So what's the right balance between work and play for an ENFP?
This question was asked by Andrew a member of my ENFP Unleashed program. It's a very good
question and Andrew specifically was asking about developing his musical abilities. So he plays
music professionally and he's wondering about the time between practicing like just technique,
technique, technique versus actually more playing and I guess jamming is the term, I'm really not
cool when it comes to music and such. So I'm just gonna answer from my own experience on this one.
Personally, I struggled to do practice for practice sake. When I started as a
freelance writer I rarely did the exercises to develop your writing, I did sometimes but I much
preferred actually getting into the work and then learning as I went and I find personally
I work a lot better with that pressure and that real target when I actually have something to do.
I need a purpose behind what I'm doing and so yes, of course, there's a purpose to practicing
and I'm not saying that's a bad way to go if it works for you practice lots because
most masters spend a lot of time doing repetitive exercises to improve their techniques. So that is
a good way to go what I'm speaking of is what I end up actually doing and what's maybe a realistic
approach if you have a lot of trouble doing the same repetitive exercises over and over again.
There's this concept called the state of flow. It's not really a concept, it's a thing, it's a
state we get into. And the state of flow was where I would aim for and so it's not necessarily fun
and it's not necessarily hard work, it's actually what a lot of people believe is essentially
happiness, like we talk a lot about happiness as a society, you know, oh how can you be happier.
Like what does that mean? Does that mean we smile all the time, does that mean we're laughing? Like
what is happiness? And the state of flow is that state where you lose sense of time, you're in the
moment. So maybe you're playing a sport, maybe you're painting, maybe you're writing, maybe
you're having a coaching call and you're just in the moment, you're not thinking about other
things, you're not thinking about what you're even doing, you're just acting. And the state of flow
happens when you are challenged, but capable of living up to that challenge. So if you are under
a tremendous amount of pressure and the challenge is far too great, you're not going to get in the
state of flow. If what you're trying to do is way too easy and it's just boring and repetitive,
you're never going to get into the state of flow as well. It happens when there's this perfect
balance of where your brain is at basically that you end up getting into that state and that state
is wonderful, that state does I believe bring a state of essentially happiness and satisfaction,
it leads to developing your skills because you're always in that proper zone where
you're like getting better and better and you get things done when you are in that state
as well. So what I would suggest is try to spend as much time as you can in that state of flow as
possible. Let's say two to four hours a day is probably a realistic way to look at it. Getting
into the state of flow means no interruptions that will ruin it, so you need to you know turn
off notifications and everything else, you need to have a clear thing you're working on, that is both
challenging and yet possible for you to achieve. And the more you do this the easier it does become
to get into that state. So initially it might be something you experience every so often very
randomly, but the more you get into it the easier it becomes. This is my experience as a writer is,
I have my routine to really get into the state of flow and when I follow that it's almost guaranteed
I will end up in that state of flow. So I think that's the best place to aim for. When you're
feeling satisfied and fulfilled with what you're doing, that's much better than feeling happy
because you're eating some ice cream or whatever else. Yeah, you still want to have some fun times
both with what you do professionally, you know, have some fun playing around with it etc. and of
course you do want to have fun with friends and disconnect and everything else like that, where
it is just pure fun, but the state of flow is really where we want to aim for it is at the top,
because you're developing, you're growing, you're producing, and you will end up feeling a much more
sustainable sense of fulfillment through that way than trying to find a balance of really,
really fun and really, really boring and just like splitting your time between the two,
flow takes the best of both sides and leaves you feeling even better than if you were just doing
the play. Speaking of flow, I am in the state of flow today filming a bunch of new videos for
this channel where I publish new videos primarily for ENFPs each and every week helping you become
the best version of yourself and create the most awesome life possible for you and those you love.
So hit the subscribe button and hit the bell so you can catch the next video soon. Bye for now.