Flow follows focus - Make The Shift
Do you want to improve your flow and sense of ease? Of course! Don't we all? But how can you actually do it when we're surrounded by noise, distractions and click bait? Yep it's difficult, but not impossible.
You may have heard coaches, experts and motivational speakers telling you to "focus more", "eliminate distractions", "just do it" "100 per cent commitment" rah rah rah. All sounds reasonable, but what if you are a multi-passionate person who likes undertaking a variety of projects at once and has a tendency to have over 50 tabs open in their browser at one time? What then? Is the magical 'flow' out of your reach forever?
It's all well and good to say "I should focus more" but focus on what exactly? In this crazy fast world where attention and time are the currencies we most value, how do you know what to spend your valuable time and energy on?
Most of us, myself included, are still a work in progress, but from working with dozens of clients in my 10 degree shift programs here's the key areas I've found has helped most people decrease friction and increase flow.
1. Minimalise - Choose One Thing
Yep sounds simple and it is simple in theory, but harder to do in action. You have to first be willing to minimalise your load in order to increase flow and that means making choices about what to keep and what to drop. I was teaching a university lecture this week and one of the students came up to me in the corridor at the end about their pitch assignment and said "I'm torn, I don't know if I should do product A for my pitch or product B."
"Which one satisfies a bigger audience need?" I asked.
"B" she replied.
"Then there's your answer. Create your pitch about it. It actually doesn't really too much which one you pick. What matters is just that you minimalise your options and go with one," I responded.
It's like the old adage of advertising - "a confused mind says no!" While ever the student couldn't decide she felt stuck and continued to waste energy and procrastinate. I know because I've done it myself too many times to count.
Making a call and deciding what to focus on can be hard because we often focus on what we feel we may be missing out on in choosing. However nothing could be farther from the truth as each decision leads you to another choice and another and another and pretty soon you find yourself achieving some momentum and flow - hooray!
Nobody knew that better than Steve Jobs, who said: “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are."
2 - Mindset - Shift Your Focus
The second thing you can do to achieve more focus and therefore more flow is to shift your focus from being goal and outcome oriented to concentrating on the process of becoming or achieving something.
For example we tend to focus on the goal such as:
When I lose 10 kilos then I'll be more confident and happy."
“If I could just earn $10,000 a year more, I'd be so much better off.”
Instead just commit to making one small shift each day, instil a 10 degree shift daily practice to become the change you want to see.
If you want to be in the get fit and feel alive then losing 10 kilos may be part of the goal. But you won't make it happen unless you get excited about and start the daily practice of eating more of the right things and moving your body more. So your 10 degree shift may be to eat one piece of fruit a day or walk around the office after every bathroom break.
If you want to publish a book, then of course you need a great concept and story to tell. But having an awesome topic and headline won't get you there if you don't apply the daily discipline practice of writing 2000 words a day. Focus on the tiny steps that will get you there.
If you want to become a better public speaker, then you have to get good at giving it a lot a trial runs. Create as many opportunities as you can to get in front of an audience - in meetings, at staff gatherings, family functions, local business chambers, anywhere you can find an audience of 2 or more - just speak. Do the work, show up, speak up and practice flexing your presentation muscle.
3 - Mastery - Do what works
Mastery is about focusing on long term gains not short term wins. Learning what makes you tick, what get's you in a state of flow, what comes naturally and what works are fundamental to helping focus on sharpening your saw for the future.
“To become a master at any skill, it takes the total effort of your: heart, mind, and soul working together in tandem.” Maurice Young.
The purpose of setting goals is to win the game today. The purpose of mastery is to continue playing the game and enjoy it now and into the future. It's a continuous improvement loop and one worth investing in if you want any longevity. It takes commitment but in the long run it will be worth it.
With mastery our neurons begin firing together and therefore wiring together creating stronger and stronger neural pathways and allowing us to move into automatic responses and achieving a state of flow.
Flow follows focus. When all of our attention is focused in the right here, right now in the present moment we are likely to experience more flow. It's not rocket science, in fact achieving flow can come from quite boring, obvious and underwhelming habits and rituals that once applied and leveraged can move you in the direction of peak performance.
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R
Alexandria Joy's (AJ) mission is to empower people to create more meaningful, joyful lives that bring a deeper connection with themselves, others and our planet. She wants to shift the way we think about and deal with success in business and life.
As an aspiring minimalist and tiny house dweller she believes in keeping things simple and making 10 degree shifts in all aspects of life and work so you can do less and achieve more.
She is the founder of company culture firm UQ Power, co-founder of Human Power and creator of The 10* Shift and the tiny house experiment The Joy Box.
