You might wonder what this question is about. First, we’ll explain that “flow” is a concept set forth by a psychologist and author, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Yes, that’s a correct spelling. Years ago, we were fortunate to interview him on a group call. We learned his name is pronounced like this – cheek, sent, me, high. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2021. An important lasting contribution of his to the world has been his book, Flow, and his lectures on this subject.

Csikszentmihalyi describes flow this way, “Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one.” It’s a time “when you are doing what you really like to do,” in an effortless, ecstatic state. Some people enter an alternative reality where “existence is temporarily suspended.” That state of extreme attention can be very good when applied to many projects. Maybe a person is writing a book, creating a musical score, or thoroughly engrossed in some part of their work life that’s enjoyable and productive.

However, there’s an interesting aspect of flow. Productivity can be accelerated while other necessary responsibilities can be ignored. Notice how that can be a ‘two-edged sword’. We got in touch with that dichotomy of flow recently. Here’s what happened to make us ask ourselves the question, ‘Was our flow in the right direction?’

We came across an app in the App Store. It’s called Revive. Basically, what it allows you to do is to take any picture and put music or lip sync to it. It’s very interesting in that you can make it look like one person, a group, or even an animal has ‘come alive’ and singing. We were ‘hooked’! We gained more understanding about how people can easily get engrossed in, or even addicted to, video games.

Now we’ll have to answer was our flow in the right direction. Flow in the right direction means there was some positive result from it. Flow in the wrong direction means it was a waste of time and energy. Guess what we decided.

Here’s our analysis. Our activity while playing with Revive resulted in learning how to be more creative. We also were able to send some of our final ‘productions’ out to other people and they really enjoyed them. We had social interaction and great laughs together. We also felt very relaxed and had fun. All this is positive. Here comes the other side of the experience.

What happened to time? We lost track of it! It was at the end of a very busy week. We just kept playing on. Just as Csikszentmihalyi said, we went into an alternative reality. The housecleaning and other chores we had planned to get done were still there waiting for us. Fortunately, with our example of submitting to flow, there didn’t seem to be any really bad consequences. So, we’re going to give ourselves an okay for now and say we did flow in the right direction.

If needed, what can help change the direction of flow? Here are some ways to manage your flow direction. First, take time to assess the direction of the flow. If you think you might get caught up in negative flow, set an alarm clock to manage the amount of time you spend there so you won’t regret it.

If negative flow has kept you from doing an activity, guess what? It’s a good idea to jump into an activity that you recognize will bring positive benefits to your life. This may mean even tackling something that you were procrastinating about and avoiding. Brian Tracy wrote a book called, Eat That Frog!. This means ‘do the worst first’. When you do this, you will lower anxiety levels and feel more in control. Then, when you flow in a direction, it won’t be because you are worrying and trying to avoid something you need to handle in your life. It will be because you have planned to flow in a positive direction.

What about you? If you find your flow is in the wrong direction, we hope our suggestions will be helpful to get your flow to be a positive experience. If flow ever gets to be negative, such as in a gaming addiction, we suggest getting professional help. When you can achieve flow in the right direction, it can be positive and bring even more happiness and productivity in your life.

Chanhassen MN residents, Doug and Lynn Nodland are success coaches and owners of The Balance Center in Excelsior. Contact them at WeCare@TheBalanceCenter.com

© Doug and Lynn Nodland 2023 Articles and videos may be shared in their entirety with attribution.