The flow zone

My Grandma, may she rest in peace, loved the New York Times crossword puzzles. It’s a vivid memory etched in my mind; her early morning routine of sipping coffee while deep in thought, attempting to solve the day’s challenge.

As a teenager traveling to the mountains, we always took along several 1,000 piece puzzles, which we were constantly trying to assemble. Often I would find myself totally immersed in these puzzles for hours at a time. It was as if I was in a different world

No matter what task you are striving to achieve, the most effective technique and tool is to get into the “flow zone”; the state of mind in which you are oblivious to your surroundings. A consciousness in which you are fixed on defeating any challenge that stands between you and your goal.

Learning how to tap into your flow zone in real time and on demand, is the basis and one of the surest ways of reaching the top of your desired objectives.

So how can we consciously enter that zone?

The curious aspect of my Grandma and me was that although we weren’t being paid for our ‘work’, we effortlessly slid into the flow zone. We were at ‘play’ and single minded in our individual mission. The fun we were having was satisfying a basic human need, and therefore we relished in it.

Humans are wired to strive, create and build. It’s a human necessity and it’s an insatiable internal drive.

Since you are fulfilling that drive when you are at play, you are easily able to tap into your flow zone on a pretty consistent basis. Figuring out how to turn your work into play or, alternatively, identifying that raw need that ignites your flow zone when you play, will enable you to learn how to flow into your flow zone at whim….even when you have to work

And that is only one of the many things I learnt from my Grandma.