This morning, I was blessed to watch the latest daily video from John Maxwell, in which he talks about availability. I’ve included a link to the video below. One of the things he said that really struck me was about finding the right people, at the right time, for the right reasons.
This is something that I’ve always found to be true in my own life. In fact, I wish that I had of known this when I was 20. It would have made such a difference to my life. I’ve always been a go getter, impatient for success, always out there doing something, trying to make something happen. But I found that often the harder you try to make things happen, the harder life becomes.
When I think about it, this has been true for my Coaching Business also. The harder I tried to find Clients, the harder they were to find. But once I simply stopped DOING and focused more on ALLOWING, the easier it became. The hardest thing was to simply have faith the the right people would find me, at the right time, for the right reasons. Once I got this, I didn't have to FIND Clients, they were bowling me over!
Life is designed to be effortless. Some people refer to this as FLOW. The more you ALLOW things to FLOW to you, the more effortless life becomes.
Another example is something that happened a few weeks ago. I was out for my morning walk around Christison Park and there was a girl who had been walking her dog, and her dog had gotten away. She was desperately trying to chase it, and the more she chased it, the more it ran away. It started running in my direction, I could see what had happened, so I tried to run towards it to grab the lead that was trailing on the ground. As soon as it saw me coming towards it, again it started to run in another direction. At that moment I STOPPED! I crouched down. As soon as I crouched down, the dog instantly ran towards me and I could grab the lead!
The more you chase something, the more it will avoid you like the plague. Flow State has become a hot topic these days. But what exactly is Flow State. Well, Flow State is a much bigger topic than we can really cover in 1 blog but let me just give you my own simple take on Flow State….
AND….
tell you how you can achieve it in as little as 10 minutes or less!
When you’re in Flow, everything comes effortlessly to you. So for me, it makes sense, that to actually ACHIEVE Flow State should also be something that comes effortlessly to you. I mean think about it, if Flow State is effortless, working hard to achieve it means that you’re ALREADY out of alignment with Flow State.
I’m always telling people, you have to have the same vibrational energy as that which you seek to bring into your life. Now, I’m not saying you should do nothing, and I’m not talking about being lazy. What I’m saying is that you cannot emit a vibrational energy which is not in alignment with that you are BEING. If you’re constantly working hard, you’re emitting a vibrational energy of “working hard” and you’re going to attract “working hard” into your reality. This is not an environment in which Flow State can occur.
It’s also not a healthy state to be living in actually. You need balance in your life. I was reading a Blog recently where a guy said that he doesn’t believe in balance. He believed that the word “balance” is just something used by lazy people to justify being lazy. The first thought that occurred to me was, that’s just an argument used by workaholics to justify being a workaholic!
Balance is KEY! I’m always busy, but never flat out. If you don’t have at least 1 person in your life who thinks you’re lazy, you’re probably working too hard to ever achieve Flow!
So how do we achieve Flow State? Well, it’s not something like an Olympic Gold Medal that can only be won after years and years of hard work and tireless sacrifice. You make the sacrifice, you get the reward, that’s how the Olympics work. That’s not how Flow State works. Flow State is not external, it’s internal. Sir Edmund Hillary said, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves”. I think that this is the perfect illustration of what Flow State actually is. It’s not some huge mountain that we have to conquer, it comes from within. It is a state of being that we can deliberately choose to experience.
Many people have trouble experiencing Flow State, and I can relate to this because I used to be one of them. Nowadays I can step in to Flow at will, in less than 10 minutes.
Here’s How I Access Flow In Less Than 10 Minutes.
Flow Is Round, Not Square.
I would describe Flow as being round. That may seem unusual to describe Flow as being a Shape. But what I mean by that is something that is round can’t be squeezed in anywhere. You can shove a square box into a corner. But a round shape just can’t be squeezed or shoved in anywhere. It commands a space all of its own. That’s how I think about Flow. You can’t squeeze it in anywhere. You can’t squeeze Flow in between your 3pm and 3:45 appointments. You’ll feel rushed, pressured. You can’t be rushed or pressured if you want to experience Flow. When you want to be in Flow, you have to have no time limit attached to it.
Flow Is Stress Free.
When you’re in Flow, you’re stress free. So you want to eliminate stress from your mind before you try to achieve Flow State. I’m not saying you can eliminate stress from your life, but you can certainly eliminate it from your mind for a short time while you’re in Flow. So start out by releasing all the worries and concerns that you carry with you throughout the day. Take a few moments, you might want to do a mini meditation for say 5 minutes just to clear your mind before you start.
Set Your Outcomes.
Decide exactly what it is that you want to achieve through Flow State. For me personally, I enter Flow State whenever I’m about to write a Blog, conduct a Webinar, or do a 1 on 1 Coaching Session for example. Start out with the exact outcome that you want to manifest in mind.
Step In To It.
This is something that I got from my Coach. He said to me, Neill, think of someone who you really admire. Someone who you know could really achieve what it is that you’re trying to achieve. For me, I usually pick someone like Richard Branson or Tony Robbins. Now he said imagine that person had offered to just come in and be you for the day. They would do this particular thing for you. What kind of a result to you think that THEY would be able to produce for you? I said, they’d probably produce a pretty awesome result!
Then he said, there’s no reason why you can’t achieve the same result. This is what you need to do. Visualise that person standing directly in front of you. Really look them in the eye. REALLY look at them. Observe their clothes, look at their face, REALLY look at it! See the lines on their face, observe every detail. Now just imagine that you walk up to this person and just “Step Into Them”. You then assume all of their good traits, all the things you really admire about them, all the things that make them so great. Imagine they’re all yours.
My Coach asked me, how do you feel about doing this particular task now. I said, I feel AMAZING, I feel unstoppable! That’s the final step for me in achieving Flow State. I really Step In To It!
Using these steps, I can achieve Flow State any time that I want in as little as 10 minutes! Now it’s your turn…
Ask yourself this question. If you could have someone else that you really admire, it could be anyone, step into your life and do just 1 task for you, and you knew that they would do it with the absolute brilliance that you admire them for…
Who would you choose?
What task would you want them to complete?
Now you job this week is to use these tools that we have discussed to step into your Flow State and cross this task off your list at your highest Flow State. If you do this, you will be amazed by what you can achieve. Let me know how you go with this in the comments below.
(Click below to watch the Blog from John Maxwell, which inspired this Blog).
