Flow
“You are in an ecstatic
state to such a point that you feel as though you almost don’t exist,” says Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. Athletes can experience
these feelings when they perform at such a high level that they feel
invincible, when they seem to float through the competition, their bodies able
to do whatever they will them to do. It
does not happen often, and when it does, it is unforgettable. It tends to accompany a state of mind
characterized by a trance-like intense, yet seemingly effortless and enjoyable,
concentration of mental and physical effort.
It can be accompanied by a feeling of joy. Csíkszentmihályi calls it Flow.
Flow is the
mental state in which a person is immersed in feelings of energized focus, full
involvement, and success in an activity.
Studied extensively by Csíkszentmihályi, the concept has been applied to
many fields. According to
Csíkszentmihályi, Flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and
represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of
performing. In Flow the emotions are not
just contained and channeled, but they are also positive, energized, and aligned
with the task at hand. “The hallmark of
flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task
although flow is also described as a deep focus on nothing but the activity—not even oneself or one's emotions.”
The
athlete cannot force Flow. It just
happens. A Flow state will be most
likely to occur when someone is wholeheartedly performing a task or activity
for intrinsic purposes and sometimes with little regard for the benefit.
These
three conditions are necessary to achieve Flow:
1.
The athlete or performer must be involved in an activity
with a clear set of goals. Goals add
direction and structure.
2.
He or she must have a good balance between the perceived
challenges of the task at hand and his or her own perceived skills. He or she must have confidence that he or she
is capable of completing the challenge successfully.
3.
The task or challenge must have clear and immediate
feedback. Feedback helps the person
negotiate any changing demands and allows him or her to adjust his or her
performance to maintain the flow state.
from Threes,
Chapter 10, “Threes in Sports and Games”
Read
more about Flow, Zone and Joy in my new Kindle mini-e-book, Threes in Sports and Games,
that’s available now at Amazon.
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