Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Performance, https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061339202 described the flow state associated with performing in the so-called “Zen zone”
Flow is a highly focused state of relaxed concentration that obliterates all else out of consciousness. It is the state of self-actualization or transcendental behavior that is euphoric, the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.
This state of total focus and unawareness of immediate surroundings is characteristic of brilliant people who achieve at the genius level. Leonardo da Vinci, icon for the “Renaissance man,” engaged himself in a deep study of physiology and the geometry of perspective in order to map the shadows and contours of three dimensional space onto a two-dimensional canvas. Biographer Walter Isaacson explained that on some days, while painting The Last Supper, Leonardo would mount the scaffold at sunrise and begin painting continuously until sunset without stopping to eat or drink.
Similarly, Isaac Newton, universally recognized as the quintessential genius, displayed early in life a remarkable power of concentration and intense focus that would render him entirely unaware of his immediate surroundings. His trip home from Grantham, to Woolsthorpe by horse, required that he dismount at Spittlegate hill, lead the horse up the steep hill, and then remount at the top. On one occasion, while deep in thought, Isaac dismounted at the bottom of the hill and forgot to remount–unaware that the horse had slipped from his bridle and bolted. On arriving home, bridle in hand, he scratched his head, pondering the whereabouts of his horse. Anecdotes that populate the lore of mathematical history, report many occasions when Newton’s intense focus on a particular problem absorbed him completely, until he emerged with a solution.
Our modern-day geniuses display the same capacity for total absorption as they enter the flow state in response to the compelling lure of their vocation. In Entrepreneurial Genius: The Power of Passion, https://www.intelligence-and-iq.com/entrepreneurial-genius/ psychologist Gene Landrum reports:
Jeff Bezos had a vision of what he wanted to achieve, and that vision came with an intense urgency that he himself articulated to Success magazine (July 1998), “In high-growth arenas, speed is essential and a sense of urgency becomes your most valuable asset.”
Business Week described Bezos as “hyperkinetic.” The Bezos mantra was: “Work hard, have fun, and make history. Wake up petrified and afraid every morning. I know we can lose it all. It’s not a fear. It’s a fact.”
Bezos is fiercely competitive and never takes the moderate route in any endeavor. During the early years, he wore every hat in the organization and seldom left the office. Dana Brown, head of ordering, often worked through the night ordering books. When the orders were finally transmitted at 4:30 in the morning, no one else was there except Jeff. She admitted to working 15 to 18 hours a day and told the media, “Jeff was always there. I never saw him go home.”
Nick Hanauer said of Jeff (Spector, p. 230), “He is the most single-mindedly focused person I’ve ever met–to his detriment; it’s all he cares about. He lives, eats, breathes Amazon.com. It occupies virtually his every waking moment. He is maniacally focused. I worry about his health. I worry about what he’s going to be like when he’s 50.”
The “maniacal” behavior that people observed in Bezos was that of a person immersed in the “flow state”, totally absorbed in the moment and intensely focussed.
Elon Musk, the consummate polymath and modern day Leonardo, learned through voracious reading, how to design and build the world’s most advanced rockets and spacecraft. An astute student of history, he studied the ideas and insights of the intellectual giants of the past and incorporates them in mapping out his own far-reaching plans. This modern visionary is reputed to go for long periods without sleep as he relentlessly pursues his dreams.
In 2012, when Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon capsule berthed with the International Space Station it was the first successful cargo mission by a private company. His mom, Maye Musk, in an interview reported in Forbes said, “When I talk with him about his achievements, he just kind of giggles like a little boy with his toy… and when I was going on and on about his taking on too much, he just got this look on his face and said, Mom, I haven’t started yet.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/hannahelliott/2012/10/10/elon-musk-to-maye-musk-mom-i-havent-started-yet/?sh=4b20bcc840eb
Researchers in the psychology of well-being, such as Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania, assert that the flow state is essential in achieving at extremely high levels and is a key contributor to self-actualization. Even those who are not highly intelligent can enhance their performance in any activity by tapping into intrinsic interests and pursuing activities that put them “in the zone.”.
