I’ve been fortunate to be involved in some musical presentations through Columbia University’s School of Business. These are performances that morph into moderated discussions of cooperation and communication in the jazz environment that can be adopted and modeled in the business environment.

One of the magic moments is always when our moderator says,”I once asked a jazz musician what he was thinking after a great performance and he replied, ‘when can I do this again?’….Now isn’t that what you’re all thinking when you get out of meetings with your colleagues?”

That line always gets a laugh from the crowd. Why? Because they don’t enjoy their work. So, our moderator attempts to show people how they CAN enjoy their work, which usually results in better work.

This led me to read the book “Flow”, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The flow described in the book is something experienced regularly by the happiest people. It’s when the task is perfectly matched to your skills. You can lose yourself in the enjoyment of the task. If the task is too easy, you’re bored. If it’s too difficult, you’re stressed. Many times, we experience boredom when we could experience flow.

You want to experience flow? Make the task more difficult. Challenge yourself. The quickest path to flow is by turning up your mental microscope and seeing more details. Commit to those details, improve your performance and find the flow.

ENJOY your day, folks!