There’s a trail in Colorado that I used to hike all the time. It wasn’t the most beautiful in the state and it wasn’t an impressive or a long-distance trail or anything to write home about really. But it was a trail where without fail I could experience total, uninterrupted focus.
No matter what was going on in my life, when I pulled on my and hit that trail, within 10 minutes I’d be in the zone. It wasn’t so steep that I’d be struggling and gasping for breath, but it was demanding enough that it required my full attention. I’d quickly fall into a sustainable rhythmic pace and while my legs did the physical work, my brain was able to fully engage with what I was doing.
All other minor (or major) annoyances would fade out of my consciousness and I could just enjoy the activity, feeling completely in control of the situation, even when I wasn't in control of anything else in my life. Despite that apparent disengagement from the every day, when I finished that hike, I’d always have figured out a solution to a problem or come up with an exciting new idea for my business. And I always felt happier than when I started.
It wasn’t until I read the 1992 book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi a few years ago that I could finally put words to what I was experiencing. According to Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian-American psychologist, World War II prisoner and happiness researcher, I was finding what he coined “flow,” and it made me think that hiking might just be the key to.