importance of it by the author, Dr. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, a professor of Positive Psychology and Creativity now at Claremont Graduate University. http://www.brainchannels.com/thinker/mihaly.html

Flow is that experience where you are totally absorbed in what you are doing? It occurs most often when we are doing things we enjoy. One definition of it is , “The state of complete absorption and interest in a task occurring when ability/skill and challenge are high” (LeFevre & Csikszenmihalyi”). Have you ever been involved in a favorite activity and it felt like time stopped and you were able to accomplish more than you imagined you could? You were in a Flow state. Much of Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s research initially was on sports and musicians -- studying their flow states as Flow in seen easily in these activities.

One may think if Flow just happens why study it? I appreciated in Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s books how in his research of the issue his main concern is for people to live living happier and more complete lives. People living more fulfilling lives and moving beyond the mundaneness of boredom is one main reason I started this blog. If being aware of Flow helps people live more fulfilled then a thought that comes to my mind is how can we increase the amount of time we are experiencing flow? Of course we can’t live in complete absorption all of the time. Dr Csikszenmihalyi points out that we can’t be in flow all of the time. If we were we would be like a world of Energizer Bunnies or Flow itself would become boring.
Flow is often found in the activities you really enjoy doing. Next time you are doing your favorite activity, photography, writing, fishing, quilting, or gardening see afterwards if you felt re-energized by the activity. Ask yourself is you felt like time just flew by. Did you feel a deeper sense of concentration? Most likely you were in Flow.

In the studies on Flow, there were common aspects of those who experienced flow. Here are some of the main aspects. One is having Goals. Clear specific concrete goals can help us improve in our lives and enhance our opportunities of flow experiences. The goals are guides often for the activities we enjoy doing and desire to excel in them. Again the example of sports comes to mind. Coaches and athletes often make use of goals in their practice and competition.
Concentration and focus are helpful in attaining flow. I have observed artists at their canvas and they don’t distractingly look around but are absorbed in their work on the canvas. If you watch Sport stars in gymnastics and ice skating you can see intensity in their eyes as they are mentally focusing at the task at hand. Some sports stars will mention in interviews that they are often visualizing their performance in their split seconds before the game or sports activity. We have great power given to us to focus on our tasks if we tap into that power God has given us in our minds.

Importance of having a balance of ability and challenge is another aid to flow. Dr. Mihalyi C. in his research looked at ability levels. Flow occurs when we feel challenged yet we have enough knowledge and ability to have confidence in that we can meet the challenge. If we don’t have the ability to do the activity then frustration occurs which is definitely not a flow experience. We can continue to improve as we grow in our abilities to reach higher levels of expertise on those things we enjoy doing.

Another main aspect I would like to point out is then merging our awareness and action together. With the goals and focus in place we then move into doing the activity. Here we do the activity and we simply enjoy doing it. Mental activity and physical action merge into oneness as we paint, swim, jog, write or sew. Now flow occurs and we don’t overanalyze. What stops the flow is if we start to judge ourselves –“what are others thinking of me?” “Am I doing this right?” Leave the questions for a later reflection time simply do it! For example a swimmer in a race doesn’t have the opportunity mid-race to stop and reflect on his progress. Reflection on performance has its place after the activity but to win the race the swimmer must stay in the flow of the race experience trusting his talents.
By making use of flow activities in our lives we can enjoy our daily life more. We can continue to improve and find delight is our favorite activities. Also since focus and concentration are part of the Flow experience we can build up our ability to focus better in other activities by replicating the power of focus in our flow activity. Other benefit to flow is that we are exercising our mind so our mental facilities are strengthened. As we increase our ability level our ability to reach new challenges grows. This can aid in improvement in creativity as we consider new ways to engage in our favorite activities. The more we make use of flow in life the more we have opportunities to enjoy the life journey we are on.

Reflection –
What are some of your favorite flow activities? Are you learning more about that activity to keep increasing your challenge level? What one new activity would you like to add in your life schedule?