Flow should be your top priority

Flow state is a scientifically proven, optimal state of consciousness where you both perform and feel your best. It's behind all (or at least the majority) of humanity's greatest feats in sports, science, business, and the arts.

A study of the top CEOs proved that flow can improve productivity by up to 500%. That's insane. It means you can work one day a week and still be more productive than your coworkers who work five days a week. It even improves creativity by up to 400% - 700%, and your rate of learning by up to 200%.

Flow is a spectrum, meaning you can either have a little or a lot of it. If you're at the end of the spectrum, you're essentially superhuman. It explains the incredible feats of all high achievers.

And it's not just achievable for a few special snowflakes. It's accessible to everyone because flow is a universal phenomenon. There's triggers that activate it, meaning it's reproducible. You can make it habitual so it becomes your new baseline.

Due to the insane increase in productivity and happiness, I'd argue if you're not living in flow, you're not truly living. If you want a meaningful life full of bliss and achievement, it's absolutely essential you make flow a top priority.

Since there's already a ton of great information on the science behind flow and how to achieve it, I'm not going to write it here. But if you're interested, I highly recommend checking out the work by the Flow Genome Project. They're conducting incredible research and are hired by companies like Google, so it's legit.

However, one thing I do recommend which I've seen very few people elaborate on in depth, is advanced meditation to achieve peak, stable flow state. Although any meditation is great, the key is mastering the Jhānas, which are essentially flow states accessible through meditation. The best book I've found which precisely explains how to do this is The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa.

A 5x increase in productivity is also barely the limit. It's just what current studies demonstrate, and the people in those studies aren't Zen monks by any means. No one even knows what the cap is. It's probably way higher, which is evident from insanely prolific individuals such as Nikola Tesla.

The bottom line is if you're not focusing on flow, you're not utilising your true potential.