How to Attain Near-Perfect Decision-Making

"In a very simple definition," says author Steven Kotler, "Flow is a heightened state of decision-making. It's near-perfect decision-making."

Flow is the state of mind that transforms a human being from an average creature - capable of fairly average achievements - into a superman (or woman) capable of doing things that no one has ever done before.

Now imagine that you could achieve the flow state at will: at work, at play, and in life-threatening situations. Flow is the closest humanity has come to the Fountain of Youth; it has extended countless human lives (more on this in a moment.)

In the flow state, your conscious brain lets go; it gets overwhelmed and allows your unconscious mind to take over. Your sense of time shifts or even disappears, going faster or much, much slower. As this happens, your normal boundaries disappear.

Kotler reveals the science of flow state in his forthcoming book, The Rise of Superman. It's been a long time since I have so eagerly awaited a new book (his is due out March 4, but you can preorder it now.)

RISE uses top adventure and action athletes such as surfer Laird Hamilton, snowboarder Travis Rice, and skateboarder Danny Way to unlock the science of how we perform and feel our best. These are the people for whom utter concentration and absolute focus are essential elements of their job description.

Kotler is making masterful use of videos to generate excitement about the book. He is sponsoring a flow video contest, in which people can submit short videos about their own flow state experiences. He is also using video to explain the flow state, which he says requires a person to go through three stages:

Struggle: first, you are strenuously engaged in an problem, task or undertaking.

Release: second, you free yourself from something that binds, fastens or holds you back.

Flow: you attain almost superhuman concentration, insights and/or powers.

Kotler offers an example from his own skiing experiences. He was in a relaxed mode, ready to take a 15-foot jump into soft powder, when he hit the drop-off too fast, doubling the height of his fall. To make matters worse, in a split-second he realized the landing wasn't going to be anything like he expected.

What I anticipated to be soft, squishy spring snow was frozen ice chunks, death rocks, all the rest. I was doing 32 feet per second per second, straight at a boulder field."

Steven did not panic. He did not die. What happened instead was that time slowed down. Way down. His conscious mind, the part of you that talks incessantly in your head, got out of the way.

Your conscious brain cannot process much information. Hurtling towards death - and searching for a way out - is a big processing task, far bigger than your conscious mind can handle.

Steven's subconscious, which has far fewer limitations, took over. It realized that a normal landing would kill him. Time slowed to a crawl, and his subconscious proposed a solution:

In my slow motion state, I had time to realize that if I aimed my edges for a fault line between the ice chunks—essentially coming in with my ankles cocked (usually an incredibly stupid idea)—I might be able to slice through the ice and find the snow and ski off."

That's exactly what happened. Steven survived to write a book that has the potential to redefine the limits of what you can accomplish in your life and career. Here's a quick glimpse of what's coming...

P.S. Steven is a wonderful example of the right way to self-promote. Years ago, when I barely knew him, he got me a nice writing gig (help others first). Then he enthralled me with occasional blog posts and a few insightful conversations. When he resurfaced with this book on the way, he led off with dynamic, professional-produced videos (remember: everyone is in show business.) He uses more pictures than words (the Theory of Seven), but his words are clear and compelling...

_____________________________________________________


Bruce Kasanoff is the author of How to Self-Promote without Being a Jerk, available now on Amazon. If you are reluctant to blow your own horn, or find it difficult to get the attention you deserve, this book is for you.

Contact info: Web... Kasanoff.com; Twitter @BruceKasanoff.

Image: courtesy Steven Kotler


Michael Ozeryansky

VP R&D at Beamr (NASDAQ: BMR) | Software, science, and a bit of windsurfing

10y

Steven is amazing person and his writings on macroscopic learning influenced our work on Smartifico a lot. Can't wait to read the Rise. And thank you Bruce for the slideshow and pdf, I guess I really need to read your book. Seems like you're answering exactly the question which I'm struggling with occasionally.

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CHUN-JIU HAN

Cheif Engineer at Jiangsu SUNCO Boiler Co., Ltd.

10y

The flow state you said shall be based on a lot of experiences and training. If not, that's not flow, that's stupid.

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Keith Bates

Strategy, finance, M&A, turnarounds. | Toronto 🇨🇦 | windigobay.com

10y

Not true: "Flow is the state of mind that transforms a human being from an average creature - capable of fairly average achievements - into a superman (or woman) capable of doing things that no one has ever done before." That's simply a false statement. You're going way too far to make a point. As for Kotler, he's equally wrong when he says that flow-states lead to "near-perfect" decision-making.

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Isn't this what Csikszentmihalyi was trying to stress? How does Kotler differentiate his position on flow?

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Pamela Niska

Wealth & Investment Management

10y

I wonder to myself if this simply a part of "fight-or-flight" response taking hold. I believe we've all been there, making a critical choice under immediate duress, which taught each of us something about ourselves. We can all be better decision makers if we can limit our distractions. It just takes discipline.

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