The Flow Zone to End Confusing Overwhelm and Find the Right Way Forward
There’s a certain peace, ease, savvy, and energy in the flow state — the in-the-zone state. It’s good, little resistance, and lots of joy in our work.
Critical thinking is great for ideas, options, and possibilities. But it can lead to TMI, confusion, and worry about doing the right thing.
It becomes a form of fight-or-flight. There’s a feeling of icky resistance, of forcing, which is hard to sustain in the long term.
It’s like the slave and master story — they both grow tired of each other.
It can be an internal battle to enslave yourself, telling yourself what to do, what should be done, and beating yourself up for not doing it. Etc, etc, etc.
But thinking with a check in the body, perhaps voicing aloud your thoughts, talking to others, or meditating to a more positive state (lots of down seems to help too) brings you to a more magical source of wisdom.
So, the move is seemingly to couple thinking with feeling, like exciting (and meaningful, so there’s a worthy depth that energizes you) end goals.
Add a reality check on pains in your current point A, and finding options that feel good to move you forward — this is a better way forward.
Integrate some trusted, fun folks to make it a game, an adventure, a journey — and perhaps a tweak or two in your environment to support your work — THIS looks to be the way.
It looks like this …
It’s a lot better than just ruminating.
Getting into the flow zone, is partly why I’ve made the DIY Support Program. It’s two-fold:
- Pulls you out of your head into bigger wisdom.
- Brings me more joy because it brings out more of my talents.
It never fails — every time I work with a client for 6 months, the initial plan, while good, always uncovers GEMS OF IDEAS that appear out of the ether. Better moves forward faster and funner — and if the intent is to reach clients and increase income, then those results improve.
Probably because the best ways forward emerge from the flow zone.
And that’s why coaching is so great — you help your clients with the coaching approach to find their best moves forward.
If I can help coaches solve tech issues faster, write better content, and courage up to get out there more, then up the mountain they go to their first goal — proving they can do it with say 10 ongoing paying clients.
I definitely agree that giving yourself permission to be creative and not a slave to a tick list is helpful, as is having space to consider “What do I WANT to do today?” I often have an idea of what tomorrow brings – a range of tasks that need completing – but when the morning comes, I go with what energizes me that day. I might have planned to work on my website and found instead that I was in the mood to do spreadsheets; or planned to write blogs and felt more in the mood to do follow-up connections with people. If you structure your day around what motivates you, then flow 100% happens! It happens organically because giving yourself permission and space to literally “go with the flow” is what creates the flow – and hte jobs get done at a better quality because the focus and motivation is there at the time of being done.
Hey Will, thanks for chiming in! Sweet!
That word “WANT” … that’s big deal.
I think I’m guilty of “what SHOULD I do today?”
How do we mix in stuff we don’t want to do?
I’m thinking of a say single parent, kids to feed, money is tough, gotta go to work.
They probably don’t WANT to go to work.
There resistance there — can’t just say want.
What do we do with this?
I agree that “the best way forward emerges from the flow zone”. That is where great ideas, the fun and progress comes. It’s basically about shutting off the analytical mind for a bit and letting our soul voice come through. I would add that we only have so much energy to expend and we want to use it wisely so we don’t fizzle out. That’s where accepting support comes in to optimize effort. It’s true website needs evolve as we and our businesses evolve. Your DIY support sounds interesting!
I’ve been playing with the critical mind being a part of the “bigger being.”
The critical mind, the logician, the pattern recognizer (not the hater version heh), is VERY useful for things like math, coding, and finding ways to solve problems (ways, not necessarily the best or right answers like happens in math).
Any sense of that? Where the critical mind is “on the team” and not the tyrant? 😀
Interesting how noticing & listening to the feelings in the body provide insight on which thoughts or directions should be followed. The combination of an introspective activity like yoga, journaling or solo walking in nature and a discussion with a trusted supporter does seem to be a winning combo for me. The order of these activities doesn’t seem to matter, but the gems do become more obvious when combined. Love your DIY idea!
This “way” versus the “non-way” is out of this world.
And chatgpt helps speed up “in the zone” work.
Unfortunately, it can also slow you down when “out of the zone.”