Ever feel like you’re pushing a boulder up a hill just to get through the working day? Do you feel utterly drained of energy by the time you clock off and beaten down by the job like you’ve just gone twelve rounds in the ring with Tyson Fury?
Compare this to how it feels when you’re ‘in flow’ – completely absorbed and energised by what you’re doing, and where just time seems to fly in this joyful state of immersion.
It’s not surprising then, that the presence of these ‘flow’ states have been proven to be one of the most important factors in whether people are happy and engaged in their work. They were also referred to by Wharton professor Adam Grant in a recent New York Times article, as one of the best ways of moving out of the sense of ‘languishing’ – that aimless feeling of stagnation that many of us feel after so long in lockdown.
What is flow and why does it matter?
When we’re ‘in flow’ we are completely focused on the task, with a meaningful sense of challenge that boosts rather than drains us of energy. If you have a job that gives you plenty of opportunities for flow, you might reach the end of the day feeling tired – but in a good way – with that sense of real accomplishment and fulfilment that comes from doing something that you’re proud of.
Positive psychologists have found that achieving flow states plays a huge part in achieving a life that feels purposeful and full of joy.
Sounds good, right? So how do you get it?
The key to finding more flow in your work is to find a job where you get to use your innate talents every day. Your core strengths are the things you do well naturally (as opposed to learned skills), and there is a close link between strengths and flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist who first came up with the notion of flow, identified that it comes when we have an equal balance of skill level and challenge. Too much challenge and not enough skill, and we can feel anxiety, while the other way around can lead to boredom:
This is why being in the wrong job can feel like such an uphill struggle. You might have trained yourself to get good at what you do, but if it isn’t fully aligned with your natural strengths, you’re unlikely to get many opportunities for flow.
What are you naturally good at?
It can be hard to see our own strengths, precisely because of the fact that they come so naturally to us, we assume everyone can do it! Here, getting other people’s feedback can be really helpful.
You might ask people in your life, especially those you’ve worked with: “what am I really great at?” or “when have you seen me thrive at work and what was I doing at the time?” or “what can I do really well that I don’t recognise in myself?” or simply “what do you see as my strengths?” It might feel awkward initially asking these kind of questions, because it can feel vulnerable to ask for feedback, but the pay-off is worth it.
Another way to identify your strengths is to look at when you have been in flow, especially in a work context. Usually, even if you’re in work that isn’t right for you, there will be certain times, however brief or insignificant to your role, where you’ve been doing something that allows you to move into a flow state.
When I first started out in my career, I was doing an admin role that was a very bad fit for me (I’m not the most organised or methodical of people!) so it was mostly pretty misery-making and the days used to feel like they went on forever. An opportunity came up to create a monthly internal newsletter though and I jumped at it, and discovered that when I was research stories and writing, the time completely melted away: probably my first professional experience of flow.
How about you? When have you been in flow and what were you doing at the time?
If you aren’t sure, you could decide to write a ‘flow diary’ – spending a couple of weeks or more really watching out for times of flow and keeping a note of what you were doing at the time.
The key then, to use this to identify strengths is to ask yourself:
What was the activity I was involved in when I experienced flow?
What specifically was I doing well and how did I do it in way that was uniquely me?
What was the impact of this on other people?
Once you’ve found your core strengths, you can start looking for ways to use them every day, creating more opportunities to get into flow states. This might be by volunteering for work that is not strictly in your job description but that feels more aligned with your natural talents, as in my example above, or simply by finding ways to do what you already do but in a way that makes better use of your strengths. For example, if you are naturally brilliant at building relationships, you could set yourself the challenge of creating new partnerships across the organisation to support a project you’re working on. If you’re really good at detailed analysis, you could make sure you can really dedicate the quiet time and space to focus in on this part of your work.
If there really is no way to bring in your core strengths to your current role, it might be time to start considering a career change, and being clearer on what you’re naturally good at will play a really important part in helping you identify what that next move might look like.
If you want any help with identifying your strengths or in helping discover how you can incorporate more flow into your life and work, feel free to get in touch for a free 30 minute consultation.