Playing in the Zone

When was the last time you totally lost track of time? If you were doing something that was so enjoyable you lost track of time, you were probably in the flow zone. This term was coined by researcher and psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The flow zone is a place that you can go in your own mind. It can't be measured or tracked, because this is something that only you know and understand—it's an inside job.

According to Csikszentmihalyi (1990), “Flow” is a state where the challenge and skills meet on the XY axis: You have a challenge before you, and you also have the skill set to accomplish it. You could be doing anything like playing music or writing a report, balancing a budget, planning a party, or even running a marathon. The state of flow is a very individual experience coming in a vast variety of contexts; it would be simply impossible to list them all. But the one thing we do know is that whatever you are doing, when you are in a state of flow, you are in a perfect state of enjoyment. For this reason, work becomes more like play because people are 100% engaged in their task.

Sadly, not that many adults get to experience flow these days. And they almost never experience flow at their jobs. Research indicates this could be due to multiple interruptions, or simply because people are doing work they don't enjoy. And this is all because they never had the chance to discover how to find flow. Gallop research (2024) indicates the world's population is largely out of flow, with 77% of the global workforce disengaged and costing the GDP 8.9 trillion USD.

If you or someone you know is out of flow or disengaged, it's probably because you aren't activating your Playsonality™; you may have lost your PLAY DNA™.  But don't worry, it's only hiding. We will help you find it again.

Ready to lose time to find yourself?  Email us, and let's get play back to work in your life!

Let's be friends, Connect today