Flow

Today in my Theories of Personality class (Personality Theory?? who knows what it's really called...) we learned about the coolest thing. It's called "flow." I learned about it a little in another one of my classes and it spiked my interest. In my psych classes when I learn about different things there are some concepts I can really understand and relate to, and some I doubt exist or have a hard time grasping.. (like the Oedipus Complex--children being romantically attracted to their parents, as mentioned in my last blog... WEIRD) But "flow" was different. When I first heard about flow we were talking about what makes people happy and successful in life. Researchers have been studying this for a while I guess and they would page (with beepers--remember those??) "happy" people throughout their day and the people would have to report what they were doing and rate their level of happiness. The researchers found that people are happy when they are 1. doing something they love and 2. doing something they're good at. If you love your job but you're not good at it, you're not going to always be successful. If you're good at your job but you HATE it, you're not going to be too happy. So this is like flow. When people are doing things they love, they're good at, they have pretty cool experiences--flow. Okay so that's flow in a nutshell and there's probably a million other factors that contribute.. but oh well, that's what I took from it :) I think that's why I loved my previous job so much. I worked with kids that I loved, I taught and spent time with them and really believed that I was making a positive difference in their lives. And, according to my boss and other staff I was good at it. It was difficult but I knew I was capable of doing it and progressing and doing better each day. That's another part of flow and being successful. You're doing tasks that are challenging but not TOO challenging, to the point where you feel like your skills are unmatched and you're unable to complete the task or do it well. So today in my PT class was good. Thought-provoking and interesting. Flooooow. Kinda like listening to U2 or your favorite songs lol. That's all for now :)