DIFFERENTIATING THE GENIUS STATE AND FLOW

“Is the genius state the same thing as the flow state?” I was asked that recently as you undoubted have been asked it. Answer: Yes in essence, but not completely. “So what is the difference between the genius state and the flow state?” Answer: A lot! Let me explain.

The flow zone, as it was named, discovered, and presented by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in several books, is a zone that is defined by two central features: challenge and competence. If you think of these as axes, and you set up challenge as the vertical axis and competence as the horizontal axis, then you have a landscape in which you can make lots of distinctions. Both have to do with an activity or a task. Think of any sport, consider any professional activity and you can put it inside this landscape. Now you can ask questions about your tennis skill, your leadership skill, your ability to read with comprehension, to relax under pressure, etc.