Over time, ancient philosophers, scientists and theorists have come up with many definitions of what it means to live with meaning. Current research in modern psychology supports a comprehensive understanding of meaning developed by University of Connecticut researchers, George and Park:

• Comprehension – the degree to which people perceive a sense of coherence (SOC) and understanding about their lives. This is compromised of three main components: comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness.
• Purpose – the extent to which people experience life as being motivated by their goals, values and beliefs. 
• Mattering – the degree to which individuals feel that their lives are of value and significance to the world (George and Park, 2014).

One way to satisfy this three component theory to not only bring more meaning in life but to increase your well-being, creativity and productivity is by engaging in activities and work that keep you engaged in a manner whereby your focus and attention do not get broken for another task. Also, time becomes non-existent. 

DO WHAT YOU LOVE

That’s right – do what you love. This allows you to cultivate flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a positive psychology researcher interviewed 8,000 people all around the world: artists, athletes, musicians, nuns etc. He wanted to know what people experienced when they achieved optimal levels of performance. He also wanted to know what influenced their positive

state of well-being. Csikszentmihalyi came up with the term ‘flow state.’ He noticed that when he interviewed people, many described being engaged in a task or activity that seemed rather effortless and engaging – as being in their flow. Amongst the thousands of people that Csikszentmihalyi interviewed, he found that regardless of one’s culture or education there are seven conditions that are present when one is experiencing flow:

1. Completely involved in what you’re doing – focused, concentrated.
2. A sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality.
3. Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done, and how well you’re doing it.
4. Knowing that the activity is doable – that your skills are adequate to the task.
5. A sense of serenity – no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego.
6. Timelessness – thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes.
7. Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces flow becomes its own reward.

When your skills and challenges are higher than average, you can get yourself to a place of flow and you become passionate about what you’re working on.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE BRAIN DURING FLOW?

Many people that experience flow tend to have an autotelic personality – internally driven people with a tendency to engage in an activity for its own sake. Autotelic personalities tend to be more self regulated, have a high interest in life and are less stressed.

During a flow state, the following changes occur in the brain:

• When there is concentration on fulfilling a goal, there is reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for decision making, reflecting and organizing). 
• The brain goes into an alpha wave state. The alpha is the resting state and it aids in learning, resting and alertness.
• Endorphins, norepinephrine, anandamide, serotonin and dopamine are released due to real-time feedback, increased curiosity, feelings of control and motivation brought on by goal fulfillment.

The temporary inactivation of the prefrontal cortex down-regulates by a process called transient hypofrontality causing an individual to lose self-consciousness, to quiet their inner critic and to experience distortion of time during a flow state.

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The post Maximizing Flow State: The Importance of Meaning and Purpose in Work appeared first on Sherina Chandra.

THE SEARCH FOR PURPOSE

Madeline Levine, a clinical psychologist observed a pattern of emptiness in teenagers. She noted that many of the teens she spoke with, ‘have a notable ability to put up a good front,’ but they expressed feelings of anxiety and emptiness. They described themselves as unhappy for no reason.^*  These viewpoints can also be extended to adults. Human behaviour thrives off of placing action towards the betterment of others. This is purpose. But, many may be left feeling empty because they may lack a connection to others which make them feel isolated. Berkeley University in their blog called Greater Good writes, “Many seem to believe that purpose arises from your special gifts and sets you apart from other people—but that’s only part of the truth. It also grows from our connection to others, which is why a crisis of purpose is often a symptom of isolation. Once you find your path, you’ll almost certainly find others traveling along with you, hoping to reach the same destination—a community.” ^*

PAYING ATTENTION

In every moment of our lives we are doing and experiencing things that are trying to reveal our purpose to us. We don’t tap in easily because we are so focused on external motivators – aesthetics, money, the perfect social media post, competition, people pleasing, getting a promotion in a career we aren’t even in love with…

Start to replace the the external motivators (distractions) out of your moment-to-moment thoughts with your internal motivators – passions, interests, core beliefs, values, and self wisdom. Tap into what activities and experiences you are engaged in and why:

Reading – what types of books or reading material interest you? What is the common theme? Why are you so interested?

Activities – which activities tend to positively occupy your attention? How do you feel?

Relationships – what common characteristics do you share with people you enjoy engaging with? Do you share similar values and beliefs?

Altruism – what types of causes and groups do you support? Do you share a similar life story? Why is it so special to you?

Resistance – what form of resistance keeps showing up in your life? Is there some sort of lesson that you can learn from it? Or take action to overcome it?

Values – what do you value? What types of actions by others uplift you? What in life is important to you? Why?

Inspiration – who are you inspired by? Why? How has the work of others inspired you? What have you been inspired to do? How will this benefit you and impact others?

Strengths and weaknesses – what are your key strengths? How you use them in your life? What are you weaknesses? Why are they your weaknesses? Do you have any desire to develop them? By developing your weaknesses, how will it add more value to your life?

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Now that you are more aware of all the people, activities, experiences, obstacles and sources of inspiration that you are driven towards, start to tap into all the commonalities and connections that are intertwined within them. Is there a particular theme, a message or a pattern that is being revealed to you about your life and its purpose? Here is what you can do:

1. Write down everything in a mind map format, so you can easily spot connections.
2. Talk to other people about how they perceive you. Sometimes, you are so far into your bubble that you don’t get a chance to recognize your strong qualities and characteristics.
3. Research and get involved with organizations and groups which support causes that you are passionate about. Make alliances that can be of mutual benefit.

Downloadable PDF

The post The Journey to Self-Discovery: Tips for Developing Self-Awareness appeared first on Sherina Chandra.

NO IDEA IS A BAD IDEA

Maybe you’ve turned your back on your big idea, maybe you’ve lost motivation all together, maybe you feel as if you’ve lost credibility amongst your circle. These aren’t good reasons to give up on something that you were once excited about. It’s true, no idea is a bad idea. What you need to do is to go back to that very moment when your big idea was blossoming.

• Write down all the feelings and emotions that you were feeling.
• Provide details about the type(s) of people your idea could benefit. What age group? What gender(s)? What types of personalities and characteristics do these people have?
• Understand the needs of the people that your big idea is meant to benefit.
• Research people that have a similar big idea as you and who have been successful at implementing it. How were they able to gain loyalty?

BECOMING AWARE OF YOUR MOTIVATIONS

Gaining clarity on how you were initially motivated to pursue your big idea can be a game changer. Ask yourself, which one of these two types of motivations were steering you:

Internal – developed through your inner passions, beliefs and values. The most powerful type of motivation because it fuels your creativity, it’s authentic to who you are, and you can successfully cultivate it on your own.

Extrinsic – driven by extrinsic rewards by the world around you such as: recognition, money, and popularity. This type of motivation is temporary and you feel challenged each time an extrinsic reward wears off.

There has been a numerous amount research done citing that intrinsic motivation ultimately leads to insurmountable success for an individual. Today, there is also neurological evidence that behaviours triggered by intrinsic motivation increase activity in the mid-brain (in the anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula).^*

causing dopamine, a feel good hormone to be released.

RECOGNIZING AND DEFINING YOUR ‘WHY’

Ask yourself, ‘Did I fully relate to my big idea on an emotional level?’ In other words, why were you driven to pursue

your big idea? In 2009, Simon Sinek an author and speaker gave an inspirational TED talk called, Start With Why. In his talk, he outlined what he calls the Golden Circle:

Why – this is the centre (the target point) of your circle. It’s your purpose and it defines your cause, reveals what you believe in and reveals your values.

How – the second layer of your circle. It’s your visions and it outlines your processes. These are your goals in small action steps that helps to actualize your why.

What – the outer layer of your circle. It’s the result of your why. What is it exactly that you do?

With this information begin to think intrinsically before putting your big idea out onto the main stage. What intrinsically motivates you? Reflect upon and apply your core values to your vision. When you find yourself engaging with your big idea through your values; you will come to understand your why and begin to work from a place of purpose rather than a place of reward seeking. It’s from this place, you will notice, ‘the magic happening.’

You’ve likely been in a situation when you’ve executed a big idea backed up by so much passion, optimism and excitement! That big idea could have been: a business idea that could have helped you leave your 9-5 job, a healthy living plan aimed towards losing unhealthy pounds, starting a Facebook group dedicated towards personal growth or starting a non-profit to help vulnerable groups of people bounce back into society. Whatever your idea was, no doubt you had big plans behind your execution. You probably expected many others to share the same excitement and ambition as you, but as you quickly may have found out, your idea didn’t gain a lot of popularity or attention. No doubt you placed good intention into it – all for the betterment of others. You were in the mindset, ‘if I build it, they will come.’ You put in a lot of money towards developing a fancy website, and dedicated a lot of your time creating attention grabbing social media posts, but your idea no longer seemed like a big idea as nobody came. It quickly became an idea with little impact and your motivation took a beating…

NO IDEA IS A BAD IDEA

Maybe you’ve turned your back on your big idea, maybe you’ve lost motivation all together, maybe you feel as if you’ve lost credibility amongst your circle. These aren’t good reasons to give up on something that you were once excited about. It’s true, no idea is a bad idea. What you need to do is to go back to that very moment when your big idea was blossoming.

• Write down all the feelings and emotions that you were feeling.
• Provide details about the type(s) of people your idea could benefit. What age group? What gender(s)? What types of personalities and characteristics do these people have?
• Understand the needs of the people that your big idea is meant to benefit.
• Research people that have a similar big idea as you and who have been successful at implementing it. How were they able to gain loyalty?

BECOMING AWARE OF YOUR MOTIVATIONS

Gaining clarity on how you were initially motivated to pursue your big idea can be a game changer. Ask yourself, which one of these two types of motivations were steering you:

Internal – developed through your inner passions, beliefs and values. The most powerful type of motivation because it fuels your creativity, it’s authentic to who you are, and you can successfully cultivate it on your own.

Extrinsic – driven by extrinsic rewards by the world around you such as: recognition, money, and popularity. This type of motivation is temporary and you feel challenged each time an extrinsic reward wears off.

There has been a numerous amount research done citing that intrinsic motivation ultimately leads to insurmountable success for an individual. Today, there is also neurological evidence that behaviours triggered by intrinsic motivation increase activity in the mid-brain (in the anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula).^*

causing dopamine, a feel good hormone to be released.

RECOGNIZING AND DEFINING YOUR ‘WHY’

Ask yourself, ‘Did I fully relate to my big idea on an emotional level?’ In other words, why were you driven to pursue

your big idea? In 2009, Simon Sinek an author and speaker gave an inspirational TED talk called, Start With Why. In his talk, he outlined what he calls the Golden Circle:

Why – this is the centre (the target point) of your circle. It’s your purpose and it defines your cause, reveals what you believe in and reveals your values.

How – the second layer of your circle. It’s your visions and it outlines your processes. These are your goals in small action steps that helps to actualize your why.

What – the outer layer of your circle. It’s the result of your why. What is it exactly that you do?

With this information begin to think intrinsically before putting your big idea out onto the main stage. What intrinsically motivates you? Reflect upon and apply your core values to your vision. When you find yourself engaging with your big idea through your values; you will come to understand your why and begin to work from a place of purpose rather than a place of reward seeking. It’s from this place, you will notice, ‘the magic happening.’

Downloadable PDF

The post The ‘Why’ Factor: How Knowing Your Purpose Can Boost Your Success appeared first on Sherina Chandra.