Spending Time in Flow

As some of you know, instead of making traditional New Year’s resolutions this year, I opted to devote my year to a state of being.  This year, I dedicated to “flow.”  

Consequently, I’ve been spending a lot of time researching, writing, teaching on—and, most importantly, practicing living in—“flow.”  

There’s so much juiciness to teach on flow—much more than any one blog post can capture, but if I could offer just one starting point, it’s this:

Start to notice YOUR autotelic activities.  What are the activities that you would do for just the enjoyment—without any attachment to outcome?

For me, that’s writing.  I could write for the sake of writing, even if no one else ever reads a word.  For more than two decades, I’ve known that I’ve wanted to write a book.  But every time I attached to the idea of writing a book, I found myself stuck.  What would I write about?  Would anyone read it?  How do you get published?  Hasn’t everything already been written?  It was a recipe for writer’s block and a complete impediment to my end goal.  

But once I could let go of the outcome (even those delicious dreams of meeting Oprah!) and instead focus on the autotelic experience—making the daily practice of writing the new goal—the words started pouring out.  New opportunities came my way, a complete topic formed, ideas began to germinate.  

It’s not necessarily a bad thing that we’re such a long-term goal-oriented society, but it does sometimes keep us blocked from the true pleasures of the moment.  And, paradoxically, it can keep us from attaining those BIG dreams.  If we never set out to write that first word, because we’re so paralyzed by the result—well, we never really get around to writing that book, or opening that bakery, or birthing that company.

What are the experiences that are autotelic for you?