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Editor’s Note: This a guest post from Steven Kotler, author of <\/em>The Rise of Superman.<\/a> Researchers define flow as an \u201coptimal state of consciousness,\u201d a peak state where we feel our best and perform our best. Some of us know this state by other names\u2014runner\u2019s high or being in the zone or being unconscious\u2014but whatever the lingo, the experience is unforgettable.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever lost an afternoon to a great conversation or gotten so involved in a work project that all else was forgotten, then you\u2019ve tasted this experience. Inflow, we are so focused on the task at hand that everything else falls away. Action and awareness merge. Time flies. Self vanishes. All aspects of performance go through the roof.<\/p>\n We call this experience flow<\/i> because that is the sensation conferred. Inflow, every action, each decision, leads effortlessly, fluidly, seamlessly to the next. It\u2019s high-speed problem solving; it\u2019s being swept away by the river of ultimate performance.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout the flow state,\u201d explains skateboarding legend Danny Way, \u201cwithout that enhanced focus, there would be no stepping up my game\u2014that state is the foundation of stepping up the game.\u201d<\/p>\n 150 years of research backs up such claims. A 10-year McKinsey study, for example, found top executives are 5 times\u2014i.e. 500 percent\u2014more productive inflow. In studies run by the U.S. military, snipers in flow learned between 200-500 percent faster than normal. Creativity gets a 7x boost. And this list goes on.<\/p>\n Yet there\u2019s a rub. The flow might be the most desirable state on earth, but it\u2019s also the most elusive. While seekers have spent centuries trying, no one has found a reliable way to reproduce the experience, let alone with enough consistency to radically accelerate performance. The one group of people for whom this is not the case is with action and adventure sports athletes.<\/p>\n In fact, so good have these athletes become at harnessing flow that, over the course of the past 25 years, they have utilized the state to push the limits of the possible faster and farther than ever before in history. In this evolutionary eye-blink, in sports like surfing, skiing, skateboarding, rock climbing, mountain biking, etc., athletes have achieved staggering, near-exponential growth in ultimate human performance\u2014when life or limb is on the line. Surfers are riding 100-foot waves, snowboarders are doing aerials that weren’t thought possible, and rock climbers are soloing cliffs with no ropes that no human should be able to do.<\/p>\n Nothing like this has ever happened before. So the question is, why is it happening now?<\/p>\n The answer is actually quite simple. In all other activities flow is a luxury, but at the upper edges of action\/adventure sports, a fundamental necessity. The state is the only reason these athletes are surviving the big mountains, big waves, and big rivers. When you\u2019re pushing the limits of ultimate human performance, the choice is stark: it\u2019s a flow or dies.<\/p>\n Alongside the other researchers at the Flow Research Collective<\/a>, I have spent the past 15 years working with these action and adventure sports athletes to figure out what they’re doing to harness flow so successfully and how to apply this information in all domains in society.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m going to cover in this post<\/p>\n Flow states have triggers\u2014i.e., pre-conditions that lead to more flow. There are 15 in total and they fall into four categories–psychological, environmental, social, and creative. We\u2019ll go into greater detail below, but there are two things to know right off the bat.<\/p>\n First, flow follows focus<\/a>. It is a state of total absorption. Thus, all 15 of these flow triggers are ways of heightening and tightening attention.<\/p>\n Second, the reason today\u2019s action and adventure sports athletes are getting into the flow so successfully is that they\u2019ve built their lives around the state. They\u2019ve packed their lives with all 15 of these triggers.<\/p>\n Environmental triggers\u2014a.k.a. \u201cexternal triggers\u201d are qualities in the environment that drive people deeper into the zone.<\/p>\n High consequences <\/b>are the first trigger. When there\u2019s danger lurking in the environment, we don\u2019t need to concentrate extra hard to drive focus, the elevated risk levels do the job for us. Since survival is fundamental to any organism, our brain\u2019s first priority is to scour all incoming information for any sign of a threat and focus intently upon it.<\/p>\n To hack the \u201chigh consequence\u201d flow trigger, remember that risk is always relative. While some danger must be courted for flow, confrontations with mortality are not required. In fact, even physical risk itself is optional. Take intellectual risks, social risks, creative risks, emotional risks. A shy man need only cross the room to say hello to an attractive woman to trigger this rush. In casual conversation, merely telling someone the truth can serve the same purpose. \u201cTo reach flow,\u201d explains Harvard psychiatrist Ned Hallowell, \u201cone must be willing to take risks. The lover must lay bare his soul and risk rejection and humiliation to enter this state. The athlete must be willing to risk physical harm, even loss of life, to enter this state. The artist must be willing to be scorned and despised by critics and the public and still push on. And the average person\u2014you and me\u2014must be willing to fail, look foolish, and fall flat on our faces should we wish to enter this state.\u201d<\/p>\n A rich environment<\/b>, the next environmental trigger, <\/i><\/b>is a combination platter of novelty, unpredictability, and complexity\u2014three elements that catch and hold our attention much like risk. Novelty means both danger and opportunity. To our forbearers, a strange scent in the wind could be prey or predator, but either way, it paid to pay attention. Unpredictability means we don\u2019t know what happens next, thus we pay extra attention to what happens next. Complexity, when there\u2019s lots of salient information coming at us at once, does more of the same.<\/p>\n Action and adventure athletes taste these experiences so often because nature is jam-packed with novelty, unpredictability, and complexity. Rivers are living entities. Same with the mountains and the waves. In places where anything can happen, a wandering mind is a dangerous mind, thus rich environments automatically tighten the focus and drive flow.<\/p>\n And for those of us who want to take advantage of this fact, yet have no interest in action and adventure sports? Simple: Seek out complexity, especially in nature. Go stare at the night sky. Walk in the woods. If you can\u2019t find big nature, contemplate the small. The reason there are so many clich\u00e9s about universes inside of dew drops is that there are universes inside of dew drops. No dew to contemplate? Use technology to induce awe: surf your city with Google Earth or go see an IMAX movie.<\/p>\n Deep embodiment <\/b>is a kind of total physical awareness. Fifty percent of our nerve endings reside in our hands, feet, and face. We have five major senses. We also have proprioception to detect our body\u2019s position in space, and vestibular awareness to help us maintain our balance.<\/p>\n \u201cAction and adventure sports demand deep embodiment,\u201d says professional kayaker Doug Ammons. \u201cEspecially kayaking. Big rivers accelerate you in every direction at once. This puts the vestibular system into overdrive. This isn\u2019t just your mind paying more attention\u2014suddenly your entire body is paying attention. When this happens, it\u2019s outside our conscious capabilities. There are no words\u2026 You are literally part of the flow of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\nA Brief Introduction To Flow Hacking<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
Environmental Triggers<\/b><\/h3>\n