Flickr image "River flow" by Britanglishman

Following my post about “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“, I begin to see how important our own perceptions play in determining if we are happy or not under all circumstances.

One of the benefits of trading in stocks and shares is that it forces you to confront your naked fear and greed whenever you are about to buy or sell shares. Nothing strips away how good/bad you are at stock trading (or investing) then looking at your profits and losses incurred on the trade.

You feel happy when you’ve made the right call and you feel terrible if you’ve lost money and even worse if the loss is realised.

It is from this experiences that I realise financial freedom by itself will not make me happy. It is how I make use of the financial freedom status to create for myself an optimal flow experience in all aspects of my life. Even the euphoria of trading wins fade after a while and I look out for the next “high” from jeeping/panging an equity position.

Happiness and sadness that is dependent on market conditions sets us up for a life of emotional roller-coaster. This cannot be the receipe for a life filled with optimal experiences.

So how can you structure your life into a flow experience even as you pursue financial freedom?

How pursuing financial freedom helps you achieve flow

A challenging activity that requires skills

Moving from a net-worth position that is negative to a positive one is challenging. It requires you to have skills in budgeting, controlling your desires to spend and to live within your means.

Merging of action and awareness

As you track your net worth towards a bigger and bigger positive number, you tend to feel that your day to day thriftiness does translate into a bigger goal i.e. bringing you closer to financial freedom where your income from savings and investments is able to fund your day-to-day living expenses.

Clear goals and feedback

Nothing clarifies more than your net worth position at the end of the month and whether you’ve spent more than you’ve saved or you’ve manage to live way within your means.

Concentration on the task at hand

Just as you focus on eating that bit less, refraining from softdrinks and living a healthy lifestyle to keep healthcare costs low, energy levels up for work and play, you tend to align your daily goals to the overall plan of being financially free.

Paradox of control

The more your net worth comes into your direct control, the more powerful you feel in your ability to control your financial destiny in life.

Loss of self consciousness

Whether you keep up with the Alis, Lims or Muthus is not so important when you focus on financial freedom. It’s not about what watch you wear but how big is your net worth.

The transformation of time

Time flies when your daily activities are aligned to your life goals. The main thing I realise about pursuing financial freedom is that the process is enjoyable by itself. Seeing my month end balances with savings makes me look forward to the passing of each day and month as I move closer to my goal of financial freedom. The journey is just as fun as the destination.

Be well and prosper.

Flickr image "Flow" by mr fairuz

One of the areas I continue to develop towards financial freedom is to open my mind to positive influences and ideas from quality sources. Many of the new books I read nowadays are the result of recommendations from other authors and blogs that I follow.

The current book that I’ve just finished reading is “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The book basically shares with us the steps towards enhancing the quality of life.

Reading is arguably the most important avenue to learn new knowledge. Many great thinkers, philosophers and practitioners in the fields ranging from financial freedom to human pyschology have already documented their great ideas, thoughts and wisdom in the written word. Why not tap on their knowledge, expertise and experience to gain some insights about how one should go about living one’s life?

It is with this mindset that I approached “Flow”.

What “Flow” is about

The book’s blurb shares what “Flow” is about. It really documents how the author

has been studying states of “optimal experience” – those times when people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment. These investigations have revealed that what makes experience geniunely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow – a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity.

The main idea that the book leaves with us is that:

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience reveals how this pleasurable state can, in fact, be controlled, and not just left to chance, by setting ourselves challenges – tasks that are neither too difficult nor too simple for our abilities. With such goals, we learn to order the information that enters consciousness and thereby improve the quality of our lives.

What I got from Flow

The main lesson that I got from “Flow” was that the elements of enjoyment comprises the following:

1. A challenging activity that requires skills
2. Merging of action and awareness
3. Clear goals and feedback
4. Concentration on the task at hand
5. Paradox of control
6. Loss of self consciousness
7. The transformation of time

What this means is that for many people, work or career is actually when we are enjoying ourselves when we get immersed into what we do. Being financially free will free us to engage in leisure activities full time, but such activities won’t make us happy unless they meet the elements above.

My own experience in moving from a crappy job environment to a more pleasant and fulfilling one has reinforced the reality of what flow means. Somedays at work, the hours just while themselves away as I’m engaged in my audit assignments and working with my team.

Literally, the movement of time from Monday to Friday happens so fast that I sometimes wonder where it all went. I count myself fortunate that my current work place gives me a lot of job satisfaction and allows me to function in a flow on majority of the days I am in office.

Meaning in “Flow”

Hence, I’ve increasingly come to realise that achieving financial freedom while being an important goal, is not important just for itself. It is equally important to structure your life to do something meaningful and is able to involve the elements of enjoyment.

A life of pleasure seeking everyday without much meaning and purpose after being financially free can potentially result in empty and hollow lives. That’s why sometimes we read in papers of rich and famous celebrities who have it all in material wants but still end up with wasted lives through alcoholism, drugs and suicide.

Even as I continue on my journey towards financial freedom, I become more aware that paradoxically, it’s not just about hitting my target of $xxx,xxx in investible net-worth so that I can become financially free that will ultimately make me happy.

Happiness has to come from within instead and whilst working towards the my target of financial freedom, I need to seek challenges that continue to allow me to practice my skills, abilities and to create meaning in my life.

How do you think you can achieve flow?

Would it be where you are now or only if you achieve financial freedom?

Share with Panzer.

Be well and prosper.