Daily Motivations - THE ART OF ENTERING FLOW STATE

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

headphones and enter the zone where time moves slower known as the flow state. This how the greats find complete immersion, focus, and enjoyment in what they do. Powerful Motivational Speeches from Motiversity, featuring Steven Kotler, Steph Curry, Huberman, Ronaldo, Kobe, and more.Instagram - @daily_motivationsorgFacebook- @daily_motivationsorg

Flow state. Flow state. That flow state. Flow state. I get it playing video games. I get it on stage. What, I'm just in this moment, and I enjoy it. I'm totally engaged and I'm in the flow.

See musicians kind of embody it on stage. I say flow state and just being in that flow is exactly, it's where I want to be. And when you're in that, it's, there's no other feeling. What does it take to do the impossible? What does it take to achieve? We've paradigm shifting, never seen before, breakthroughs consistently. But if there's a kid out there who's like, how did he do that?

Like, what would you see? Things just slow down. Just have supreme conflicts. You can't learn that. But when that happens, you really do not try to focus on what's going wrong. You know, you can lose it in a second. You may know flow by other names, right? You may call it runners high or being in the zone.

If you happen to play basketball, you might call it being like unconscious. You're a beatnik jazz musician. You're being in the pocket. You do stand-up comedy. You're in the forever ball. You were in your flow state where you absolutely performed at a ridiculous level. When you're in a state where you feel like everything is just clicking. The flow state, this state of virtuosity and enhanced performance among artists and musicians and writers and elite athletes, they go into this zone where they experience this transient hyperfrontality, this temporary moment where the ego dissolves, you get sort of hyper-focused in what you're doing, you drop into data states like meditating lungs, and you're able to achieve excellence and virtuosity

that exceeds normal human levels and thresholds for what's possible. We transcend ourselves. We come on to the flow. What's your flow state? What's the thing you do where you go? This is my shame. And I do think so many people on social media stop right before they pop. So many people in The gym stop right before they hit that flow state with their workouts that gets them in the best shape of their life, where they find that way of eating that feels comfortable and that they can sustain forever. Most people stop right before they strike gold. And I know if I just keep showing up, even if it all falls away. Like you just said, I'd still do this for free.

If all the sponsors and the platform got stripped, you'd still come into this room and record, which means you'd climb again. I bought into the meditation. I bought into the deeper connection that exists within the game. And so when you watch our teams, or you watch any of Phil's teams, or Chicago teams, game six against Utah, you watch our games, you know, game seven against Boston. We were never rattled, ever because we're always in the moment, always in the present, always extremely calm, always looking at the reality of the situation and not letting our emotions cloud our execution. And that comes from being in that meditative state that he would teach and preach from day one.

We learn through focused work and that flow does manifest itself during performance. And sometimes so much so that people exhibit virtuosity. They're surprising themselves even and what's in there. What you have to do is when you get to that state, try to get a map of the territory. and try to will yourself back into that thing. The flow state is a state of mind. You cannot do a state of mind. A state of mind is something that happens to you.

That's kind of, I always think of it's a what is unskilled, skilled, mastery, virtuosity. Virtuosity seems to incorporate some sort of random elements of maybe even the performer has not done that before and they surprised themselves or something like that. Who knows? These are words for, um, for something that isn't easily quantified in the first place. Every gold medal or world championship that's ever been won, there's a flow state at its heart.

We know that flow in the arts, in technology, in science, accounts for significant progress, major paradigm shifts, usually a flow state at the heart. We all have to, you know, start somewhere. And when you're trying to increase more flow in your life, it does start with the very first step, which is just becoming aware of when you are in flow. stages of hard work and focus are going to feel like agitation, stress, and confusion. None of us would expect to walk into the gym and do our PR lift or, you know, a performer go do something without warming up. The brain also needs to warm up and start to hone in which circuits are going to be

active. Action and awareness will start to merge. Your sense of self will vanish. Time will dilate, which is a fancy way of saying it passes strangely. So sometimes, occasionally, it'll slow down and you get that freeze frame effect familiar to anybody who's been in a car crash. And more frequently, it speeds up and five hours go by in like five minutes. And throughout all aspects of performance, both mental and physical, go through the roof. But like the game seven of the NBA finals where I hit six threes, that was flow. That was unconscious. You don't think about your form.

You don't think about your mechanics. All you know is that you have an energy about you. and it's effortless. When you are in that complete total flow state of laser focusness. Again, he's on, you just kind of stay there, become oblivious to everything that's going on. You know, you don't think about and surrounding it, so kind of locked in.

Okay, so you're doing something that you're so enjoy, you're so engaged in this activity, you forget even where you want. I forget this effort, I hit my three-point, I'm like, oh my God, spend as much time in a flow state as you can in life if that can become your job then tremendous that is that success what's your routine like which order do you do things we are animals of routines you know 90% of my days they are very similar i wake up i have my cold plunge i have my my machines, I have my showers and everything. First thing, I diving.

First thing in the cold... First thing, yes. So I take my water, my shower, my cold plunge. I'm coming out to have lights in my heights. And after that, I take my coffee. And when I start my day, your mental strength is coming from that, from that moments that in a heart moment, you know you should do it.

Maybe in the beginning you feel hard to start, but after when you finish the gym or cold plunge or even the training, you will feel better. Walk me into the prep, into a game, into those moments. Like, what does it take to have your mindset ready when it comes down to it? Believing in yourself, you know, a lot of hard work and a lot of visualization.

And I know that kind of sounds like, Very, very simple, but, you know, I think Da Vinci said simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. I would try to practice those things over and over. Kobe and Jordan were my heroes. And that was one of the things. You know, if you watch basketball, you hear about how clutch people are. And it's not always making the last shot. You know, it's under pressure doing what you're supposed to do and coming out successful.

So I put the work into this like every day, all day. And then when I'm done with it, guess what I do? I dream about it. I visualize it. I see myself being successful. I see myself hitting those shots with a little time on the clock. And then I'll do it again and say, hey, what if we're down two? Then I'll do it again and say, what if we're down three?

You know, it's a never-ending game. And anytime I was successful in those situations, I mean, you know, I would always let people know. It's through dedication, through your hard work, and through mental preparation and visualization. If you do those things, if you can see yourself being successful in your mind, then it will appear in the physical reality. If you're calm and collected when you get the opportunity. I always worked towards it. You know, the NBA was my goal from the jump. Every day, all day.

But I just didn't do it with words. I went to go seek the information. If I heard Michael Jordan got a thousand shots up, well, if he's doing it, I want to be like that one day. I need to get a thousand shots up. I look for any morsel of information that would help me in my journey. If I heard about how hard they worked,

I wanted to do that same thing, you know, because it just made sense to me. If the pros are doing this, then this is what I am aspiring to do. You have those goals. that you want to reach. What does it take to do the impossible? What does it take to achieve paradigm shifting,

never seen before breakthroughs? Every domain you find ultimate human performance has the exact same signature. It is a state of consciousness known to researchers as flow. Technically defined as an optimal state of consciousness, one where we feel our best, and we perform our best. More specifically, it refers to those moments of rapt attention and total absorption.

We get so focused on the task at hand, everything else just disappears. Action and awareness will start to merge. Your sense of self will vanish. Time will dilate, which is a fancy way of saying it passes strange. So sometimes, occasionally, it'll slow down and you get that freeze frame effect familiar to anybody who's been in a car crash. And more frequently, it speeds up. And throughout all aspects of performance, both mental and physical, go through the roof. This is Mihai Chicks sent me high.

He is often called the godfather of Flow Psychology, and he ran around the world talking to people saying, hey, tell me about the time in your life when you feel your best, you perform your best. Tens of thousands of people said, you know, when I'm at my best, I'm in this state and every idea, every action, every decision flows seamlessly, perfectly, effortlessly from the last. So flow is actually a phenomenal logical description. It's how the state makes us feel. Interestingly, for the state to make us feel flowy, flow has to be as close to near-perfect, high-speed, creative decision-making as we can get.