Flow as Your Compass

A compass is different from a map. A compass provides an orientation. Flow can be a compass for you as you find your way in life.

Flow is a term popularized by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. For decades, Csikszentmihalyi has researched happiness and engagement. Asking people about their happiest moments, he frequently heard them use the term, "I was just in the flow." It is when we are fully engaged in life - whether it is in conversation or rock climbing, surgery or problem-solving - that we feel the happiest. A couple of the characteristics of flow are losing track of time and becoming unselfconscious.

One other characteristic of flow is a balance between challenge and skill. If your skill is great but the task you're doing is not particularly challenging, you feel bored or, at best, in control. If your skill is poor but the task you are doing is challenging, you feel stressed or anxious. But when your challenge and your skill level are both high, you experience flow. Your skill is sufficient for the task, but it requires your full engagement to do it.

In this way, flow can work like a compass. When you begin to feel too much in control or bored, you need a new challenge. When you begin to feel anxious or stressed, you need a new skill, or need to develop your skill more fully. The absence of flow can point you in the direction you should be going. I would argue that if one subordinates career development to long-term attainment of flow, one's career will ultimately do well. Finding flow means following a path of development.

If you accept a job that soon bores you, you'll probably find yourself facing one of two things. You may find your wages stagnating or you may find your employer eventually unable to afford you. If you don't develop skills needed to overcome stress in a job, you'll probably soon find yourself fired or demoted.

There is a temptation to stay in a job that lets you feel in control. This is particularly tempting for people who already feel overwhelmed by life and don't particularly want a big challenge at work. Women in poor relationships or burdened with extra work at home may well opt for jobs that let them feel in control rather than jobs that require their full engagement, for instance.

It is often easier to find flow than to find a "direction." Flow can be a compass for people willing to struggle to stay engaged in life and work. Insisting on the experience of flow does not just mean that you'll experience more happiness and satisfaction in life. It means that you'll be compelled to develop your potential.