We all want to do what we love and strive to get into a state of flow — when we don’t have to force ourselves, the sense of time disappears, the world around us seems to dissolve and only the relationship between us and the work of life remains. What does it take to reach this state?
Confucius said, «Find a job you love and you won’t have to work a day in your life.» After reading this phrase, a picture instantly appears in your head: every day you get out of bed with pleasure, go to work, get into a flow state, solve all difficulties in two seconds and never get bored. What does «flow» mean in this case? This is a mental state in which a person is fully involved in what he is doing. He is focused, totally involved in the process and sometimes even loses the sense of time.
And if for some reason this state does not come, a false idea arises: it means that I have chosen the wrong thing. On the one hand, yes, it may not be your business. But there may be another reason. People who have become experts in their field are more likely to fall into this state. And at the beginning of the professional path, it is out of the question.
As someone who graduated from music school, I know that none of the students were in a flow state. Exactly 7 years we learned to play the instrument almost every day. Often we learned through not wanting, through laziness, anger. Many things did not work out, we were disappointed and worried before the final competitions and exams.
Studies show that it takes 10 hours of practice to reach a professional level.
7 years of repetition without getting me into a state of flow. Maybe I didn’t like playing, maybe I didn’t have enough awareness, time, desire … in the end, I said goodbye to playing the instrument right after graduating from music school. For a long 15 years. All this time I did not sit down to the instrument, because I did not feel the inner push until I bought a piano last year. I sat down and remembered everything that I played before. It took less than a month to get back to normal.
The skill of playing the piano was firmly imprinted in the brain. Now, if I wanted to continue to play and develop in this area, I would not have to start from the very beginning.
The 10 hour rule
Some studies show that it takes 10 hours of practice to reach a professional level. This does not guarantee 100% success if you do not have a natural ability to do this. But it gives an understanding of how a skill is formed.
The virtuoso understands the subject at such a level that he is able to create and create his own schemes and algorithms, no matter what he does
Neurologist Daniel Levitin writes: “The picture that emerges from numerous studies is that, whatever the field, it takes 10 hours of practice to achieve a level of proficiency commensurate with the status of a world-class expert. Whoever you take — composers, basketball players, writers, skaters, pianists, chess players, hardened criminals and so on — this number occurs with surprising regularity. 10 hours — approximately 3 hours of practice per day, or 12 hours per week for 10 years. This does not explain why some people benefit from classes more than others. But so far no one has come across a case where the highest level of skill would be achieved in less time. One gets the impression that this is exactly how long it takes the brain to absorb all the necessary information.”
It is impossible to feel the flow at the beginning of the development of any business. This state comes when you become an expert, a virtuoso. A virtuoso is a person who understands the subject at such a level that he is able to create and create his own schemes and algorithms, no matter what he does, be it music, business, fine arts or science. This is someone who doesn’t follow a pattern. In business, he feels like a fish in water and is able to interact with a new task on an individual basis, not according to existing rules. Instead, he creates his own rules. A virtuoso is a person who has become one with his work.
How to get into the flow state?
To do this, you will have to become a professional in the chosen field. In order for the skill to form, you need to do business every day and strive for the mark of 10 thousand hours. Of course, difficulties will await you along the way, because this is painstaking work that requires discipline. Therefore, in order for the formation of a skill and methodical repetitions not to exhaust you, the chosen business must be pleasant. Otherwise, you will run out of steam and all efforts will lead to nothing.
Why is it impossible to achieve a result by forcing yourself to do something “through I don’t want to”? Why do you need to love your work? Because when we love something or someone, we tend to spend as much time with the object of love as possible. And if we don’t love, then we run away from him and come up with excuses, just not to spend time together.
There is such an anecdote: “My Lord, tell me, is sex without love a sin?” “Why are you all attached to this sex? Everything without love is a sin.”
Enjoy what you do, be prepared to put in the time and effort to gain experience
If you force yourself to do something, the body will constantly resist. If we imagine the body, this state can be depicted as follows: when we love our work, our hands are extended towards the object of love, and when we do not love, we are squeezed, twisted. This tightness leads to the fact that all body systems are blocked from overvoltage. They don’t function freely. The result can be a psychosomatic illness.
It is very difficult to imagine that in this state you can do something for 10 thousand hours. A person will always be set to escape from an unloved business and will do it at the first opportunity. Therefore, the first thing you need to decide is to find something to your liking. Because if in fact you force yourself to do something by force every day, then you simply won’t have the resource on the way to the flow state.
Enjoy what you do, be prepared to put in the time and effort to gain experience. Determine the goal you want to achieve and hit the road. Time will do the rest.