The Art of Impossible: Part Two

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Hello there! 🏄‍♂️

Last month, I wrote Part 1 of a 2 part MINDSET REC RUNDOWN series on the book, The Art of Impossible, by Steven Kotler.

This book is an incredible read and is all about achieving peak human performance as you learn what it takes to reach the impossible.

Kotler breaks it down in a way that makes it simple and turns the impossible into POSSIBLE. 🙌

• MOTIVATION - Where it all starts

• LEARNING - Keeps you going

• CREATIVITY - How you navigate

• FLOW - How you achieve massive results

PART ONE was all about breaking down the motivation and learning phases of reaching the impossible.

ICYMI: 👉 READ IT HERE

For PART TWO, let’s dive into CREATIVITY and FLOW.

*Disclaimer: Many of the words below are not my own and are credited to the book.

Creativity Decoded…

• PREPARATION

  • A problem is identified and the mind starts to explore its dimensions

• INCUBATION

  • This is where the problem gets passed from the conscious mind to the unconscious mind and the pattern recognition system begins to dissect the problem.

• ILLUMINATION

  • The idea bursts back into consciousness, which is an experience we call insight. This insight goes through a verification process, where the problem is reviewed, tested, and applied to real world problems.

CREATIVITY is the foundation of PEAK PERFORMANCE…

…but creativity isn’t just one thing.

Kotler goes on to explain that the notion of only the left brain is logical and the right brain is creative, doesn’t even come close.

It takes the whole brain to be creative.

There is zero data showing that you can’t be LOGICALLY CREATIVE or CREATIVELY LOGICAL.

As I think about this, an easy example to paint this picture would be an Artist or a CEO.

A successful artist is extremely creative with their work and logical with how it’s distributed.

A successful CEO is extremely logical with decisions they make and creative with how they are implemented for best results.

Both PEAK PERFORMERS are leveraging both sides of the brain to drive a MASSIVE IMPACT and take MASSIVE ACTION.

After all… our brains turn information into action.

They gather information through our senses, thoughts, and feelings…

…then turn those into actions via the muscles as energy and preferably as efficiently as possible.

If we’re producing novel action plans that are also efficient, useful, and valuable, we’ve arrived to the standard psychological definition of CREATIVITY.

Creativity is the production of novel ideas that have value and fall on a sound neurological footing.

Befriend your Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC).

This is required for insight moments and a GOOD MOOD activates the ACC.

Sleep, gratitude, mindfulness, and exercise are all important factors in determining your mood and overall happiness.

When you can bring alignment of these areas into your life on a daily basis, this will promote a consistent open mind towards any and all creative possibilities.

We all have a decision here…

If we now know that tapping into our CREATIVITY provides a compelling reason to achieve PEAK PERFORMANCE towards our own SUCCESS, then we need to ask ourselves this question…

Am I a Creator or am I a Consumer?

FLOW is the fourth state of being to reach the Impossible.

It is a state of mind that occurs when a person is totally immersed in an activity.

During extreme focus, the brain can shut down regions that are not critical for the task at hand.

This helps us navigate through space and gives us a sense of becoming one with the task or activity.

Time dilates, distraction is eliminated, and sense of self vanishes.

Kotler gives a perfect example of this when he picked up surfing.

Making that drop on a wave, he would lose control… 🏄‍♂️

…but not in the way you’re thinking.

He lost control of the current dimension he was in.

His brain was working at normal speed, but the world was going by at freeze frame.

His vision was panoramic and felt like he could see out the back of his head.

At one point it wouldn’t even feel like he himself was surfing at all and was just witnessing a surfboard cruising across the wave without feeling like he was even on it.

He was in another dimension.

His consciousness expanded and had become one with the universe.

He was battling Lyme disease for the two years prior to finding his newfound love for surfing and directly correlates going out on the waves achieving this State of Flow for a many months as the reason for being cured.

He wrote another book about his experience with this called, West of Jesus.

As an athlete, you hear this when someone says, “You’re in the zone.”

I’ve personally experienced this phenomenon during my high school basketball playing days.

Cutting the lane.…passing the ball…shooting the three…grabbing the rebound…blocking the shot…stealing the ball…starting the fast break…

It was all in a STATE OF FLOW.

And it was MAGICAL.

FLOW TRIGGERS

There are many known triggers that can help you achieve FLOW STATE.

These triggers work by pushing attention on the present moment, with the release of dopamine (pleasure hormone), and/or norepinephrine (focus hormone), and/or lowering the cognitive load.

The triggers are your toolbox and if you want more flow in your life, then build your life around the following main groups of triggers.

INTERNAL TRIGGERS

• COMPLETE CONCENTRATION - flow follows focus

• AUTONOMY - the freedom to pursue flow and the art of saying “no”

• CURIOSITY-PASSION-PURPOSE - a triad of intrinsic motivators that help provide focus when all three are properly stacked

• CLEAR GOALS - with an emphasis on the world “clear”, this tells us where and when to put our attention

• IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK - a direct, in the moment or daily, coupling of cause and effect, that tells us how to do something better

• CHALLENGE-SKILLS-BALANCE - the most important of triggers because we pay the most attention to the task at hand when the challenge slightly exceeds our skillset

EXTERNAL TRIGGERS

• HIGH CONSEQUENCES - threats or risk lurking in our environment

• SOCIAL RISK - your brain processes social danger as mortal danger, which brings more attention to the risk

• RICH ENVIRONMENT - a combination of novelty, unpredictability, and complexity, which all drive dopamine into our system

• DEEP EMBODIEMENT - a type of expanded physical awareness, where we pay the most attention on the task at hand when multiple senses are engaged in that task

CREATIVE TRIGGERS

• CREATIVITY - combining pattern recognition, which is the brain’s ability to link new ideas together, and risk taking, which is the courage to bring those new ideas into the world, drives more focus and flow.

SOCIAL TRIGGERS

• INTERPERSONAL FLOW - what two people talking could experience

• SHARED CLEAR GOALS - everyone needs to be heading towards the same goal

• ALIGNED PERSONAL GOALS - when the team wins, the individual on that team also wins

• SHARED RISK - everyone has skin in the game, which results in collective ambition

• FAMILIARITY - the group has a shared knowledge base and a communication style that is based on an unspoken understanding with everyone being on the same page

• SENSE OF CONTROL - combining autonomy (free to do what you want) and competence (being good at what you do)

Flow triggers open the floodgates for dopamine and norepinephrine to enter the system.

These chemicals enhance concentration and engagement.

Flow triggers reduce the number of things we try to pay attention to at any given moment.

FLOW CYCLE

Flow is not binary.

It’s not something you can turn on and off.

It requires a four stage cycle that you must go through in order to re-enter flow.

Welp… there you have it folks! Thanks for flying with me today. ✈️

Again, if you didn’t catch Part One, I highly recommend you do to get the full MINDSET REC RUNDOWN. 👉 READ IT HERE

If you like Podcasts or YouTube, Phil and I take a deep dive into this book.

We discuss the impact it has had on both of us and how audacious goals are approached and pursued.

We chat about how FLOW is at the center of stalking the impossible.

Check out the conversation on the SuccessFlow Podcast below and please like, subscribe, comment, and share this Storybook FLIGHT, along with the Podcast…

…And remember, YOU ROCK!!

Episode 25: The Art of Impossible

Opportunity is Everywhere!!

Cheers! Steven

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