Day 301: El Estado de Flujo y los Cachorros de Chicago

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Every year I watch the Cubs.

This year will be the year I watch the Cubs in Spanish.

I spent a summer in Mexico during high school and majored in Spanish in college, but it’s been a long time since I had regular practice.

As director of an immigration law clinic, I usually want the students to take the lead on communicating with clients. But once in a while I need to step in when thc client speaks Spanish, the student does not, and no interpreter is available. For those occasions, I need to sharpen my skills.

Flow and the Challenge/Skill Sweet Spot

So it turns out, listening to the Cubs in Spanish is a flow trigger (at least for me).

In order to achieve the flow state that enables full present-moment focus, says Steven Kotler of The Flow Collective, you need to find the “challenge/skill sweet spot.”

Perform a task that’s too easy and you tune out.

Tackle a task that’s too hard and fear takes over.

To trigger flow, you want to engage in something that’s just a little beyond your current capability. Generally, that means something that’s about 4% beyond your current skill level.

Quatro por Ciento Afuera

I love listening to Miguel Esparza, the voice of the Cubs in Spanish, and his sidekick, analyst Jorge Moreno.

Since I already speak Baseball fluently, it’s pretty easy to understand the game talk. I am picking up some new vocabulary though (a recent acquisition I’m especially proud of: “la recta de cuatro costuras”).

But the banter between pitches is the best part, because I can’t quite understand it all right now. Almost — but not quite. It’s right in that sweet spot.

Adapting the Flow Trigger to Law practice

As lawyers, we’ll be more in flow, and more successful, if we can find that challenge/skill sweet spot in our work.

Sometimes we realize we’re in over our heads. If we’re committed to the case, we manage the fear, buckle down, and work until we can feel that we’ve entered that 4% zone. (And yes, those hours between panic and 4% really suck.)

Sometimes we realize we haven’t been really challenged by our work in a while. Then we have to decide: If we want to experience flow in our work, we probably need to take on more cases, or more complex cases, or a new type of case that’s about 4% scary.

With a little practice, we can develop the skill of developing skill — knowing what cases, projects, or tasks will bring us to that sweet spot.

From there, we may enter the flow state, where time and identity disappear and amazing things are possible.