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Before you harbor any ill feelings from this scene, Saverin did ok, Forbes currently has his estimated value at 2 billion dollars.
FOCUS on the extreme emphasis of how Zuckerberg was wired in. Did you see his face? He was in complete shock. His laptop was just smashed into pieces but I bet he was more in shock that his flow was interrupted.
The amount of emphasis that Justin Timberlake,who plays Sean Parker put’s on Zuckerberg being wired in may seem odd to most people. But it meant he was on to something, he was going somewhere and working on something.Zuckerburg had tapped his flow.
WHAT IS FLOW?
Flow: A state in which challenges and skills are equally matched. It is a mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.
When you’re wired in you are unstoppable in your belief of what you can do. You see what’s in front of you in a different light, things come together and connect unlike they did before. In these moments you turn off your limiting beliefs and go to work on the solution at hand unhindered. During these times we defy what cannot be done and instead seek options and possibilities for what can be done. So let me ask you, what get’s you wired in? What plugs you into your flow of creativity?
Is it a Taste? Smell? Sound? Surrounding? Time of day? what you’re wearing, self importance in the task?
Let me explain.
On a day like today where I am scheduled to write this post I know it’s going to take every part of my discipline and focus to give this the attention and carry through required to produce what I want. It’s not that I don’t enjoy, in fact I love it, it but it takes determination to sift through information, check my grammar and make sure I’m conveying my point in the most palatable and resounding manner. So what do I do?
I turn to my triggers. Hot fresh Starbucks coffee and my Bose headphones.
The funny thing about getting plugged in is you cannot just choose to go into the flow. It is similar to a night spent tossing and turning when you keep TELLING YOURSELF you need to fall asleep. It simply doesn’t work! However, reading in bed will always TRIGGER the reaction of falling asleep. FOCUS your effort on the trigger, not the desired result.
A 20oz coffee and my noise canceling headphones tuned into DJ Tiesto (MY TRIGGERS) quickly take me from an operational state to a state of (FLOW) where I’m seeing possibilities and outcomes for every word I write or idea I’m envisioning. Like most business owners my todo list (which I call my DOING list) is long, growing and my focus is split between new ideas, growth, and the day in front of me. Being able to get wired in quickly and move forward on an idea, refine a speech for an upcoming speaking engagement or create a new blog post is critical.
Whether you own a business, or are beginning your journey on a lower level rung of the ladder EVERYTHING you do matters. There are tasks and projects that don’t always require creativity and excitement to flow but would getting them done quicker in a clear focused mindset help? ABSOLUTELY.
You may be reading this thinking “I definitely have experienced flow”. But have you experienced the differing levels of flow?
In flow, goals are clear. You have to reach the top of the mountain, hit the ball across the net, or mold the clay just right. Feedback is immediate. The mountaintop gets closer or father, the ball sails in or out of bounds, the pot you’re throwing comes out smooth or uneven.
– Daniel Pink, Drive
On experiencing flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says
“You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger.”
In his scientific studies Mihaly recorded participants experiences:
“I feel like there is no “Me; I feel there has been a merging of man and machine.”
“Just that my whole concentration is focused in what I’m doing ± I become the words I’m typing or reading. It’s not that the outside world doesn’t exist ± if one of my roommates knocks on my door, I notice them and it’s not a shock to return to the outside world. But until that happens I’m totally engrossed.”
Cziksentmihalyi defines flow as “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” (Cskikszentmihalyi, 1990, p.4) He identifies a number of different elements involved in achieving flow:
-There are clear goals every step of the way.
-There is immediate feedback to one’s actions.
-There is a balance between challenges and skills.
-Action and awareness are merged.
-Distractions are excluded from consciousness.
-There is no worry of failure.
-Self-consciousness disappears.
-The sense of time becomes distorted.
-The activity becomes an end in itself.
So, START by finding out what triggers you.
My last two and a half years of college I got by on plugging into my study playlist of Sigor Ros and Explosions in the Sky. I used whatever cheap headphones I could find. Sure, they worked but I always thought about the pair of Bose headphones I longed for. THANKFULLY, for a gift this last year I received them , and they have allowed me to be more productive and think with greater clarity than ever before. Do not DENY yourself the one thing that you feel will TRIGGER your FLOW.
If there is a scent that allows you to feel focused but the candle is $40!! BUY IT! You and your dreams are worth the $40!
Do you imagine what it would be like to work with noise canceling headphones? Get them!
Sure, it is easy for me to say to just spend the money but I’m a firm believer in finding what makes you get plugged in and DOING IT!!
There are triggers and motivating factors that get you plugged in. SO DO THEM! Today is too valuable to wait on tomorrow.
Can’t take my word for it? Go to this TED presentation and hear it from the source:
Do you have an idea or direction in life that you want to pursue? Contact us, we love partnering with those who are willing to do whatever it takes to bridge their way into the future they want.
Always truly focused on getting you to your #NEXTLEVEL,
In reference to quoting and borrowing the words of others te great Jim Rohn said “ That’s so well said. You could stay up all night and not think of that.” While doing some prep work for a presentation to a local young professionals organization I came across the following. These words resonated so deeply with me as I have been mulling over one of my latest quotes “What you give your focus, has your focus.” Mr. Rohn’s words rushed into my head and I knew I had to share.
Borrowed from Emotional Intelligence 2.0:
“The plates of life are constantly spinning above you. You juggle projects at work, never-ending meetings, bills, errands, emails, phone calls, text messages, chores, meals, time with friends and family—the list goes on. It takes great amounts of attention and focus to keep the plates from crashing to the ground.
Maintaining this balancing act keeps your attention focused outward, rather than inward and on yourself. As you run around struggling to check your daily “to dos” off your list, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s really important to you—your core values and beliefs. Before you know it, you find yourself doing and saying things that deep down you don’t feel good about or believe in. This could mean you find yourself yelling at a coworker who made a mistake, when you normally find such hostility unacceptable. If yelling at your colleagues runs contrary to the beliefs you wish to live your life by, catching yourself (or being caught) doing it is bound to make you uncomfortable and even unfulfilled.
The trick here is to take the time to check in with yourself and jot down your core beliefs and values. Ask yourself, what are the values that I wish to live my life by? Take a sheet of paper and separate it into two columns. List your core values and beliefs in the left column and anything that you’ve done or said recently that you aren’t proud of in the right column. Is what you value in alignment with the manner in which you conduct yourself? If not, consider alternatives to what you said and did that would have made you proud of yourself, or at least more comfortable.
Repeating this exercise somewhere between daily and monthly will be a huge boost to your self-awareness. Before long, you’ll find yourself thinking of the list before you act, which will set the stage for making choices you can live with.”
So easily we can focus on the wrong thing. Are you focused on keeping your life plates spinning or focused on the goal of why you must keep the critical plates spinning.
What you give your focus, has your focus – Joshua R. Schneider
More time on the problem isn’t the way. More guts is. When you expose yourself to the opportunities that scare you, you create something scarce, something others won’t do. Seth Godin
When is the last time you’ve been scared? Have you done something that made you unsure of how it would go? When was the last time you woke up knowing that tomorrow would embrace a new overwhelming challenge? A challenge that left you with a knot in your stomach and a constant pressure on your shoulders?
Maybe even something you weren’t ready or prepared for?
Stop playing it safe, go do something that scares you? Stretch your personal belief, challenge your status quo, push your comfort zone.
T.S. Elliot said that only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
Get scared and go do something you love that you’ve been avoiding.
This past week I moved out of my townhouse into a new place. I took the day to unplug, pack up, sort and jam all my belongings into a uhaul to make the short crosstown trek. All of this was normal until I started to unload and faced the stark reality of….Where did all of this stuff come from!?!?
As I stood looking at everything, I realized there was excess that had to go. I had to decide what was essential and what wasn’t. I downsized my large glass desk to a smaller one a third the size. I didn’t plug in the 28″ monitor, Harmon Kardon speakers, or wireless keyboard. All of them were good and helpful, but they kept me operating at my desk instead of going out and experiencing the unique, inspirational workplace environments available to me. Toting around parts of my personal library of over one hundred books had to stop as well. From now on I will buy only ebooks, allowing my library to travel with me. I continued rolling and got rid of almost a third of my clothes.
So what did all of this do for me? This move forced a decluttering act, which brought renewed focus, clarity, and totally killed some metal weight I had been feeling as well.
When you take the time to declutter many positive things happen. What you experience may differ than me, but there is no denying a new level of focus this task brings.
What STUFF is in your life right now that is causing clutter and making focus near impossible. What causes you to not focus on what’s important?
We go through life accumulating, buying, taking on, almost always looking at what else we want.
Forget about what you want. Look at what you need to get that laser sharp focus on your goals and direction on track.
My challenge for you is not to move and declutter, but to identify what the clutter in your life is. Take ten minutes to step back and listen to yourself. Let your mind go quiet and begin to think about everything that is going on. Make a list of everything you think is cluttering your thought process: possessions, habits, friendships, and commitments. Obviously, some of these are goods things but we must decide what is critical. As you go through this list one by one identify what tasks will sharpen your focus and build the foundation for you to achieve your goals.
The key is to replace with something that is better. Don’t just make room to refill, be intentional about what you replace it with.
What are you doing today to create your #NEXTLEVEL?
Below are some excerpts that were forwarded to me from a recent Rush Limbaugh program. There is absolutely NOTHING political here, but there is a line of truth he speaks about passion , greatness, and a commitment to yourself.
“Over all of the years that I’ve been hosting this program — 23 — I have been an evangel for Apple Inc. products. I love them, and one of the things that I have always done on this program is talk about my passions and share my passions with all of you. I think a large part of life is passion. When you find it, when you have it, it’s fabulous. It’s a magnet for other people, and it’s self-invigorating, and sharing those passions is something that I thoroughly enjoy.
I talk about Apple and Jobs because I love greatness. I just love greatness. I am fascinated by it. I am intrigued by how it happens. I’m intrigued about every aspect of greatness and excellence, because it’s so genuinely rare. It is genuinely rare and exciting, and I am mesmerized by it. I’m inspired by it. I have had the opportunity to meet people who are the best at what they do, and that is exhilarating and fun and inspiring to me.
So I attach myself to these things that create childlike wonderment in me.
It’s difficult as an adult to have childlike wonderment. How soon do we all outgrow the excitement that as children we all felt on Christmas Eve, and how many of us wish by magic that we could recapture it?
To find out — to rediscover that total, unbounded passion of childlike exuberance, excitement, innocence, uncluttered by the rigors of life lived as an adult. And for me, speaking honestly, the introduction of every new Apple product ignited that in me. That’s just me. I am fascinated by what Apple products do; how they do it, the invention process, the whole way.
Steve Jobs epitomized American exceptionalism. His life epitomized it. His philosophies epitomized American exceptionalism. This past Tuesday they introduced the iPhone 4S, and I told you that on Monday I felt like it was Christmas Eve — and it was for me — and at age 60 I was able to feel like I did as a kid on Christmas Eve when I was eight or nine. There hasn’t been, in the last ten years, an Apple product that has not created wonderment in me, that has not exceeded my expectations. Using Apple products is genuine fun for me; and at the same time, they have increased my productivity. I know I’m making this sound like it’s a lot about me but it’s the best way to explain all this to you. What Jobs did literally changed the way human beings receive-transmit-enjoy all media.One guy did this. He had a lot of great people around him, but one guy did it. One guy’s vision. To me, it’s mind-boggling.”
When is the last time you felt childlike wonderment? That feeling was not just reserved for us when we were young but meant to be experienced over and over again. Do you dread going into work? Live for the weekend? When is the last time you lived “uncluttered by the rigors of life lived as an adult”?
Moving forward from today begin to capture moments and memories that made you come alive, that gave you childlike wonderment. They are key directional indicators towards finding your life’s passion and getting to the NEXTLEVEL.
Take 10 minutes today and write down what makes you come alive, put pen to paper and capture what gives you that feeling of childlike wonderment.
A special thank you to Joel Tarpin for submitting this article.
Yesterday morning on my way into the office from Starbucks I saw a group of geese on the side of the road. One of the birds that stood closest to the street appeared intent on crossing. Four others waited a few feet back, while a sixth was even further removed from the rest. As my attention shifted to the bird by the street I noticed him not only looking at the street but back at the other five. His gaze would be locked in on what was ahead of him but would then take a quick look back at the group. He repeated this pattern of long starring ahead with brief interruptions three or four times before his progress halted. As I drove past the group continuing to watch in my side view mirror, the lead bird retreat back in with the rest of the group away from the road.
I couldn’t help but struggle with why he turned back. For moments I watched this bird so intent on crossing the road, he knew where he wanted to go and was so close. Observing him looking back at the group multiple times ultimately broke his focused gaze ahead. This broken focus caused him to shift to the fears and reservations of the group
The group that he was with caused him to loose his focus and fear stepping out to get to the other side. I assume they all wanted to cross the road but the potential consequences made them shy away. This uncertainty clouded his mindset and made him reconsider his goal.
Although there are many lessons that can be taken from this example the point I want to make is, stepping out or crossing the road sometimes means you will do it alone. Don’t shift your focus to what the group is saying or doing. Stay laser focused on where you want to go, and go there.
Do you have dreams, ambitions or goals that need your full focus? Give them 15 minutes a day starting now, imagine them as reality, think about what you would need to do to take the first step in that direction. My challenge to you is, take 15 minutes today to write about your goals for a new reality. When you do that every day, it will change your life and will help you understand the actions needed to move you closer to that next level.”
