How tapping into your 'flow' can improve your business

We’ve all felt it. That wonderful feeling of getting lost in a task – letting go of all thoughts and time constraints and laser-focusing on one single thing – which brings you a peaceful kind of joy and often results in unbridled creativity. This feeling is otherwise known as ‘flow’, and it’s important for all of us to connect with, writes Cat Howell, business mentor and founder of The Flow Protocols.

Pay close attention and you will find that most of your own success and the success of others was created from a space of ‘flow’. Where there was deep passion for the task at hand, a compulsion of sorts, a creative genius.

This is essentially what flow is – a state where your focus is immersed and you are creatively expressing yourself – be it through exercise, painting, work or writing.

While flow is a state that enhances wellbeing – it counteracts overwhelm and is a magnet to money – sustaining this state can be a whole different matter.

More often than not we perceive it as something elusive – almost as if it was a muse – that comes at its own whim and leaves us wanting for more, and fearful that it will never return.

Silhouette of a man standing in front of large light globe

How to know when you need more flow

It wasn’t too long ago that I was at the helm of a multi-million dollar company – on top of the world – and feeling confused and empty inside. Overwhelmed and constantly putting out fires. I was starting to think that life had it out for me.

This was a striking contrast to when I first started my business. I was so excited and passionate about what I was creating that I could work 12 hour days and still have steam. On the other hand, when I was overwhelmed, three hours in was enough to deplete me for the day.

If you’re reading this, chances are you may also have dealt with something similar in your life or career. Perhaps a sensation that there is something missing, you are not enough, or that there is more to be done than what you’ve accomplished. It’s a world where the to-do lists never get shorter and it leads to exhaustion.

If your revenues have flatlined and there is resistance happening on all fronts, these are all signs that you are disconnected from flow.

Thankfully, flow is not the elusive beast we have made it out to be and is actually very simple to step into and maintain. Here’s how:

Step #1 – Explore flow

The most important thing to understand about flow states is that your nervous system can’t tell the difference between an emotion experienced through your own imagination, or caused from an outside circumstance. We know this to be true because we can cause physiological changes in our bodies just from being stressed out, or thinking about something that hasn’t happened yet (hello cortisol).

The same applies across activities – meaning your nervous system can’t tell the difference between a flow state that was caused from something you did in your business for work, or one that was achieved through a recreational activity.

This is great news for all of us because it means that by simply accessing flow through other aspects of your life, you can start to teach your own nervous system what it feels like, and this will spill over into all aspects of your life.

What gets you into a state of flow is unique to each person. If you have no idea what activities help to place you in this state, then this is a great time to prioritise ‘dating’ yourself and discovering this.

I personally love to write and garden – when I am taking part in these activities, I lose myself. I have met others who love to rock climb, and even worked with a client whose flow state was cleaning bathrooms!

When I was looking to expand my repertoire of activities, I would join all sorts of strange and wacky meet up groups and tried a whole bunch of stuff out – from mushroom picking through to pottery. Most of it didn’t stick (still a fun experience), but a couple did and I continue to immerse myself in them.

female artist painting on canvas

Step #2 – Release outcomes

Somewhere along the way of becoming an adult, we are told that there are things we must acquire or be, in order to feel whole. We imagine things we would like to have to improve our lives – a partner, a family, a nice car, a team – and are compelled by these desires.

While there’s nothing wrong with desiring things, we have a habit of making our sense of wellbeing conditional on these outcomes. In business and in our personal lives.

We expect things to move in a certain direction and believe that the way to move towards what we want is to read more, attend more workshops, learn more things, hire more people, push more. We believe that we are not enough as it is, that there is something missing from us.

When we operate with conditions like these on ourselves it is nearly impossible to find flow, because the very premise of flow is a detachment to an outcome.

Think about it. When you are rock climbing, you’re not thinking about how worthless you are if you don’t climb. When you write a poem in flow, you’re not thinking about whether or not the poem is going to become a number one bestseller or not. While great artists may have great egos, the truth of the matter is that their works were never created from the space of expectation to a specific outcome.

And so, releasing the desire for more money, or more clients, is an important step to reconnecting with flow.

Step #3 – Let your intuition guide, not your rational mind

Emotions are a powerful and sophisticated tool that serve you greatly by communicating to you when you’re no longer aligned.

When we feel tension like overwhelm, stress, fear, anxiety and depression, we are telling ourselves in that moment that the perspective we have doesn’t match up to the perspective of the individual we aspire to be.

Therefore, when we feel overwhelmed or unfulfilled in our lives or business, we must take heed.

Understanding our emotions in this way is the first step to living a life guided by our intuition. While you may not trust your own gut feelings enough, you know pretty clearly if you feel good or if you feel bad.

Here’s a great rule of thumb – you are never aligned when you are working on things that you are not passionate about.

I spent three years convincing myself to ‘suck it up’ and continued doing something that was no longer fulfilling. Because I gave more weight to my rational mind, the result was depression and a mental breakdown.

You can avoid similar suffering when you realise that your emotions, your intuition and your imagination are much more powerful than your rational mind.

This can be scary for people because most of us like to have a definite plan and picture of exactly what things should look like. Following our own guidance requires us to be comfortable with a big unknown.

But ask yourself earnestly – what do I enjoy doing in my business? Whatever it is, go do that a lot more.

What aren’t you passionate about in your business? Stop doing that.

You don’t need to justify what you want or don’t want, because your intuition is never rational. Learn to live by it and you will experience flow as a natural byproduct.

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