What if it's not about you? Flow state...

[AndrewNC]

What if the business is not about you...at all?

Zero percent. It has nothing to do with you.

I was just partying with a rockstar...

A singer...on a monday night...

We were getting into some deep conversations on the parallels between what we do. Him as a singer, myself as a writer/entrepreneur.

I said it would be cool if I wrote a song for him to perform at one his upcoming shows (I've never written a song before). I told him that, and he said it would great.

Then I asked him how he comes up with the songs he writes.

He told me the first step is that he gets the beat in his mind. It's not from some logical thoughts, but from flow state....the vibes just "flow out of him".

But the vibes don't always float out of him.

When he tries to thing, or tries to do...and thinks about it, it doesn't work.

"What separates the time from when you get into flow state, and when you don't?" I asked.

His response was a response I would never forget for the rest of my life...

And I would never forget this because I experienced the same thing, when it comes to getting to flow state...

When I write things on here and on my blog and in my books, I see my words and lessons resonate with a LOT of people....sometimes.

But other times, not so much.

Do you know what makes the difference?

The answer for both him and myself....I have brought people to tears with my writing. He has brought entire audiences to tears with his singing...the answer is this...

Everything naturally flows....when every ounce of energy is flowing through us...to 100% and only benefit other people.

When I talk or write to someone with a specific problem, the words just flow out of my mouth. When I write, I write to an audience...and the words just flow out of my mouth.

An interesting thing happens when I get into flow state...I don't even have to think of the words, they just come out. And the more interesting thing is, 100% of the time, my words are the EXACT words the person I'm talking to needed to hear to benefit their life.

I have made thousands of dollars from one product earlier on in my entrepreneur career....by just flowing and helping people with 100% focus on them...where they bought my product afterwords.

The important part I noticed from this conversations, it's almost as if I disappeared.

My self. Myself...was not even in the picture. It was just some natural flow of words or music, designed to benefit the other person's life.

A friend once asked me a few months ago how do we get into flow state?

The answer is this: Remove yourself from the equation. It is not about you. At all.

Any ounce of YOU being left, blocks flow state.

It's all about the others. Music that comes naturally out of him, because it's not about him. He is not up in his head. He is 100% in the zone.

He experienced this with his music....and he brings crowds of people to tears of joy.

I experienced this with my writing....and I change lives

But what if you apply this to your business?

What if you completely remove yourself from the equation. Screw those $10,000 per month goals. Screw the lamborghini. Screw wanting to quit the job.

What if that is all gone. What if it is just the flow state and helping your cusomters?

I don't know where that will lead you, but from my experience, and this singers experience....This might be the very thing you needed to hear to allow you to reach that next level.

You don't exist.

 

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[AndrewNC]

"What separates the time from when you get into flow state, and when you don't?" I asked.

His response was a response I would never forget for the rest of my life...

Oh, and to all you writers out there.

What I did here is called an open loop. I phrase something to pique your curiosity, then talk about something unrelated...and your brain is dying for that answer (unconsciously) so you are hooked and keep reading.

I provide closure for that answer later

Use it in your writing and you'll get more engaged readers.

 

[100k]

May the flow be with you, always.

 

[TonyStark]

I wanna know about the rockstar.

 

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[amp0193]

I spent a lot of time thinking about and pursuing "The Zone" during my college music performance studies.

One of the best books on the subject is The Inner Game of Tennis. Yes, it's a tennis book, but it's really more of a mind optimizing book. It's about achieving peak performance by eliminating mental chatter... both positive and negative.

When you're constantly criticizing yourself, there's always a weight on you, making you feel like you're not good enough. You're thinking about your past mistakes, and trying not to make more mistakes.
When you're thinking about how good of a job you're doing... that's distracting too.

Peak performance happens when you're not thinking about what you're doing, you're just doing it.


My best performances were ones where I spent 15-20 minutes of time in visualization prior to performing. I would literally close my eyes and imagine myself playing the piece flawlessly. How the physical movements felt, how it sounded. Imagining the most perfect version of what I was capable of.

My worst performances were ones where I spent 15-20 minutes prior to my performance in my dorm room frantically trying to fix all the spots in my music I couldn't do quite right. Inevitably, I would spend the entire performance thinking about where I was going to mess up... and how I just messed up.


I struggle with writing music. Not because I'm not capable, but because I constantly judge and critique what's coming out. It's the same reason I struggled with rough drafts in high school English. However, I did write a really nice melody last week... I put a framed photo of my daughter on the piano and just looked at it, and the music came out.

One of the most memorable performances I saw in college was a jazz drumset player improvising to a Van Gogh Painting. Not kidding... and it was Amazing.

 

[Delmania]

Everything naturally flows....when every ounce of energy is flowing through us...to 100% and only benefit other people.

I like these posts, and I like the message behind them, but I also think it's important to bring some science into this. Typically, I find this helpful to build an actionable set of steps towards lofty goals such as these.

What @AndrewNC has said here is in fact very true, but not so much in the lofty egalitarian, help other people, sense he presents. It's a bit more mundane than that. Let's estblish a situation. Inspired by these forums, you decide to start working on a business. You sit down at your computer, with a list of things you need to do. Set up a site, make some connections, etc. 3 hours later, you've shut down Facebook and go to bed. As you muse on your failure to take action, you ask yourself, what's wrong with me? Why can't I make headway?

Nothing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. What's wrong is how you're trying to work. Humans are social animals. With a few rare exceptions, working in isolation with no clear goal will cause your brain to start wandering. Think about when you go to work, and your master asks you to complete some task within a deadline.

Typically, you get it done, the motivating factor being you don't want to disappoint your master. Some of us may be fortunate enough to have an amiable relationship with our masters, and do not want to disappoint him because it would hurt that. Most of us, however, know that if we fail, our master will bring his the force of his role on us, and either punish or fire us. Regardless, the point is your master has set clear deadlines, expectations, and consequences for you. He has set up clear accountability. When you are working in isolation, you are accountable only to yourself, which only works in few rare occasions.

What does this mean for you? You need to setup accountability for yourself. You need to find someone, a mentor, a mastermind group, a business partner. Someone who you can tell your goals and who will keep you accountable. It's hard to work for yourself effectively, you do need to work for someone else.