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Happiness, 2.10 (V) Week 2 Video 9 - Getting flow back into your life

2.10 (V) Week 2 Video 9 - Getting flow back into your life

[MUSIC] Hello and aloha. In the last two videos, I discussed how flow is important for both happiness and for success. Given how important it is for both, it's a no-brainer that we should attempt to incorporate as much flow into our lives as possible. This, in turn, means that we should try and get to experience flow at work, since we spend so much time, about half our waking life, at work. But unfortunately very few people experience flow at work. A recent survey revealed for example that about twice as many employees world wide are dissatisfied with their jobs as they are satisfied. Most people recognize that this is a shame, and that the work that they do is meaningless and fulfilling is not a good thing. Which is why, as Herminia Ibarra, author of a book called Working Identity, notes, so many of us dream of quitting our job one day and doing something more meaningful. But then it ends up remaining a dream forever because we are too afraid to actually do it. So we end up leading a discontented life and postpone finding real enjoyment and happiness 'til after retirement. That's a huge shame because by the time retirement rolls around, we either have no energy left. Or we have not spent enough time cultivating our skills, in order to experience flow on a regular basis, in any domain. So we basically end up postponing leading a fulfilling and meaningful life 'til it's too late. The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. There are some things that you could do right away to get more flow into your life. The first and most obvious thing you could do, if you aren't already doing it, that is, is to have a hobby, or reconnect with a hobby. This is because hobbies are a great way to experience flow. Now, if you're someone from my dad's generation, in a country like India, you probably don't have hobbies to speak of, either because you weren't encouraged to pursue hobbies as a kid, or you simply didn't have the opportunities to pursue them. This is unfortunate, but the good news is that it's never too late to pick up a hobby, since many of them don't really have any entry barrier, so to speak. Here are a few universal favorites that you can easily pick up right away. Reading books and watching movies. Traveling and seeing new cultures. Picking up a sport, even if you aren't particularly good at it. Socializing, hanging out with friends or family. If you currently don't have a hobby I would encourage you to devote two to three hours every week pursuing one. That will almost definitely get you to experience flow and as a result it will boost your happiness levels. Whatever hobby you pick up though, remember one very important thing. You need to challenge yourself in that hobby. Otherwise, as we saw from our earlier discussions on when flow happens, you won't experience flow. Flow only happens when you're stretching yourself. So make sure that you aren't doing something just to while away time, but that you're actually challenged by it. If you already have a hobby, good for you. You know just how important it is in your life, so you can easily imagine how much more meaningful and enjoyable your life will be if you could get to experience flow at work as well. If you aren't currently experiencing flow at work, what can you do? I recently had the pleasure of talking to one of the most popular business school teachers in Austin, Texas, and actually all of the US. His name is Professor Steven Tomlinson. Here's what he said to me when I asked him, what advice he would have for someone who currently finds work to be unfulfilling and meaningless. Listen. » To find fulfillment in work, you want to take a step back and ask, what is work really about? At the level of finding, at the level of happiness and satisfaction. And there seem to be two components of that puzzle. One piece is using all of your innate talent in some constructive way, and the other is being focused on being helpful to other people rather than impressing or getting things for yourself or making objects of others. And those are two puzzles that are worth solving. You don't have to have a grand solution to them. You practice with those questions. What is it that you're really good at? And cultivate those skills as finely as you can. And start putting them into practice in the job you have now. And if the job you have right now can't use all of them, then start to work with that job. Change it. Ask for more responsibility. Just take more responsibility on yourself. One of my mentors used to say, don't quit your job. Bend it until it breaks. And at some point they'll either put you in another job, the people you're working with, or you'll get fired and you'll be free to go find something else. But along the way you will have demonstrated to other people what you're good at. And I found, and the people that I think solve this problem gracefully, seem to find that the solution is in showing people what you can do so you get invitations. The second puzzle that we have to solve in career planning is, you're not ever going to be happy if you're trying to get recognition for yourself, if you're piling up more stuff for yourself, more toys, more money, more praise, more whatever. That happiness is not commensurate with that way of being in the world. And I think you know there's research to suggest that people who focus on that kind of stuff become relatively boring, and they're pretty bored with themselves. The second piece, I think, of building a powerful career is what's going on in the world? What's going on in your community? What is going on around you that warrants your attention? Because if you start paying attention to these things, then something deeper than your ego will start pulling together the talent that you have and invite you to respond. And so these two things go together, looking outside yourself and doing what you're good at, taking those gifts as your reliable source of inspiration. » So as you just heard, what Steven suggests is that the best way to get more flow into your work life is by doing two things. First, start identifying what you're good at, or skilled at, and nurture those talents. If this means taking on more responsibility or bending your job description, so be it. This might take some courage and hard work, but it will definitely be worth it. Second, identify the things that the community around you, could be your neighborhood, your country, your city or even the whole world needs. Then try and find ways to meet those needs. So what Steven suggests is that identifying the following two circles. And ideally something that lies at their intersection is one way to get to experience meaning and flow at work. To these two criteria I could add another one which is what you enjoy doing. Sir Ken Robinson calls the intersection of what you enjoy doing and what you're good at your element. As he argues, one of the best way to find fulfillment and meaning at work is by being in your element. Doing the things that you're not just good at but you also enjoy doing. Of course, if you are like many of my students you may not have a good idea of what you enjoy doing or what you are good at for that matter. That's one way in which Sir Ken Robinson feels and I agree with him, that our educational systems fail us. Unfortunately, there's no real short cut to finding out what you're good at. As Herminia Ibarra suggests in her book Working Identity, perhaps the best thing you can do is to start with some self-experimentation. Specifically, she recommends that you take some time off, even as you retain your currently unsatisfying job, and spend a few hours every week exposing yourself to people and activities that you think you might like. Let's say that you're an accountant. I'm just picking accountant as a job, nothing against it, and that you find this job to be boring and meaningless, and you think that where your talent lies and what you would really enjoy doing is owning a scuba diving shop. Then you could spend, say, two to three hours every weekend finding out more about what it would be to own a scuba dive shop. For example, you could volunteer your services at a local dive shop. You could man the register or help out with refilling the tanks. Over time, as you gain more experience working at the dive shop, you will discover whether you in fact have the skills required to run one, or it was just one of your daydreams and fantasies. You will also discover whether you truly enjoy running a dive shop or not. And if it turns out that scuba diving isn't your thing, you were just thinking that it could be your thing, then you'll be happy that you didn't quit your day job to start a dive shop. On the other hand, if you find that you do enjoy working at a dive shop and that you're good at it your time spent volunteering will be well spent. You would have developed some important connections with people in that line of business and also gained some important knowledge on what it takes to run a dive shop. I could actually say a lot more on this topic of how to transition from your currently boring and meaningless job into something that you find meaningful and fulfilling. But in the interest of time, I'm going to stop right here. But what I'll do is recommend three books to you, if you're interested in this topic. One is Working Identity by Herminia Ibarra, which I mentioned some time back. Second is The Element, by Sir Ken Robinson, also a book that I mentioned earlier. Finally, I would recommend Drive by Dan Pink, which I mentioned in the last video. In addition to these books, I'd also recommend my own book that will be coming out some time next year. It's as I mentioned in week one, tentatively titled, If You're So Smart Why Aren't You Happy? In it, I will not just cover the topic of finding your flow in more depth, but I will also be covering a lot of other topics that I don't have the time to get into in this course. For example, the difference between what professor Robert Vallerand calls harmonious passion and obsessive passion. If you want to know more about the difference between the two right away, you can check out Professor Vallerand's talk in the bibliography for this week's lectures. With that, let me bid bye to you for now. I will look forward to seeing you in the next video, where I will be discussing an all-important topic. How to mitigate the need for superiority. [MUSIC]


2.10 (V) Week 2 Video 9 - Getting flow back into your life

[MUSIC] Hello and aloha. In the last two videos, I discussed how flow is important for both happiness and for success. Given how important it is for both, it's a no-brainer that we should attempt to incorporate as much flow into our lives as possible. This, in turn, means that we should try and get to experience flow at work, since we spend so much time, about half our waking life, at work. But unfortunately very few people experience flow at work. A recent survey revealed for example that about twice as many employees world wide are dissatisfied with their jobs as they are satisfied. Most people recognize that this is a shame, and that the work that they do is meaningless and fulfilling is not a good thing. Which is why, as Herminia Ibarra, author of a book called Working Identity, notes, so many of us dream of quitting our job one day and doing something more meaningful. But then it ends up remaining a dream forever because we are too afraid to actually do it. So we end up leading a discontented life and postpone finding real enjoyment and happiness 'til after retirement. That's a huge shame because by the time retirement rolls around, we either have no energy left. Or we have not spent enough time cultivating our skills, in order to experience flow on a regular basis, in any domain. So we basically end up postponing leading a fulfilling and meaningful life 'til it's too late. The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. There are some things that you could do right away to get more flow into your life. The first and most obvious thing you could do, if you aren't already doing it, that is, is to have a hobby, or reconnect with a hobby. This is because hobbies are a great way to experience flow. Now, if you're someone from my dad's generation, in a country like India, you probably don't have hobbies to speak of, either because you weren't encouraged to pursue hobbies as a kid, or you simply didn't have the opportunities to pursue them. This is unfortunate, but the good news is that it's never too late to pick up a hobby, since many of them don't really have any entry barrier, so to speak. Here are a few universal favorites that you can easily pick up right away. Reading books and watching movies. Traveling and seeing new cultures. Picking up a sport, even if you aren't particularly good at it. Socializing, hanging out with friends or family. If you currently don't have a hobby I would encourage you to devote two to three hours every week pursuing one. That will almost definitely get you to experience flow and as a result it will boost your happiness levels. Whatever hobby you pick up though, remember one very important thing. You need to challenge yourself in that hobby. Otherwise, as we saw from our earlier discussions on when flow happens, you won't experience flow. Flow only happens when you're stretching yourself. So make sure that you aren't doing something just to while away time, but that you're actually challenged by it. If you already have a hobby, good for you. You know just how important it is in your life, so you can easily imagine how much more meaningful and enjoyable your life will be if you could get to experience flow at work as well. If you aren't currently experiencing flow at work, what can you do? I recently had the pleasure of talking to one of the most popular business school teachers in Austin, Texas, and actually all of the US. His name is Professor Steven Tomlinson. Here's what he said to me when I asked him, what advice he would have for someone who currently finds work to be unfulfilling and meaningless. Listen. » To find fulfillment in work, you want to take a step back and ask, what is work really about? At the level of finding, at the level of happiness and satisfaction. And there seem to be two components of that puzzle. One piece is using all of your innate talent in some constructive way, and the other is being focused on being helpful to other people rather than impressing or getting things for yourself or making objects of others. And those are two puzzles that are worth solving. You don't have to have a grand solution to them. You practice with those questions. What is it that you're really good at? And cultivate those skills as finely as you can. And start putting them into practice in the job you have now. And if the job you have right now can't use all of them, then start to work with that job. Change it. Ask for more responsibility. Just take more responsibility on yourself. One of my mentors used to say, don't quit your job. Bend it until it breaks. And at some point they'll either put you in another job, the people you're working with, or you'll get fired and you'll be free to go find something else. But along the way you will have demonstrated to other people what you're good at. And I found, and the people that I think solve this problem gracefully, seem to find that the solution is in showing people what you can do so you get invitations. The second puzzle that we have to solve in career planning is, you're not ever going to be happy if you're trying to get recognition for yourself, if you're piling up more stuff for yourself, more toys, more money, more praise, more whatever. That happiness is not commensurate with that way of being in the world. And I think you know there's research to suggest that people who focus on that kind of stuff become relatively boring, and they're pretty bored with themselves. The second piece, I think, of building a powerful career is what's going on in the world? What's going on in your community? What is going on around you that warrants your attention? Because if you start paying attention to these things, then something deeper than your ego will start pulling together the talent that you have and invite you to respond. And so these two things go together, looking outside yourself and doing what you're good at, taking those gifts as your reliable source of inspiration. » So as you just heard, what Steven suggests is that the best way to get more flow into your work life is by doing two things. First, start identifying what you're good at, or skilled at, and nurture those talents. If this means taking on more responsibility or bending your job description, so be it. This might take some courage and hard work, but it will definitely be worth it. Second, identify the things that the community around you, could be your neighborhood, your country, your city or even the whole world needs. Then try and find ways to meet those needs. So what Steven suggests is that identifying the following two circles. And ideally something that lies at their intersection is one way to get to experience meaning and flow at work. To these two criteria I could add another one which is what you enjoy doing. Sir Ken Robinson calls the intersection of what you enjoy doing and what you're good at your element. As he argues, one of the best way to find fulfillment and meaning at work is by being in your element. Doing the things that you're not just good at but you also enjoy doing. Of course, if you are like many of my students you may not have a good idea of what you enjoy doing or what you are good at for that matter. That's one way in which Sir Ken Robinson feels and I agree with him, that our educational systems fail us. Unfortunately, there's no real short cut to finding out what you're good at. As Herminia Ibarra suggests in her book Working Identity, perhaps the best thing you can do is to start with some self-experimentation. Specifically, she recommends that you take some time off, even as you retain your currently unsatisfying job, and spend a few hours every week exposing yourself to people and activities that you think you might like. Let's say that you're an accountant. I'm just picking accountant as a job, nothing against it, and that you find this job to be boring and meaningless, and you think that where your talent lies and what you would really enjoy doing is owning a scuba diving shop. Then you could spend, say, two to three hours every weekend finding out more about what it would be to own a scuba dive shop. For example, you could volunteer your services at a local dive shop. You could man the register or help out with refilling the tanks. Over time, as you gain more experience working at the dive shop, you will discover whether you in fact have the skills required to run one, or it was just one of your daydreams and fantasies. You will also discover whether you truly enjoy running a dive shop or not. And if it turns out that scuba diving isn't your thing, you were just thinking that it could be your thing, then you'll be happy that you didn't quit your day job to start a dive shop. On the other hand, if you find that you do enjoy working at a dive shop and that you're good at it your time spent volunteering will be well spent. You would have developed some important connections with people in that line of business and also gained some important knowledge on what it takes to run a dive shop. I could actually say a lot more on this topic of how to transition from your currently boring and meaningless job into something that you find meaningful and fulfilling. But in the interest of time, I'm going to stop right here. But what I'll do is recommend three books to you, if you're interested in this topic. One is Working Identity by Herminia Ibarra, which I mentioned some time back. Second is The Element, by Sir Ken Robinson, also a book that I mentioned earlier. Finally, I would recommend Drive by Dan Pink, which I mentioned in the last video. In addition to these books, I'd also recommend my own book that will be coming out some time next year. It's as I mentioned in week one, tentatively titled, If You're So Smart Why Aren't You Happy? In it, I will not just cover the topic of finding your flow in more depth, but I will also be covering a lot of other topics that I don't have the time to get into in this course. For example, the difference between what professor Robert Vallerand calls harmonious passion and obsessive passion. If you want to know more about the difference between the two right away, you can check out Professor Vallerand's talk in the bibliography for this week's lectures. With that, let me bid bye to you for now. I will look forward to seeing you in the next video, where I will be discussing an all-important topic. How to mitigate the need for superiority. [MUSIC]