The Ultimate Ingredients to Achieve Productivity as an Entrepreneur
In our previous blog article, we spoke about the importance of being in entrepreneur flow productivity. This included how being in FLOW, as per the studies done by the Positive Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, can help you to get to a state of untold productivity. Ultimately, we all want to be insanely productive. Nothing is more exhilarating than looking back on your day or week and being pretty chuffed with what you have achieved. The big question is, what do you need to do to enter a state of entrepreneur flow productivity?
The Basic Ingredients of FLOW for Entrepreneurs
Let’s face it, life as an entrepreneur is not always roses and moonshine. Research shows that the biggest percentage of people give up on their entrepreneurial dreams because of the stresses and strains. I’d love to meet the entrepreneur who does not want to increase their well-being, creativity, and productivity.
The list below is the most basic ingredients that need to be present before FLOW can happen.
- Concentrate on the task, not on the man.
Losing your sense of self is key in this process. It is extremely difficult for someone who is self-conscious or self-centered to enter a state of flow. Actions and awareness are merged, losing self-conscious rumination. - Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback.
Without a goal, you have no way of knowing where you are going and no way of measuring whether you are on the right path. In the same manner, if you do not have a clear reward for the goal that you are pursuing, you will easily lose motivation. Ask me. I have fallen into this trap more often than not. - Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down). This is where 5 hours can feel like 5 minutes.
- The experience is intrinsically rewarding. You are not doing it to impress anyone around you. And you are definitely not doing this for financial rewards first and foremost. The highest state of happiness is achieved if your reward is from within. When you are making a difference in the lives of someone other than yourself.
- Effortlessness and ease. Nothing seems to be too much trouble to dig deeper into your subject at hand.
- There is a balance between challenge and competence. Too much challenge leads to anxiety. Too little challenge leads to apathy.
- There is a feeling of control over the task. If there is no perception of control over the task at hand, it will leave you dejected and unmotivated to complete the task.
Did you know that studies have shown that the experience of flow is universal and, does not depend on classes, genders, ages, and cultures, and it can be experienced during a variety of activities?
The Body in Flow, Balance & the Stresses & Strains of an Entrepreneur
A healthy body houses a healthy mind. The Roman poet Juvenal coined this famous phrase when he wrote ‘Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano‘ around the end of the first century AD. Roughly translated, this means that you should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Balance is a choice. Life can be completely imbalanced at times, but it remains a conscious choice to stay stuck in the status quo or work yourself out of misery. If our bodies are not in flow, it is not possible to keep our minds sustainably in flow.
We live in a world of being always on. Burning the candle at both ends. We use a couple of quick fixes to get ourselves going again. It’s all Edison’s’ fault. Before the invention of electric light, we used to go to bed when the sun went down and only got up at first dawn. And the invention of cell phones did not make life any simpler. We are always available. Whether for work or yet another social event, life seldom stops and the pressure increases tenfold.
The reality is that stress is the number one reason why we cannot achieve FLOW as entrepreneurs and why we will always remain stuck unless we sort it out. In our next article, we will chat more about stress in the lives of entrepreneurs. How to cope with stress, but most of all, how to get rid of it.
As always, we would LOVE your feedback.
This article is ultimately to help you in your entrepreneurial journey and we would love to hear whether it has made any difference whatsoever.
