I am a great fan of the concept of flow or being in the zone..
Developed originally by the late Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
The idea being that when we are at our best we enter a state of flow.
This is when ‘the person is fully immersed in what they are doing, characterised by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment and skill’.
Csikszentmihályi characterized nine component states of achieving flow:
- challenge-skill balance
- merging of action and awareness
- clarity of goals
- immediate and unambiguous feedback
- concentration on the task at hand
- paradox of control
- transformation of time
- loss of self-consciousness
This is indeed a magical state that can lead to great creativity.
But how can you access this at work for example when you are under time pressure, information is flowing in and change is all around you?
Do we need a faster, easier and simpler way to access your flow?
And your team’s flow?
Perhaps we need to redefine flow at work as Mini Flow?
A fast, easy way to access our amazing flow – on demand!
Here is my suggestion.
Let’s turn to sports for an insight.
Imagine you are playing tennis and you are losing 5–2 in the final set.
You think, hey, I’ve got nothing to lose.
I am going for it.
Almost instantly you begin to swing more freely.
You hit through the ball and trust your instincts.
You may not win but suddenly you are playing your best tennis.
It’s not because your skills suddenly improved.
The difference was psychological.
You had given yourself permission.
Permission to try something new, to risk failure and this removes much of your self-imposed pressure.
This freedom released a moment of higher performance.
A kind of mini-flow.
The 2 Minute Permission for yourself and Others
But we don’t have to wait for a situation where we have nothing to lose to access our flow.
Instead give yourself (and others).
A 2 minute permission.
Imagine saying to yourself:
“For the next two minutes I’m allowed to experiment.”
Or…
“For the next two minutes there are no wrong ideas.”
Or…
“For the next two minutes I’m going to stop trying to be right.”
Or…
“For the next two minutes I’m simply going to explore.”
Notice how different that feels.
Your brain doesn’t hear a lifelong commitment.
It hears a temporary invitation.
That makes it much easier to take the first step.
Why two minutes matters
Switch Thinking is built around 2 minute changes in thinking.
For many participants in my workshops, 2 minutes feels safe.
It isn’t overwhelming.
It doesn’t demand perfection.
It doesn’t require a major life change.
It’s simply a small psychological window.
And in those 2 minutes I have noticed:
People relax.
They smile and are more willing to explore and experiment.
Their thinking opens up.
The challenge, problem or situation is still there but they are not overwhelmed by it.
They notice possibilities they couldn’t see before.
They become curious instead of defensive.
The pressure reduces.
Ironically, many people continue well beyond the two minutes because once they begin, momentum takes over.
The 2 minute permission becomes the catalyst.
It might be the missing ingredient you need to bring out the best in yourself?
Giving yourself permission is such a simple and practical idea that you can use at work, home and everywhere in between.
It might just be a new way into flow.
For 2 minutes you are giving yourself permission to look, feel and act differently.
Permission to try something that might not work.
And it only takes 2 minutes.
Because I have found that 2 minutes is often enough to interrupt an old pattern, discover a new perspective or uncover a solution you couldn’t previously see.
And perhaps that’s the real insight.
The fastest way to access your flow (i.e. to be at your best) is ironically giving yourself permission to do so.
In the next 2 minutes.