Mastery. The pinnacle of commitment and performance.
A golden throne that all men who walk the path of excellence seek to sit on.
Brother, to sit on this throne that towers over the tiny pedestal of regular life and to drink from the chalice of champions is a desire every man has.
You know this, You desire this, you envy the men who are offered this privilege.
I understand, we all do.
Carve this to memory - the road-map to mastery is simple.
Mastery involves a relentless pursuit towards excellence, an unhinged madness for growth and a thirst to know everything about your craft.
And, because it is very simple, It requires so much more.
This is exactly why it is so rewarding, so fulfilling.
The greatest purpose.
To truly stand apart and shine in your craft, to be wanted, desired, success bowing low at your feet - You must be a master at what you do.
This is a fact. It is also a forgotten fact.
Take yourself for instance,
How often do you do a task with a genuine desire to master it?
Don’t lie to yourself, The answer is Never.
You do it for the sake of it, because you have to, maybe because you are paid to.
This is why you are average.
Fear not my brother in arms, I am here to change this.
How?
Today I speak of one key element to mastery.
The wormhole you must pass through to emerge on the other side as a master.
The state of flow.
A pure flow state is a state of union. You are one with your craft. You are so lost in it, there is no time or space, no hunger , thirst or desire, no now or then. Just you and your work.
This is a state of pure bliss, a state of wonder, inquiry, defeat, revival and then glory.
First let us understand what flow states are from the scientific perspective.
Self referential thinking is the process of relaying information from the external world to yourself. It is a state of self focus where you live in the future. Or even times in the past. Ruminating.
When one’s mind wanders, one frequently experiences thoughts, images, and feelings about oneself and one’s life. These self-referential thoughts involve diverse contents and take various forms, but most often focus on specific future events that are closely related to one’s personal goals and concerns - The Oxford Handbook of Spontaneous Thought: Mind-Wandering, Creativity, and Dreaming
Neuro - scientifically flow state is purely a state of low self referential thinking.
The brain’s locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system, regulates engagement and dis - engagement in tasks.
Neurologically this system is the one that has a major influence on your ability to manifest the state of flow.
Full task engagement and low self - referential thinking is your ideal flow state.
This happens biochemically when you tick all the boxes that make it conducive to enter the state of flow.
In a state of flow, you use less of your brain, specifically your prefrontal cortex.
This phenomenon is known as Transient Hypo-Frontality.
The performance of the prefrontal cortex reduces significantly when you are in a state of flow. Your pre-frontal cortex is also responsible for perceiving the passage of time.
So, when your prefrontal cortex reduces its activity, you feel like there is no passage of time. Hours pass by and feels like minutes. You lose the ability to distinguish between past, present, and future.
You also neutralize worries about the past and the future, Firmly grounded in the present.
Now understand this,
Flow is not restricted to artists or writers or scientists.
The state of flow has no 'one' master. It is yours for the taking.
A gamer lost in video games is in a state of flow, as is a street food hawker making 1000’s of identical meatball rolls every day.
Flow state is a spectrum.
It can be brief, as short as an amazing conversation with a colleague discussing a mutually interesting topic or in the extremes a chess tournament between world champions.
This is the state you need to enter, to absorb everything out of your craft, to embody mastery.
Let us now talk about the basic dimensions of flow.
Brother, you will never enter a state of flow if there is a disconnect between your level of skill and the difficulty of your task.
Dimension #1 : Task realism
In order to experience flow, the first requirement is the match between a person’s skills and the task challenges (Keller, 2016).
A task too easy, non challenging, simple leads to boredom, rather than flow.
A too difficult task often leads to repeated failures, frustration, stress or lack of interest, which are all states that are largely incompatible with flow (Bakker and Oerlemans, 2011).
The takeaway here is to engage in a task that is challenging, yet with a decent amount of work is achievable. Tough but not impossible. This is the sweet spot you must aim for.
Now, what if you are one of these modern day dopamine junkies. Can you enter flow?
Dimension #2 : Optimal dopamine / endocrine (hormonal) systems
Okay so here’s the sauce. Flow state in itself is a high dopaminergic activity. It is associated with feelings of pleasure, positivity and upliftment. This is why you always feel a rush when you finally get out of a long, arduous session of deep work.
However, if you have an imbalanced dopamine system your ability to enter deep flow is very marginal with sporadic flow if any. To get the most out of your flow states it is necessary to fix your endocrine - dopamine systems first.
Dimension #3 : Purpose
Flow states are driven by purpose. Why am I doing this task? The big WHY.
If you pick a random task and sit at it, you will go hours but never enter a state of flow or absorption in the task. The key component is a big WHY. You need to have a purpose that feeds into a life mission. The task you are doing must contribute to your life's mission. Your grander purpose. This is non negotiable.
People who experienced flow often, at least retrospectively, reported feeling in control, having a clear sense of direction (i.e., clear goals), and a condensed perception of time (Csikszentmihalyi, 2014).
Flow is a reinforcement loop - you enter with a clear purpose in mind, you exit with the purpose deeper ingrained into you. This is why the deeper you get into a subject, the harder you work at it, the more you enjoy it. Brother, this is why finding your passion is a false notion. You pick a task, dedicate your time to get better at it and it will automatically consume you. If it doesn't only then do you move on. Most people give up on the first challenge. They never attain flow. Mastery is a very long shot for them.
Dimension #4 : Environment
Jordan Peterson's clean your room is a meme now. The context of him saying it is lost on people. Cleaning your room is symbolism. It signals to your brain that there is change to come. It prepares it with the bare minimal step in building discipline. An act of cleansing. In a way, it is spiritual. This will go right above the heads of these noisy, modern day, liberal mouth breathers because their existence is a lower level of thinking.. But anyway, there is another face to cleaning your room.
It is to create an optimal work environment to facilitate flow.
Dimension #5 : Risk
High consequence is a trigger for flow.
Brother, why is it that if you have a deadline the next day automatically distractions disappear? Or if you are going to get fired, you figure out a way to nail that presentation?
Because of the consequences.
The idea here is straightforward: flow follows focus, and consequences always catch our attention.
For extreme athletes these are often physical risks, but the science shows that other risks — emotional, intellectual, creative, social work just as well.
Okay so now we know of the key elements that are involved in reaching flow states. This is good, but it is not actionable - it is theory.
Next, let me dissect and explain more. Then we will learn the 10 triggers to enter flow states at will.
Remember how we talked about the brains LC - NE system being a key component in flow states? Look at this figure below.
Optimal level of arousal ( Non sexual - refers to attentiveness ) corresponds to maximum performance. This coincides with LC - NE being task engaged.
This is what we will recreate to create flow states at will.
Our aim is to activate the LC - NE system and get it into full task engagement.
Now how do we do this?
Understand, the only thing that is within our locus of control is to create a conducive atmosphere - environmentally, physically, mentally and bio - chemically.
We will need to optimize all of this to make it easier for you to get into a state of flow.
This is like one of those spiritual shamans / mediums. To embrace a deity to possess them, they live a life of virtue, penance and devotion. This is to make their host bodies optimal for possession by the gods they pray to.
Merely an example for you to understand - To get into flow you need an optimal host and optimal environment.
Let us dissect the 5 dimensions now.
Task realism - How hard do you need to push?
Scientifically, 4%. Your challenge must be 4% harder than your skills to be in a state of flow. Now, a high performer may easily blow past this difficulty and smash the task..
However.. He will also burn out sooner, miss the sweet spot and fail to be in flow.
What constitutes 4% challenge is for every individual to decide for himself.
Make marginal improvements from the previous day and this will keep you in flow and also help you keep pushing.
Dopamine burnout - How do you fix this?
In flow, the brain releases norepinephrine, dopamine, endorphins, anandamide, and serotonin.
All five affect performance.
Norepinephrine and dopamine tighten focus, helping you shut out persistent distractions and noise by engaging in the task and giving you motivation.
Endorphins block pain, letting you burn the candle at both ends without burning out altogether.
Anandamide prompts lateral connections and generates insights far more than most brainstorming sessions.
Serotonin, is a feel-good chemical that helps you bond. With work, team mates or colleagues.
This being the case, a burnt out dopamine receptor system is going to throw a wrench into your plans. First need to fix this with abstinence and get your dopamine balanced in baseline.
Purpose - Why do you need this?
Purposeful action helps you cross over obstacles as they come up. It helps you have clarity as to WHY you are doing this. What accomplishment of this task means and where it fits into your grander life vision. You go into flow with this clearly defined.
When you are in flow, these feelings are re-inforced by the chemicals released in deep flow state. Making your purpose stronger, making your resolve greater, making you mentally tougher every day.
Remember this, your purpose cannot be money or status. It will fail. Your purpose must have intrinsic meaning to you that goes beyond basic materialism.
Materialism is a barrier to flow state - The High Price of Materialism By Tim Kasser
and also this research paper
Environment - Living in filth
Although this is not 100%, a clean environment and a dedicated workspace helps get into flow. This has more to do with psychology and subconscious signalling than anything else.
When you dedicate a clean, organized workspace to work in.. anytime you sit at this place your brain recognizes it is time for work and automatically puts into place chemical systems that make it receptive to work.
Risk - There is no flow if there is no risk of loss
When there are real life consequences attached to a task. Loss of a job, a promotion, an evaluation, a deadline - attention is drawn to the task.
Where your attention goes, focus flows. This is why when you have real consequences the deeper your levels of concentration.
Caveat is, you are only able to enter flow IF you can detach from the stress of high pressure situations. Along with flow, stress tolerance is the perfect complementary skill you will find in high performance athletes.
Understanding this, you will have one question now that will require an answer..
How do I enter this state of flow at will?
There are 7 triggers I have identified that will help you get into flow state at will.
These triggers will prepare your body, mind and environment to make it suitable to tap into states of passion and flow.
All of these are simple everyday tools that each one of you can access or recreate.
Unfortunately, I cannot make this email any longer to fear getting it cut off by gmail or the other providers.. It will need to be a separate email out on Friday.
FYI, Update on community - On track, going according to plan will be available in a week or two max. Do not want to rush anything. Balancing IRL work, businesses and this to get the best possible result for us all.
Until then, I will continue substack lessons as I’ve been told by a dear friend of mine ‘‘He misses my lessons”
This topic on flow was requested and hence written ahead of schedule. We will continue with addictions after the next email on flow triggers
Talk soon brothers
Disclaimer - None of the images used in the post are my own. I have tried to find the original artists and credit them wherever possible. If you want any of the images taken down please feel free to email me.
Next level 🔥