Getting in your flow is priceless. Seriously, it really is unpurchasable. A writer’s flow happens when every agonizing word to their essay or story fits perfect. Entrepreneurs are in the flow when they can’t go to sleep because what they are building is working and bringing tangible value to the customer. A surgeon’s flow is in the midst of a nearly flawless case, down to the last suture.
Esoteric marketing jargon like “in the flow” sounds wishy washy, and maybe it is, but the flow is where the decisions are made, progress is advanced, and creating occurs.
A more palpable explanation: “in the flow” is the action, successful or not, that leads to you to advancing forward in the endeavor you were put on this earth to do.
Painters get in their flow when 3 hours in the studio seems like 3 minutes. Sales reps are in the flow when trust is built, objections are handled, contracts are sent, or new business is uncovered. Engineers are in the flow after working on a problem for hours and it clicks; the database query works, the pull request is flawless, and the end user achieves a better product. Investors are in the flow as they learn hundreds of entrepreneurial stories around the companies built every day; each meeting is an opportunity to weave another strand in a network of woven baskets. Athletes are in the flow when their once weak jump shot now finds the bottom of the net with predictability.
The flow in any craft revolves around iterating and learning. Move forwards, move backwards, it doesn’t matter. The learning and adjusting is the process. Anyone in their flow knows both will happen frequently. Find an answer, uncover a truth, learn a technique and evolve.
For many, being in the flow is their being. Anything outside of it, their identity is lost and their purpose erodes.
Reinvention into a new flow is the only solution.
You can’t buy it.
You can’t lobby it — unless you’re a politician.
You can’t take shortcuts to get it.
It only comes with persistence and a fastidious focus on your craft.