Comments on: In Pursuit of Being

By: orangelad

orangelad — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:03:30 +0000

Right on, J.D.! I've heard "flow" explained a number of times before, but none as succinctly or inspirational as your post above.

As a fellow designer, I can't adequately describe the high I get when I'm "in that zone". It's something that doesn't happen often enough. But breaking down the steps into an objective model as you've done above will really go a long way towards helping me get into that state more often.

By: John Bardos

John Bardos — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:45:16 +0000

You are getting very philosophical J.D. and I like it! I hope you keep up with these types of posts.

"Being" and "Doing" are important concepts to me, but maybe I use them in a different way.

We all want to "be" someone or something. We want to "be" rich, famous, attractive, creative, talented, an artist, a rock star, an actor, etc. To me that type of "being" is a fantasy or a wish. You often witness this type of "being" when people talk about the book they are going to write, or hand out business cards for a business that doesn't exist yet. They are enamored by "being" but suffer from a shortage of "doing."

The people who are "doing" every day are the ones that accomplish great things. Success is a product of action, not fantasies. "Doing" things because you enjoy them regardless of the rewards you may or may not receive is what designing your own life means to me.

By: Rasheed Hooda

Rasheed Hooda — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:25:40 +0000

Awesome post, JD

Yes, I know what flow is. I used to get into flow when I was into photography. (I know I will get back into it, soon)

I remember one particular moment, well actually it was more like an hour and a half, in which I took a total of four shots. two of the best photos I EVER did came from those four shots. I used to become oblivious to my surroundings when I was out with my camera, and my new wife could not handle being ignored for what seemed to me like a few seconds, which to her was an eternity, and the actual time was somewhere in between there. So, slowly but surely, photography lost its grip on me.

Now that she has lost a grip on me, I find myself more and more getting into the flow. Whether it's writing or doing dishes, or going for a walk, or being with a good friend.

Thanks for the break down of the process. I love being for the sake of being and doing for the sake of doing.

Rasheed

By: Diggy-Upgradereality

Diggy-Upgradereality — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:01:47 +0000

Heya JD:) I admire you for being a designer. Design has never been my strong point, but I love doing it anyways. I suppose the only way to get better at it is to spend a lot of time with it.

I totally agree with Flow, it's inspiration and creativity, and you can't force it, you just need to find a way to release it and let it into your mind.

Great post! Have an awesome day! Diggy

By: jdbentley

jdbentley — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:03:50 +0000

Is it a party if it happens every night? No. But we are talking about life here! It would be more like a party that happens every night in a different place with different people. Having fun never gets old, having fun in the exact same way does. I think trying to attain a constant state of flow is something I want to look into. I'm not sure it's possible to do it all the time, but I think it can be maximized.

By: jdbentley

jdbentley — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:00:43 +0000

That's awesome. It's kind of funny, though, that you can flow when hiking but if I'm hiking flow is impossible! All I can think about is getting to the top or getting to the bottom. There's no journey for me, I'm either up or down. Maybe one day when I'm a little more in shape I can learn to enjoy everything in between.

(Also, when I was a kid we were hiking and had to crawl under a fence. I ended up with one of those fuzzy prickly caterpillars on me... the kind that stabs you with their venomous barbed hairs 12 times. Not a fan of hiking since.)

By: jdbentley

jdbentley — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:53:26 +0000

I wrote a couple weeks ago about some things I've been doing that has increased my productivity. One of these was waking up with an alarm clock. After I got in the groove of things and learned how to more efficiently manage my block working (working in 2 hour chunks rather than 8 hours straight) I've ditched the alarm clock and any formal schedule. Watching the clock is detrimental to both productivity and fulfillment. You'll get where you want to go some day soon. Most people never even take the time to examine themselves, so you're miles and miles ahead of most people.

By: jdbentley

jdbentley — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:50:17 +0000

Glad you liked this post. Good luck with your writing project.

I'm sorry you had to add your latest post in the comment. I'm really wanting to get that plugin (commentlove? maybe) that will automatically pull everyone's last post, but at the moment it's incompatible with IntenseDebate. As soon as it's available I'll have it up and running.

By: jdbentley

jdbentley — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:47:19 +0000

I really latched on to your addition "if I set myself up to be swept up." I'm sure there are lots of people who can flow, but who haven't bothered to create an intentional atmosphere for it. For me, I need total quiet. I've tried playing music while I worked and it just brings down my productivity. I end up turning the volume lower and lower until it might as well not even play. People need to cultivate an atmosphere for flow.

By: jdbentley

jdbentley — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:44:46 +0000

People who aren't doing something like that clearly aren't doing what they are supposed to. I can't imagine having to do work that wasn't challenging and didn't encourage some kind of personal, professional or spiritual growth. I know what it's like having a job like that, but I couldn't put up with it more than 6 months.