We are what we repeatedly do, Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. - Aristotle
There is no magic recipe for finding happiness, for living according to your ikigai, but one key ingredient is the ability to reach this state of flow.
In order to achieve this optimal experience, we should focus increasing the time we spend on activities that bring us to this state of flow, rather than allowing ourselves to get caught up in the activities that offer us immediate pleasure such as eating too much, abusing drugs or alcohol.
The Seven Conditions for Achieving flow
1. Knowing what to do
2. Knowing how to do it
3. Knowing how well to do it
4. Knowing where to go
5. Perceiving significant challenges
6. Perceiving significant skills
7. Being free from distractions
Strategy 1: Choose a difficult task (but not too difficult)
We should take on tasks that we have chance of completing but are slightly out of comfort zone. If we assign ourselves the task which are too easy, we are likely to get bored. The ideal is to find a middle path, something aligned with our abilities, so that it becomes a challenge. We want to see the challenge to the end because we enjoy the feeling of pushing ourselves.
Strategy 2: Have a clear, concrete objective
Having a clear objective is important in achieving flow. It is much more important to have a compass pointing to concrete objective than to have a map. It means while the path to your goal may not be straight, you’ll finish faster than you would have if you had trudged along a preplanned route. We also have to keep in mind that once the journey has begun, we should keep this objective in mind without obsessing over it.
Strategy 3: Concentrate on single task
Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow. We often think combining task will us time, but evidence show that it has opposite effect. When we are multitasking we are continuously switching back and forth between task very quickly, we waste Tim, make more mistakes and remember less of what is done.
In order to focus on a task we need:
1. To be in a distraction free environment
2. To have control over what we are doing at every moment
Few ideas to create a distraction free environment
• Bindle routine tasks- such as sending voice notes etc - and do them all at once.
• Start your work with a ritual you enjoy and end it with reward.
• Divide each activity into groups of related tasks, and assign each group its own place and time.
• Don’t look at any kind of screen for the first hour you’re awake and the last hour before you go to sleep.
One of the first words one learns in Japanese is ganbaru which means “to preserve” or “to stay firm by doing one’s best”. If you go to Japan, you’ll experience this attention to detail firsthand in almost every transaction. It is not lazy simplicity but sophisticated one that searches out new frontiers, always taking the object, the body or the mind, according to one’s ikigai.
The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in state of flow.
Using flow to find your ikigai
Write all of them on a piece of paper, then ask yourself these questions . What do the activities that drive you to flow have in common? Why do those activities drive you to flow? In answers to this question you might find the underlying ikigai that derives your life. Flow is mysterious, the more you train it, the. More you will flow, and the closer you will be your own ikigai.
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