FLOW: Being IN the Moment

Think about when you were completely consumed by a game. That moment where awareness and the passage of time gently fades away causing the task at hand to melt into consciousness. You are alert and aware, yet relaxed and free of anxiety. You are experiencing a pleasurable, yet almost magical activation of your mind. That’s what is missing from today’s work environment: FLOW – Being IN the Moment!

“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990, p. 3)

Csikszentmihalyi found that people have a genuine satisfaction during a state of consciousness called “Flow.” In this state, people are completely absorbed in an activity, especially an activity which involves their creative abilities. During this “optimal experience” they feel “strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities.”

Happiness does not simply happen. It must be prepared for and cultivated by each person, and fostered by organizations by setting challenges that are neither too demanding nor too simple for ones’ abilities.

The main thesis of Csikszentmihalyi’s most popular book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990), is that happiness is not a fixed state but can be developed as we learn to achieve flow in our lives. The key aspect to flow is control: in the flow-like state, we exercise control over the contents of our consciousness rather than allowing ourselves to be passively determined by external forces.

A recent Gallup poll on the State of the American Workplace statistically found that 70% of American workers simply aren’t engaged in their work. Highly educated workers are the least engaged. Gallup notes that “engaged workers are more productive, more profitable, more customer focused, safer and more likely to remain with their employers. Actively disengaged employees erode an organization’s bottom line while breaking the spirits of colleagues in the process at a cost of more than three hundred billion dollars in lost productivity.” WOW!

The key is to set up conditions that cause those exact mental shifts to occur.To foster opportunities for workers to engage, to think, to be aware, to create.

So, let’s work together to…

√ Motivate and empower your people.
√ Make a statement or tell your story.
√ Educate and entertain.
√ Activate your brand.

Let us help you build your TEAM!