A simple method to play at the top of our game

Flow Fundamentals, updated for 2016, now includes over 25 new videos, a fully interactive app, wearables integration, automated calendar reminders and a social community!

For many of us, the biggest challenge in life is getting ahead while still enjoying the ride. Too often, life, work and responsibility weigh us down, and we lose track of what makes us come most alive. When we do go looking for more meaning, we have to wade through the hucksters, hype-sters and the plain old gullible. So we usually come back to what we’ve been doing all along, a little more jaded each time. It doesn’t seem like we’re asking for all that much—just a simple, reasonable method to play at the top of our game, to experience deep satisfaction, and not have to give up our critical perspective or common sense to get there. That doesn’t sound so far fetched, does it?

Why does “Flow” even matter?

• You are finding it increasingly hard to shut off your relentless Inner Critic
• You spend most of your time not in the present, but “elsewhere”— daydreaming or worrying about the past or the future
• You routinely run out of willpower and have a list of personal dreams and goals that never get any closer to reality
• You’ve looked into some spiritual or personal growth programs but felt like an outsider or a total cynic—unwilling to “drink the kool-aid”
• You find yourself looking back on an earlier phase in your life where you did experience Flow, and have been quietly resigning yourself to never seeing “the good old days” again
• You self medicate or distract in ways that leave you feeling even less satisfied than before (think: social media, Netflix binges, shopping, porn, video games, substances)
• You occasionally ask yourself “is this really all there is?” and suspect the answer might just be, yes
• It’s been way too long since you’ve hooted and hollered just from the sheer joy of doing something you love

Flow Fundamentals can help.

It’s like a “Zero to Hero” training program, but for your whole life. It’s practical, experimental and experiential. You learn a new idea about training Flow, you apply it in your life, you see what happens, and you make it your own.

I’ve found that the most common enemies to accessing Flow on demand are:

• Quitting when you’re right on the verge of breaking through to a new level
• Struggling inefficiently, and making whatever problem you’re facing worse
• Not having proven methods to relax, redirect and solve challenges when your initial approach doesn’t work
• Nagging inner monologue that constantly undermines your efforts, and when you do actually get into the Zone, knocks you right out of it
• Pushing from one challenge to the next without allowing yourself to truly recharge
• Telling yourself that you’ll “take a break” after the next goal or project, but you never do, until you get sick or injured
• Trouble getting to sleep right away, or waking up earlier than you’d planned because your mind is racing
• Feeling like you don’t have enough time or energy to do what you have to, let alone what you want to

And, did you know…

• Flow can be experienced by anyone, regardless of age, background or skillsets—from Japanese grandmothers, to Yosemite rock climbers, to Korean motorcycle gang members, to your friend on Etsy
• We spend over $4 trillion dollars on the Altered States Economy—buying products, chemicals and experiences that give us a brief moment outside ourselves. Flow does it naturally
• The people who report having the most Flow in their lives also report having the highest overall life satisfaction of any population on the planet
• When you are in Flow, your performance, creativity and problem solving spike by as much as 400%
• Flow releases five of the most potent neurochemicals for motivation, learning and well-being—norepinephrine, dopamine, endorphins, anandamide and oxytocin
• Learning new skills while in Flow cuts the path to mastery in half

Unfortunately, most of our schooling, workplaces and social lives seem expressly designed to wring the Flow right out of us. From open office plans, to constant digital distractions to over scheduled family calendars, we’re constantly getting dragged away from the effortless focus and deep satisfaction of being lost in the moment. It’s crazy to think we stand a chance of performing at our best while taking our lead from people who will never get there. It’s time to get beyond Self Help and New Year’s Resolutions and unlock the source code to your intrinsic motivation…