ACTION TIP "Creativity + Flow"
"Creating "flow" in our life, meaning an enjoyable or optimal experience- has nine main elements.
1. There are clear goals every step of the way.
2. There is immediate feedback to one's actions. (The musician knows if his last note was on.)
3. There is a balance between challenges and skills. (Too much challenge = anxiety. Too little challenge = boredom. Find the sweet spot, where challenge = skills.)
4. Action and awareness are merged. (We're not thinking of one thing while doing another.)
5. Distractions are excluded from consciousness. (We're all in and intensely present.)
6. There is no worry of failure.
7. Self-consciousness disappears. (Sure sign you're out of flow is
when you're wondering how you're looking.)
8. The sense of time becomes distorted. (Clock time no longer marks equal lengths of experienced time.)
9. The activity becomes autotelic. (Most of the time we do things as a means to an end. In flow, the activity itself is its
own reward. Making our lives one autotelic moment after another is true mastery. )
~ By Csikszentmihalyi as presented by Brian Johnson, Optimize
