Getting in the Zone

What’s top of mind: 

Endurance athletes, like hikers and runners, have a saying I think applies just as well to life: Not all miles are created equal. What it means is that sometimes hard things feel easy, and sometimes easy things feel hard. Sometimes we feel differently about two things that are exactly the same. What changes is usually not the thing—not the task or the distance in front of us—but of our perception of that thing. Maybe what we really need, then, is to control our perception. 

Think about it in terms of Las Vegas, a place specially designed to control our perception. With no windows, and no awareness of changing sunlight, it’s easy to pass hours inside the bowels of a casino. And whether it be at slot machines, the card tables, or the craps tables (my personal favorite), the faces of gamblers there show only one thing: focus. This intense engagement and altered sense of time are telltale signs of an experience Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “flow state.”

“Flow” is a state of peak or optimal experience where someone is completely engaged, focused, and enjoying an activity.

And Vegas isn’t the only place we can find it! Personally, most of my peak experiences (and, damn, they’ve been less frequent than I’d like) have happened when I was playing sports or teaching. But the times I have experienced flow, those were moments I felt unabashed happiness and satisfaction—I felt truly alive.

Now, as an educator, I want to create the conditions that will lead to a flow state for learners. What if we can shift our perception to make the hard subjects feel easier?

Let’s look at the components of a flow state:

1. Challenge-to-skill Balance: This means the level of the challenge has to match our skill. In sports this looks like taking on a worthy adversary. Because it’s hard to hit our peaks if we’re not being pushed. If our opponent (or the topic) is way above us, though, it could feel like we might never get to the top. This is especially important if you’re new to an instrument, sport, language, game, or anything else, because your skill level has to reach a baseline of competence before you can achieve a peak state. Don’t give up! 
2. Merging Action and Awareness: I like to think of this criterion as not thinking. It feels more like tapping into something deeper and going on autopilot. Like when a learner asks me a question in an SAP class, for example, and I can pull together information from different places to give an answer that’s so relatable it clarifies the concept for the entire audience. Instead of thinking about it, the answer comes naturally and my mouth moves almost subconsciously.  
3. Clarity of Goals with Immediate and Unambiguous Feedback: We can turn back to Vegas here. When a gambler places a bet, they want to win. And the feedback loop is very short (immediate) and unambiguous—they either win or lose their bet. If we move to the classroom, we need to have an unambiguous learning goal that we can measure without interrupting the flow. One of my favorite strategies as a student is to have questions I want answered before I show up to a lecture. As I get the answers and write them in my own words, the feedback loop is activated.
4. Concentration on the Task: AKA full engagement. In this case, we’re so focused on the task at hand, we’re not worried about what’s for dinner, who posted what on social media, or who is buzzing us on our phone. We’re immersed in the moment. Now that I think of it, my peak experiences—much like the Deep Work I’ve written about—have all been away from my phone, during sports (no pockets to hold it), on backpacking trips (no cell service), and in front of a class (on do-not-disturb mode)! 
5. Paradox of Control: This is sort of like not thinking. Because even though we feel a profound sense of control over what’s going on, being in flow is less about controlling every detail and more about “loosening our grip” so things can fall into place. In sports, it's shown up for me like a knowing of how the ball is going to bounce. Or like one of the study participants from Csikszentmihalyi’s 2004 TED talk said of writing poetry: “It’s like opening a door that’s floating in the middle of nowhere and all you have to do is go and turn the handle and open it and let yourself sink into it. You can’t particularly force yourself through it. You just have to float.”
6. Transformation of Time: This refers to the way our perception of time can feel slower, or faster, or sometimes both. For me, it feels like both when I’m playing sports. If I’m trying to hit a baseball, the speed of the pitch feels impossibly slow. But, overall, my sense of time is sped up; it feels like the experience is over in an instant. That’s why they say time flies when you’re having fun 😊
7. Loss of Self-consciousness: This is where we start to cross into the realm of spirituality. When we’re in a flow state, we can’t necessarily separate ourselves from the activity; there can’t be one without the other. And our focus is so great, we never get a chance to worry or doubt ourselves, so our actions feel spontaneous and “right.” However, there is a paradox, because as soon as we ask our self—“Am I really in flow?”—we seem to fall out of it!

What’s in it for you:

Alright, now that we know what peak experience feels like, let’s use these characteristics to stack the deck in our favor. How can we put ourselves in situations to get in flow more often and stay for longer? Not far from Vegas, there’s a term from psychedelic drug culture (of all places!) known as Set and Setting, where Set refers to the mindset of the psychedelic user and Setting refers to the environment where it will occur. I learned about this dynamic from Michael Pollan's book How to Change Your Mind. Establishing a positive Set and Setting for the user can help avoid a “bad trip.”

If you want to experience flow while learning something, your Setting is the easiest place to start. What is an environment where you can be totally free from outside distraction? Can you put your phone in another room, turn off all notifications, and focus exclusively on your topic? Can you remove any clutter that may distract you? If you really want to feel like you’re in Vegas, close the shades and put away all your clocks!

Then turn your attention to your Mindset. Make sure you’re going to be appropriately challenged by the topic you’re learning. If it’s a language, for example, be honest about how much you know already. You don’t have to start at the beginning! Next, create a quick feedback loop to measure your progress. As described above, one way to do this is by creating a list of questions and answering them in your own words during the session. Doing so will not only deepen your comprehension, it will give you immediate feedback on the progress you’re making toward your goal AND help you find your flow.

What I’m learning: 

I picked up a copy of The Orchid Thief after I saw Susan Orlean talk about obsessiveness, and now I’m inadvertently learning about all kinds of flora! The market for some of the rarest plants led to all kinds of innovation around transporting and cloning vegetation; it almost certainly influenced today’s agriculture. Who knew?!

What’s new with SAP: 

SAP customers are motivated by deadlines and the promises of generative A.I. 

A recent survey released by the American Super User Group (ASUG) shows two main reasons customers want to migrate to S/4HANA. The first is the 2027 deadline to end maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7. The second is the promise of machine learning and A.I. to help improve customer experience, automate processes, and integrate  non-SAP systems.

Go deeper: None of this data is totally surprising, but one trend that keeps showing up highlights a lack of skilled folks that will be needed to lead these transformations. The money quote suggests “28% (of polled ASUG members) said they’re struggling to find the right internal candidates to manage new projects. The specific skills highlighted as most in-demand were for S/4HANA, followed by AI, optimizing emerging technologies, and business process management.”

TL;DR: If you have S/4HANA and AI skills, it seems like you can essentially name your own rate.

What I’m reading (or listening to):

The Algebra of Wealth by Scott Galloway

Having been raised in the rust-belt of the United States, I spent most of my life operating under the assumption that hard work = monetary compensation. Full stop.

As I get older, I’m realizing that’s not always the case. Some of the hardest working people I knew growing up were absolutely not rewarded (financially, at least) for their efforts. And, in this book, Scott helps pull back the curtain on how we really create wealth. Yes, hard work is a key component, but it also requires risk-taking, relationships, understanding the rules of the game (e.g. capital gains being taxed at a lower rate than income tax in the U.S.), and, like any good gamble, a ton of luck. 

What else?

I’m truly fascinated by peak experiences. So, tell me, where do you find flow in your life? Are you able to create conditions that help you find flow more frequently? Please share in the comments! You never know who you may inspire.

Looking forward,

JV

Terezija Semenski and I talked "Learning How You Learn Best" on a LinkedIn Live this week. Watch the recording here!

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