Quests and Flow States

Flow

I was talking to a Mini-Quest participant who’s four weeks into his Quest. He was really curious about the experience he’s been having, as it’s felt so different to previous ways that he’s approached learning new skills and setting goals.   

With his permission, I’m sharing a few of his words:

‘This framing has changed everything.

It feels lighter.

I feel like I’m in it, whereas usually I’m outside or on top of things, judging.

It’s so much easier to get into the flow.

Huh. Why is that?’

We had an interesting conversation about ‘flow states’ or ‘being in the zone’—when you’re immersed, and time and the judging self disappears.

The entire intentional design process for Quests is well-aligned with supporting this. To share a few elements, this looks like:

  1. A deliberate focus on intrinsic motivation: the drive to do something for its own sake, because it’s inherently interesting, enjoyable, or meaningful—not because of external rewards like money, praise, or grades.
  2. A sweet spot of challenge that stretches us but doesn’t overwhelm us.
  3. An intentional process that supports enjoyment of the doing, not just being done.
  4. A playful approach that doesn’t just unlock more ease and creativity, it also turns down the ‘self-monitoring’ that gets in the way of flow. (This judging self kicks in big time when we are really trying to take things ‘seriously’ or straining to ‘get things right’.)

I could go on! But I’ll hand over to Flow expert Steven Kotler to close us out:

‘If we are hunting the highest version of ourselves, then we need to turn work into play and not the other way round. Unless we invert this equation, much of our capacity for intrinsic motivation starts to shut down. We lose touch with our passion and become less than what we could be and that feeling never really goes away.’

― Steven Kotler, The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance

That sounds VERY Questful.

Want help designing a Quest that you love and that changes things for you too, in the most fun ways…?

You’re welcome to find me here, and ask away.