#9 In Flow
The concept of being in flow was first written about a few thousand years ago in the i-Ching. We can use the Taoist model of the eight combinations of yin and yang to find our own flow.
Flow is a really interesting subject. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Ukrainian psychologist, wrote the famous book, Finding Flow, which helps us reclaim ownership of our lives. For most of us though, what is flow? You will have heard the expression, “time flies…”, you’ll have had times when you’re so immersed in something you’ve got no idea what the time is or you’ll be in situations where things are just effortless. These are all really moments when you’re in that flow state. Now obviously if you don’t know what your flow is, the question then becomes, “well, how do I find it?
To do that you have to go back a few thousand years! In the Chinese book, I Ching, it talks about the eight combinations of Yin and Yang. Today there’s a tool you can use called Talent Dynamics which is based on those eight combinations. It’s an easy to use profiling tool that you can buy online for $99, and it tells you where your flow is likely to be. It tells you which one of eight personality types you are, and when you’re most likely to be in your flow.
That’s really valuable information that helps you answer a few self-reflecting questions: I like doing this but am I kidding myself? Is that where my natural talents lie? Is this what I find easy to do compared to everything else?
The assessment gives you something that’s directionally accurate and that helps you to mould your life around being in flow. There’s no point setting yourself up to do something which you personally find difficult, challenging or frustrating because all you’ll end up being is tired and disappointed.
Far better to tune your life towards what you’re good at. Remember in the time series we talked about the skill fun matrix. So do what you enjoy and find easy, and delegate the rest to people who find those tasks fun and easy. If you don’t like financial tasks, guess what? Bookkeepers do. So delegate to a bookkeeper. It’s very important that you design your life around being in flow because that’s likely to be what brings you the most success.
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