Blog, Pitang.
Alexandre Mendonça
Flow State: How to Work and Be Happy
Career
The theory of the "Flow State", developed by Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, describes a moment when a person is fully absorbed in what they are doing and forgets everything else around them. This state can be achieved in any type of activity, from work to leisure. People who experience Flow describe it as a state of ecstasy, total absorption, and complete involvement.
What is the “Flow State”?
The "Flow State" is an operational mental state where an individual is fully immersed in what they are doing, characterized by a feeling of complete involvement and success in the process of the activity.
You know that feeling when you are doing an activity and time just flies by? It is very likely that you managed to enter the "Flow State". This is a state of happiness, a state in which you are completely integrated into what you are doing.
Upon entering this state, several sensations are experienced. We can highlight:
Loss of self-consciousness;
Distorted sense of time;
Sense of personal control over the situation;
Sensation of becoming part of the activity;
Balance between skill level and challenge level.
Focusing on the sense of balance between skill and challenge levels, we can explain it through the diagram below:
The individual must have high skill to perform an activity, and that activity must be highly challenging. With this combination, the individual is primed to enter the "Flow State".
A few aspects should be highlighted when analyzing this diagram:
1. A first aspect is the horizontal axis related to skill.
To achieve a high level of skill in a given task or activity, the individual must be trained and have opportunities to practice. Through mentored practice, an individual will be able to reach this high level of skill more quickly in a specific work practice.
2. The second aspect is the vertical axis related to the challenge level of the activity.
It is not always possible to have challenging professional activities all the time. Therefore, it is important to know how to tailor challenging activities to the individual's skill level in order to enable them to enter the "Flow State" periodically.
Seek balance between challenge and skill level
One precaution to take when trying to foster the Flow State is the balance between the challenge level of the task and the individual's skill level.
By assigning a challenging activity paired with a low skill level from the individual, instead of coming close to a state of happiness, we are contributing to an increase in anxiety, which can cause isolated setbacks for the activity and, most importantly, for the individual.
It is possible to work and be happy
The "Flow State" answers the question of how to work and be happy.
As a leader at work, the concern is to constantly provide activities that challenge each team member according to their skill level. The leader must provide training and mentorship with opportunities to apply the acquired knowledge in order to elevate the skills of each team member. Only then will we have happy and high-performing teams in the professional environment.
