Image via WikipediaI’ve heard it hundreds of times while listening to my favorite rap artists - a proclamation of the supremacy of their “flow.” In that context, the artist extols his personal talent at using verbal skill to connect audience and idea in a way that is both entertaining and enlightening. Lil Wayne, one of the current kings of flow, may not realize that the process of tapping into that “flow” may hold the key to a human’s happiness.
Allow me to take a step back from iTunes to discuss a different influence. I’m working my way through “The Happiness Hypothesis,” by Jonathan Haidt, a very readable discussion of the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, spirituality and an individual’s search for greater happiness. Its ideas have equally fascinated and discomfited me. While it is illuminating to understand patterns of seemingly irrational behavior I have observed in myself and others, it also disappointing to reduce once romantic notions of self-determination and relationship development to simple, biological terms.
Related to that notion of biological or hereditary destiny is the concept of the “happiness formula” outlined in Chapter 5. In it Haidt quotes research by psychologists Martin Seligman, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ken Sheldon and David Schkade and their advancement of the simple formula which governs one’s ability to achieve happiness: H = S + C + V. According to the research, “H”, or happiness, is a function of a pre-determined level of happiness (“S”). This level, really more of a range, is inherited from your parents, and determines whether you see the world through an optimistic or pessimistic lens. While most people fall somewhere in the middle of the optimist/pessimist continuum, where exactly one falls determines how great a level of happiness one can ultimately achieve. “S” is beyond any individual’s control.
Now, before you lock yourself in a dark closet with a bucket of pint of Haagen Dazs because your inherent pessimism will relegate you to a life of sorrow, don’t forget about “C” and “V”: the two external factors over which individuals may exert control. “C” represents the conditions of your daily existence, and evidence suggests that the removal of certain conditions can markedly increase your happiness. According to the four scholars, removal of noise (especially noise that is variable or intermittent), commuting (especially in heavy traffic), perceived lack of control over your time and tasks, shame and negative relationships (to which one can never adapt in a way that makes them even stress-neutral) can vastly improve one’s happiness.
The final external factor, “V,” is the one I found most intriguing, and which harkens back to hip-hop luminaries. “V” is the voluntary activities in which we engage, presumably to seek pleasure. The best way to describe the optimal set of activities for any individual is through Mihalyi Czikszentmihalyi’s “Flow State” concept. Czikszentmihalyi’s research draws a distinction between the pleasure people derive from the physical (from chocolate, sex, etc.) and the gratification derived from “total immersion in a task that is challenging yet closely matched to one’s abilities.” Haidt further describes “flow” as the following: “There is a clear challenge that fully engages your attention; you have the skills to meet the challenge; and you get immediate feedback about how you are doing at each step. You get flash after flash of positive feeling with each turn negotiated, each high note correctly sung, or each brushstroke that falls into the right place. In the flow state the elephant (automatic processes) and rider (conscious thought) are in perfect harmony. The elephant (automatic processes) is doing most of the work, running smoothly through the forest, while the rider (conscious thought) is completely absorbed in looking out for problems and opportunities, wherever he can.” The benefit of pleasure is undeniable, but ephemeral. The benefit of the “flow,” or “being in the zone,” compounds over time.
What’s particularly interesting is that flow is about engagement in the task, and not necessarily achievement of a particular outcome. Unlike the old axiom that one’s journey is equally important to the ultimate destination, the suggestion is that in achieving happiness the destination is actually less important than whether or not the journey requires full concentration of one’s abilities. Interestingly, Lil Wayne has been a misunderstood figure in music because of his preference to spend most waking moments in the studio recording extemporaneous “flows”(and for a few legal reasons too). While he has become rich through the commercialization of his work, he has also been criticized for creating too much content and simply throwing it out into the market. Perhaps the rhyming savant has figured out the “V,” and has simply chosen to achieve an almost constant “flow state” by finding his flows as often as possible. If the point is to be engaged in the process, then perhaps the result of the process is truly less important?
The concept of flow, and the example of Lil Wayne, makes me wonder how often, either through vocation or avocation, I achieve that level of engagement. An honest assessment tells me that I should spend more time dropping Mad Flows too.
