Have you ever had an experience where life just seemed to “make sense”?
Maybe you were playing a sport? Creating art? Writing? In an amazing conversation?
Time seemed to stand still and fly by at the same time.
You were so immersed in the moment that hours flew by in what felt like seconds.
This feeling you experienced is commonly referred to as being in “flow”.
What if you could unlock this feeling on command?
There are a whole host of companies attempting to help you do so right now by introducing products called nootropics.
Nootropics are pretty awesome. They help you get into flow by simply popping a pill. I’ve taken plenty of nootropics and I know exactly why they have sky rocketed in popularity.
Note: This is not an article to promote or condemn the use of nootropics.
Though I have enjoyed my experience taking nootropics, I have always believed that anything I experience through the use of a drug should be something I can replicate naturally.
So I had to ask the question.. if I could get into flow without drugs – how would I do it?
Queue the reverse engineering.
What I know..
In the past when I’ve got into flow I had been experiencing these things.
1) I was being challenged
2) I was in the presence of someone who inspired me
3) I was enjoying and immersed in the present moment
4) I was in the presence of someone else in their zone
5) I was doing something that I had done multiple times before
6) I was experiencing some sort of success
7) I had high energy levels
8) I was confident
9) I was exerting effort either physically, mentally or emotionally
My flow is not exclusive to these experiences, but I will leave it at that for now.
So, to get back I just recreate these experiences right?
Let’s take an example of something most of us would like to get into flow doing on a daily basis. Our work.
How can you consistently get into flow while working?
My experience has been that I need to feel at least 5 of these above described experiences to get back into flow.
So now it’s just a matter of playing a game. How can you get present, boost your energy, exert some focused energy, get around people that inspire you and do something that you have some competency in.
That was just an example, but take any 5 (or 5 of your own) and find out what the right formula is for you to get in your zone. There is no universal formula of actions that gets every person in the zone, but there are a lot of similarities in people’s experiences of being in your zone and I believe that I have mentioned quite a few of them above.
So why do we want to take the time to figure out how to get into flow?
The reason is that the most successful people in the world experience the most flow. So if you can experience more flow you can experience more success and happiness in your day to day life. Steven Kotler talks in depth about this in his book The Rise of Superman.
If you figure out how to double the time you spend in flow, you should be able to double the results you see in every aspect of your life. Your flow is the gateway into achieving peak performance.
If you are curious about how good you can be then I think your biggest study should be the study of your flow zone and how to spend more time in it.
In the words of Steven Kotler author of The Rise of Superman, “The more flow you have, the more flow you have.”
In regards to the use of nootropics, I would recommend experimenting with your natural ability to get into flow first. After you believe you have hit a plateau then you can consider taking some and seeing how it effects your performance.
Remember the power is in compounding. Stack every tool you have at your disposal and you will find out how good you can really be!
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