Friday, December 21, 2007

"Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" or in plain english, how to get into the "zone!"

I ran into this article on Digg.com. It's from a blog called FREELANCE-SWITCH, a blog dedicated to handing out free advice to creative or technical professionals. I think it works even better for goal oriented swimmers. Here is a snippet:

"...With the publication of his seminal 1991 book, Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience, Hungarian cognitive scientist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi laid out the elements of that magical state artists and athletes called “the zone.

According to Csikszentmihalyi, there are eight fundamental elements of flow. To cultivate the flow-state, a task or project must include as many of these elements as possible:
  • Allows you to work toward a clear goal with a well-defined process
  • Cultivates deep-concentration
  • Creates a lack of a sense of self-consciousness
  • Leads to an altered sense of time
  • Provides ongoing, direct feedback
  • Is highly-challenging, but doable
  • Allows for control over the means to accomplish the goal, and
  • It’s meaningful or intrinsically rewarding, by the very nature of doing it ..."

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