Flow Profile Unpacked

Welcome!
Congratulations on taking your Flow Profile! Now you’re ready to take the next step and learn a little
more about what makes you feel and perform your best.

(haven’t taken your free Flow Profile yet? Click here to take Flow Profile!

If you’re like us, one of the first thoughts you had when you figured out which profile you were—the Hard
Charger, the Flow Goer, the Crowd Pleaser, or the Deep Thinker—was “but that’s not all I am—sometimes I
get into Flow differently”

And you’d be exactly right—none of us are just one single profile, and in fact, how we get into
The Zone depends on what we’re doing, who we’re with, and even what stage of life we’re in.

So take a look through all four profiles presented here, reread the primary one you tested as, and then
see which other ones might also be true for you.

Then you’ll have an even more refined sense of what fires you up, what focuses you, and exactly how you
can spend more time at the top of your game!

Interested in taking the next step in your Flow training? Check out Flow Fundamentals Online Training
Favorite website: Redbull.com
Hard Charger
 
Core piece of equipment: NorthFace Jacket
 
Catch Phrase We Wish You Didn't Ever Say "Bro...stoke...gnarly...epic"
 
You tend to be a focused go-getter who craves intensity in your personal and professional life. You get bored easily with "run of the mill" and seek experiences that have
high challenge and high impact. When you learn a new skill, you often seek out accelerated training from the best of the best, or you put your head down and hyperfocus
until you figure it out yourself--either way, "slow and steady" middle-of-the-pack progress is not for you.
 
The same intensity and focus that pushes you to seek such high-impact experiences, tends to feed a pretty relentless inner critic that is always pushing you to raise the bar--
others may experience this as intimidating or hyper-critical, but what they don't always know is that you judge yourself first and most harshly. For you, Flow offers one of
the few escapes from that unforgiving scorecard, and when you do find activities that offer you this calm and relief, you often put them at the top of your list.
 
Typical Flow Hacks: Adventure sports: skiing, snowboarding, surfing, skydiving, mountain biking, MMA, rockclimbing, race driving, paintball. Non-traditional travel: loose
itineraries, unusual destinations, cultural immersion. Substance Use: stimulants, intoxicants and euphoriants that alternately deliver increased intensity or dampen down
your RPM.
 
Special caution: Due to your wiring for intensity and your persistent need to silence your inner critic, you are often more willing to take risks than many of your peers.
Harnessed positively, this can result in you crafting a "life as a daring adventure" --rich and full of travel, adventure and new experiences--but it can also lead to
"wrecklessness" in the realms of substance use, sexuality, adrenaline sports, and other edgy behaviors.
 
Pro-tip: In seeking Flow as a Hard Charger, pay close attention to where the risk/reward equation gets upside down, and stay on the recoverable side of that line. Rather
than always going bigger and faster, try going deeper. Slow down, take time to develop discipline and mine your given pursuits for all they offer. Self-handicap so that you
don't have to keep upping the ante on the Challenge line of the Challenge/Skills Equation. Lateralize--if you are already hucking 20' cliffs on alpine skis, try telemarking. If
you're surfing big waves, try SUPing. If you're a PUA, try practicing with a single partner. If you're a hard partying clubber, try mindfulness training.

Once you learn the mechanics of reverse-engineering your Flow states, you can realize that you've got more options and combinations to safely and sustainably get most of
the goods without taking all of the risks!
 
Further Learning: Check out www.flowgenomeproject.co to learn more about the Challenge-Skills Equation, Transient Hypofrontality (how the brain shuts down our inner
critic) and Hedonic Engineering (how we can reproduce the feel-good neurochemicals of a Flow state)
 
Want to go deeper? Check out our online and in-person trainings and adventure programs to level-up your Flow game!
 Deep Thinker
Favorite website: Stackexchange.com, Etsy.com
 
Core piece of equipment: my "Away Room

Catch Phrase We Wish You Didn't Ever Say: "Not tonight...”

Your Flow dream date consists of you, yourself and you, getting (finally!) uninterrupted time to do what you love most. You tend to seek Flow through creative,
reflective, often soothingly repetitive work that lets your mind wander, lets your nervous system relax deeply, and lets your muse come through with something
delightful.
 
While you can tolerate and even succeed in the hustle and bustle of daily life, a part of you is always off in your sanctuary, or biding your time until you can return to
recharge your batteries. You may also find yourself seeking out times of day--early mornings or late evenings--where you can feel free of conflicting demands and get
that uninterrupted concentration you thrive on.
 
Typical Flow Hacks: how you personally express your Flow profile can range widely and defies easy categorization. You may engage in the classical arts--painting,
pottery, music. You may have found a home in more contemporary expressions, like digital photography, gaming or coding or "making". You may seek out a kinder,
gentler form of Nature than your Flow cousin the Hard Charger--preferring hiking, gardening, and birding, or working with animals to unplug from daily life.
 
Special Caution: Your nervous system may be particularly sensitive and mismatched to contemporary "always-on" society, and it may require dedicated effort for you to
carve out and protect those experiences that give you the restorative Flow you so deeply need. What's more, in this age of hyper-commercialization, you may feel like
you need to defend your pursuits if they're not earning you large sums of money or recognition. It's OK to write poetry even if you're not published. It's OK to throw
pots or ride horses even if they never "win" you anything. Know that your passions are serving an essential purpose in helping keep you balanced and energized in life--
they increase your resilience, your immunity, your creativity, and your optimism--not only is that enough, it's everything!
 
Pro-Tip: Given your relatively gentle nature and rich inner life, you "may" find yourself less than fully embodied. You might not have excelled in organized sports, and
you may shun the vigorous and challenging in favor of the more contemplative and restorative. Consider boosting your resilience by easing into cardio and strength
training, sign up for a fun race, test your boundaries (mentally) build some muscle (physically) and not only will you find yourself more resilient, you'll also be rewarded
with more Flow when you do return to your happy place!

Further Learning: check out www.flowgenomeproject.co to learn more about Embodied Cognition, Flow and Creativity, and the Neurochemistry of Flow.
Want to go deeper? Check out our online and in-person trainings and adventure programs to level-up your Flow game!
 Flow Goer
Favorite website: Yogaglo.com, gaiam.com

Core piece of equipment: LuluLemon ButtHuggers

Catch Phrase We Wish You Didn't Ever Say: "Namaste"

 
Alright--out of all the Flow Profiles, you're the Flowiest! And by that, we don't mean that you actually have more Flow than everyone else,
but your life, your attitude, your activities, hell, even your clothing--all reinforce to yourself and others, that being in Flow is a central part of
who you are. You've done some soul-searching to get here too--either taking the road less traveled from the get go, or burning out in the Rat
Race and bravely rebuilding a second act that's more aligned for you.

Where the other profiles tend to find Flow at special times under specific conditions, you seek a life that is in Flow all the time. You may
believe in serendipity, synchronicity and that everything happens for a reason.
 
Typical Flow Hacks: Yoga, meditation, ecstatic dance, new circus, internal martial arts, eco-tourism, personal growth retreats
 
Special Caution: In your admirable effort to minimize struggle, conflict and stress in your life, you can overshoot and lose the grit that makes
the pearl. Beware the Bliss Junkie!!! The paradox of Flow is that all of that "effortless effort" take A LOT of work! And it's an incredibly fine
line between "going with the Flow"--only doing things when it's effortless and easy--and just being plain old flakey. And be vigilant of any of
your behaviors that keep life in fuzzy soft focus--especially self-medicating.
 
Pro-Tip: Train your off-side. Be impeccable with your commitments. Be on time. Create a catchment system for all of your meetings, ToDos,
and finances (Getting Things Done is a great place to start, and the iTunes/Android app stores). You've already worked so hard to create a
lifestyle around Flow, and paradoxically, you will find even more Flow in your life by tackling head-on the least Flow-y parts of your life (and
everyone elses') Practice having crucial conversations, and getting comfortable resolving conflict cleanly. Nail your finances. As hard and
counterintuitive as this sounds, you've already done the even harder part--building your life around Flow in the first place. All you've got to
do now is close the open-loops and surrender fully into your bliss! (namaste!)

Further Learning: check out www.flowgenomeproject.co to learn more about Grit, Mindsets, Zen to Done, and Expert Performance Theory
Want to go deeper? Check out our online and in-person trainings and adventure programs to level-up your Flow game!
   
 Crowd Pleaser
Favorite website: Facebook.com

Core piece of equipment: Cameraphone

Catch Phrase We Wish You Didn't Ever Say: "FOMO, YOLO, or pretty much any emoticon, ever"

You're most at home in the thick of it--hanging with friends, going to the big game, concerts, conferences, and anywhere you can thrive on the energy and inspiration of
interacting with others.
You typically find your Flow lost in the moment in the company of friends and like-minded folks. A classic extrovert, you gain a charge from intense events, but unlike
your Hard Charging Flow cousin, that intensity for you comes more from the power of the shared experience than from the risks involved.
 
Typical Flow Hacks: festivals, conferences, social/political causes, nightlife, sports teams (playing and watching), social media, managing organizational teams
 
Special Caution: As a Crowd Pleaser, you should pay special attention to the "Hedonic Treadmill"--where More, Better, Bigger does not always get you back to that
initial hit of Flow that fired you up in the first place. And rallying more people to the "cause" can backfire, leaving you trapped repeating behaviors that actually take you
further from the struggle, focus and deep reward of a fully dimensioned Flow state (see: Frat Boys, Ravers, Facebook junkies).

Pro Tip: Flow, as T.S. Eliot once said "costs not less than everything" and if you want more of it, you may need to tone down the compulsive socializing, go deeper in
your training and practices, and when you do come back online with your crew? You'll be leading everyone to higher heights than ever before. (and if you're into
alcohol, MDMA and other common social lubricants, consider laying off so you can more clearly assess the value of how and with whom you're spending your time)
 
Further Learning: check out www.flowgenomeproject.co to learn more about Group Flow, Hedonic Engineering, and the Neurochemistry of Flow.
 
Want to go deeper? Check out our online and in-person trainings and adventure programs to level-up your Flow game!
Visit us at www.flowgenomeproject.com