#908 Hedonic Eudaimonia

Yesterday afternoon I was having my last meal of the day at 3:15pm (go glymph!!) before my 3:30 physical therapy appointment with the wonderful Dr. Julie.

I was looking at the mountain and reflecting on how good I felt after a day filled with 4.75 hours of Deep Work Flow.

Then I smiled as I thought about the fact that I’m definitely a Flow Junkie.

Flow junkie? Yep.

That’s a Steven Kotler phrase. We talked about a couple years ago in this +1.

Recap of the basic idea?

In The Rise of Superman, Steven teaches us how to activate our superpowers by sharing the stories of some elite extreme sports athletes. These guys absolutely LOVE the feeling they get pushing themselves to their edge in their chosen sports. They’re addicted to Flow.

Which… Just so happens to be PRECISELY the way they continue to get better and better at their chosen crafts—showing up fully while pushing just past their current comfort zones (4%!) day after day after day such that the impossible eventually becomes what’s for breakfast.

Basically, these guys (and gals) have figured out how to get INSTANT gratification while doing the very things that lead to their actualization (that typically requires “delaying” gratification).

All of that pondering led me to smash two words together: hedonic + eudaimonic.

Hedonic? That’s basically the INSTANT gratification stuff.

Eudaimonic? That’s basically the (typically delayed gratification) actualizing your potential stuff.

But what if we can dissolve the apparent dichotomy and make the most enjoyable things we do the very things that lead to our actualization?

Enter: Hedonic eudaimonia.

That’s Today’s +1.

How can you put yourself into a nice little focused bubble of Flow as you stretch yourself a little more Today?

Say goodbye to the distractions. Hello to your Optimus self. And go get your Flow on.

High fives and here’s to hedonic eudaimonia.