Have you ever surprised yourself when you completed something that seemed to be just out of your reach? Only to feel like it was a fluke and that you were unable to achieve the same result again? Perhaps you were in flow and didn’t even know it.
When I reflect on my proudest physical and mental accomplishments as a young SEAL, they have a common link; flow.
Flow has gained a lot of attention in the last few years, and there is a ton of data and practitioners who aspire to help others find a way to their "flow-state." In positive psychology, a flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.
The situations where I experienced flow state were almost surreal, and at the time, I couldn't put my finger on what I did to find myself in the "zone." After several times in flow, I decided to see what was going on in the hope that I could influence my ability to get into flow more quickly.
At first glance, my takeaways were vague and difficult to understand. When I tried to recall the circumstances surrounding my performance, my memories were fleeting, like trying to remember a dream from a few nights previously. As in, you know that you had a dream, but reassembling the memory of the dream alludes you.
Three of the events happened early in my career and had to do with shooting skills. The first time I experienced flow, was the first time I attended Close Quarters Battle with my platoon. The training is intense and very high risk as we are shooting live rounds while clearing rooms with hostile targets and, at times, shooting very close to our teammates. The standard was to clear two rooms with one shooting partner with a pistol. We were to engage the "hostile" targets with two rounds to the body (center mass and within the tolerance of a playing card) and one to the head (between the nose and eyes). After my first run, the cadre called me back into the "house" to look at my shot placement. My mind raced to think about where my rounds had impacted; I was sure that I must have missed a few of my shots. To my surprise, I had "driven nails." All of my shots were on target. Each of my "double taps" was perfectly stacked one on top of the other. I was bewildered by the outcome as I didn't remember aiming, from my memory, I just pointed and pulled the trigger.
The second time, it was a pistol competition. We took one shot at a six-inch target starting from the 5-meter line and backing up 2 meters after each shot, varying our shooting position each round. I.e., standing on one foot, shooting with your weak hand, etc. until we reached the 50-meter line. At the time, I was a good pistol shot, but nowhere near as good a some of my more experienced platoon mates. Therefore, no one was more surprised than me when I won the competition. Again, I was unable to correlate what I did differently to shoot so well. All I remembered was that once we passed the 25-meter mark, I was surprised that each shot later fell inside of the 6-inch dot.
The third was a competition amongst the snipers on a teamwide sniper sustainment training. We were scoring three rounds of "head-shots on three targets at 800 meters. We rotated between stationary, moving, and snaps (the target is in view only a few seconds). Nine shots total, and I was the only one who didn't miss any. I was again mesmerized by my accomplishment and shook it off as skill-based, but in all honesty, I was unsure of how I accomplished this.
After the sniper trip, I was determined to find out what my drivers and circumstances were in an attempt to be able to get in the flow at will. Here were the commonalities of what I found.
I made an internal commitment to doing my absolute best
Used relaxation breathing techniques to lower my anxiety and heart rate. Note- I was unaware of formal methods initially, but was exposed to them in sniper school, however, I recognized that my instincts replicated them closely enough on the earlier examples above.
Keenly focused on executing the fundamentals. Drawing confidence in the techniques that our cadre taught us.
Letting go. Trusting the three steps above, I released myself from anticipating the outcome.
In each event, the people around me were more skilled, experienced, and talented.
Arguably, if you implement just one of these practices, you are sure to see a benefit to your performance. The beauty of reaching the flow state is that you will feel like you are expelling less energy but getting more substantial effects.
To put these into practice, pick your poison. It should be a task or skill that you are proficient in performing. Do some warm-up/practice drills to refamiliarize yourself with the subject again. Doing this will allow you to establish a baseline of your current performance.
Let's say, for example, that you selected typing for your first Flow State challenge. After warming up, your average word count is 60 words per minute. Studies show that 3-5% above current performance is an excellent place to start for your reach or stretch goal. Doing so, you would theoretically reach >80 words per minute after just ten iterations of Flow State exercises.
Being in the Flow State has given me great success and joy in both work and at play. An added benefit is that the more you learn to focus and concentrate, the easier it becomes to do so. In a world that is full of distractions, being able to focus is a crucial component to gaining a sense of control in a world that offers a fair share of chaos.
Even after I have improved my ability to find the flow-state, the outcomes still felt surreal. I remember winning a cycling race with no real recollection on the decisions and actions I made in the final kilometers of the race.
Once you begin to get comfortable with achieving a flow state, try introducing it to your team. Help them to set goals and accomplishments that are just out of their comfort zone, and whenever possible, pair one of your teammates who is accomplished at a given task/skill up with someone who is an expert. We find it easier to focus when our competitive drive takes over and wishes to be equals with our near-peers.
Authored By: Bob Newman, Managing Director