Instant Flow: Achieving Optimum Human Performance At Will
(a book by Michael McCafferty)
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Table of Contents
Introduction
The State of Being Where Everything Works
Part I — Recognizing the State
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The State Where Everything Works
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Calm Under Intensity
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Mental, Physical, and Social Flow
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Productive and Non-Productive Flow
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The Scarcity Problem
Part II — The Conditions That Create Flow
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Narrowing Attention
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Eliminating Internal Interference
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The Power of Immediate Feedback
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Environment Design
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Physiological Alignment
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The Pre-Flow Ritual
Part III — Entering Flow on Demand
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What Hypnosis Really Is
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Self-Hypnosis for Performance
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Installing a Trigger
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The 5-Minute Flow Protocol
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Using Flow Before High-Stakes Moments
Part IV — Applied Flow
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Flow at the Keyboard
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Flow in Competition
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Flow in Mentorship and Leadership
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Flow in Critical Conversations
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Flow as a Professional Advantage
Conclusion
Imagine
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Chapter 1
Flow: The State of Being Where Everything Works
Imagine...
Imagine if you could live at nearly one hundred percent of
your mental and physical capacity.
Zero anxiety.
Fully focused, yet relaxed and confident.
Imagine having moments that are optimized.
Imagine your attention so completely absorbed in what
you are doing that nothing extraneous enters your awareness.
No internal narration grading your performance.
Just clarity.
Your movements are efficient.
Your perception sharp.
Your breathing steady.
Your decisions immediate.
There is no split between thinking and doing.
There is only execution.
This is flow.
Flow is calm under intensity.
The environment may be demanding.
The stakes may be real.
Your heart rate may rise.
But internally, you are steady.
Mind and body align.
Performance is perfect, almost easy.
You have pre-seen the outcome and allow it to happen.
Here are a few of my personal experiences in the state of flow.
At the pool table.
The room grows quiet.
You approach the table smoothly, with confidence.
There is no rush and there is no waiting.
The angles are obvious.
You feel the stroke before you release it.
You see where the cue ball will go before you shoot.
The sound of contact is clean.
You became the cue ball, the stroke, the game.
Landing an open cockpit biplane.
There is a challenging gusting crosswind on final approach.
Perfect conditions to trash your wood and fabric vintage airplane
Your hands and feet respond on the controls before thoughts form.
You hold off landing until the the last moment, then flare.
The wheels tickle the grass field for a second or two then touch down so gently, imperceptibly.
You are inside the ever-changing process of landing.
At speed on the track.
Tires at the edge of grip.
Micro-corrections occur instantly and continuously.
Fear is replaced with focus.
Time stretches.
You and the car become one and move as if in a dream.
Across the table from a startup founder/CEO.
Revenue uncertain.
Cash runway shrinking.
Product and personnel issues are many, and pressing.
You listen with full attention and intention..
You ask one or two questions.
You know the answers before the words escape their lips.
There are a few moments of silence.
Then founder breathes out, anxiety evaporates.
The path ahead is clear.
They know the solution without you having to tell them.
Your questions alone reveal the truth.
Moments like these feel accidental and rare.
But they can be created.
Imagine.
Imagine if you could create this state at will.
Before a critical meeting.
Before writing something important.
Before making a high-stakes decision.
Imagine beginning your day in that condition.
Imagine conducting your business from that level of
clarity.
Imagine the compound effect of operating that way
consistently.
Imagine what that would do for your success in life and
in business.
That is where we are going.
Read on...
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