I asked two fellow athletes what they believed “flow state” was. The first said flow state was a state “where I can do anything”. The second athlete said that flow was a state for “natural peak performance”. As a performance coach, I loved seeing that both of these answers identify the two key points of flow state–the first being that flow state almost seems to allow you to enter into a portion of the brain where you can dig deeper, go further, and push longer. The second key aspect to flow state is that things just seem easier.
When I talk to athletes about flow state, I describe it as a state that activates when an athlete is able to combine a positive state, unfettered access to their subconscious playbook of empowering beliefs and memories, and a positive belief in self that allows you to reach your peak performance potential. Because of all of these moving pieces, flow state can be hard to access on a consistent basis because, when you think about it, there are a lot of external pieces that can threaten our ability to reach a positive state or feel positive beliefs about ourselves. Life happens, stress happens, and our attention gets pulled in a dozen different directions on gameday.
So, my job is to help athletes develop a plan that allows them to shut out all of that external noise that pulls their attention away from accessing their high-performance mindset. This involves creating a rock-solid mental routine that they can use to access their memories of past success, confidence, and belief in their abilities to get the job done.
Have you ever experienced a flow state? If not, let’s chat about how to get you there!
– Coach Lauren
