Flow Profiles Unpacked

Welcome!

Congratulations on taking your Flow Profile! Now you’re ready to take the next step and learn
a little more about what makes you feel and perform your best.

Haven’t taken your free Flow Profile yet? Click here to take the Flow Profile!

If you’re like us, one of the first thoughts you had when you figured out which profile you were
—the Hard Charger, the Flow Goer, the Crowd Pleaser, or the Deep Thinker—was “but that’s not
all I am—sometimes I get into Flow differently.”

And you’d be exactly right. None of us are just one single profile, and in fact, how we get into
the zone depends on what we’re doing, who we’re with, and even what stage of life we’re in.

So take a look through all four profiles presented here, reread the primary one you tested as,
and then see which other ones might also be true for you.

Then you’ll have an even more refined sense of what fires you up, what focuses you, and
exactly how you can spend more time at the top of your game!

Interested in taking the next step in your flow training? Check out Flow Fundamentals Online
Training.
 Three Things You Need To
Know About Flow

1) Flow creates powerful intrinsic motivation–

by releasing the most addictive
neurochemicals in our bodies.

2) Flow cuts the path to mastery in half and

accelerates performance up to 500%.

3) People with the most flow in their lives are

the happiest people on earth.
 HARD CHARGER

Favorite website: redbull.com


Core piece of equipment: NorthFace Jacket

Catch phrase we wish you didn't ever say: “Bro” “Stoke” “Gnarly” “Epic"

You tend to be a focused go-getter who craves intensity in your personal and professional life.
You get bored easily with "run of the mill" and seek experiences that have high challenge and
high impact. When you learn a new skill, you often seek out accelerated training from the best
of the best, or you put your head down and hyper-focus until you figure it out yourself. Either
way, "slow and steady" middle-of-the-pack progress is not for you.

The same intensity and focus that pushes you to seek such high-impact experiences, tends to
feed a pretty relentless inner critic that is always pushing you to raise the bar—others may
experience this as intimidating or hyper-critical, but what they don't always know is that you
judge yourself first and most harshly. For you, flow offers one of the few escapes from that
unforgiving scorecard, and when you do find activities that offer you this calm and relief, you
often put them at the top of your list.

Typical flow hacks:

• Adventure sports: skiing, snowboarding, surfing, skydiving, mountain biking, MMA, rock
climbing, race driving, paintball.

• Non-traditional travel: loose itineraries, unusual destinations, cultural immersion.

• Substance Use: stimulants, intoxicants and euphoriants that alternately deliver increased
intensity or dampen down your RPM.
 HARD CHARGER

Special caution: Due to your wiring for intensity and your persistent need to silence your inner
critic, you are often more willing to take risks than many of your peers. Harnessed positively,
this can result in you crafting a "life as a daring adventure"—rich and full of travel, adventure
and new experiences—but it can also lead to "wrecklessness" in the realms of substance use,
sexuality, adrenaline sports, and other edgy behaviors.

Pro-tip: In seeking flow as a Hard Charger, pay close attention to where the risk/reward
equation gets upside down, and stay on the recoverable side of that line. Rather than always
going bigger and faster, try going deeper. Slow down, take time to develop discipline and
mine your given pursuits for all they offer. Self-handicap so that you don't have to keep upping
the ante on the Challenge line of the Challenge/Skills Equation. Lateralize—if you are already
hucking 20' cliffs on alpine skis, try telemarking. If you're surfing big waves, try SUPing. If you're
a PUA, try practicing with a single partner. If you're a hard partying clubber, try mindfulness
training.

Once you learn the mechanics of reverse-engineering your Flow states, you can realize that
you've got more options and combinations to safely and sustainably get most of the goods
without taking all of the risks!

Further Learning: Check out flowgenomeproject.com/learn/videos/ to learn more about the

Challenge-Skills Equation, Transient Hypofrontality (how the brain shuts down our inner critic)
and Hedonic Engineering (how we can reproduce the feel-good neurochemicals of a flow
state).

Want to go deeper? Check out our online and in-person trainings and adventure programs to
level-up your Flow game!
 DEEP THINKER

Favorite website: stackexchange.com, etsy.com 


Core piece of equipment: My "Away Room”

Catch phrase we wish you didn't ever say: "Not tonight...”

Your flow dream date consists of you, yourself and you, getting (finally!) uninterrupted time to
do what you love most. You tend to seek Flow through creative, reflective, often soothingly
repetitive work that lets your mind wander, lets your nervous system relax deeply, and lets your
muse come through with something delightful.

While you can tolerate and even succeed in the hustle and bustle of daily life, a part of you is
always off in your sanctuary, or biding your time until you can return to recharge your batteries.
You may also find yourself seeking out times of day—early mornings or late evenings—where
you can feel free of conflicting demands and get that uninterrupted concentration you thrive
on.

Typical Flow Hacks: How you personally express your Flow profile can range widely and
defies easy categorization. You may engage in the classical arts—painting, pottery, or music. You
may have found a home in more contemporary expressions, like digital photography, gaming
or coding or “making." You may seek out a kinder, gentler form of Nature than your Flow
cousin the Hard Charger—preferring hiking, gardening, birding, or working with animals to
unplug from daily life.
 DEEP THINKER

Special Caution: Your nervous system may be particularly sensitive and mismatched to
contemporary "always-on" society, and it may require dedicated effort for you to carve out and
protect those experiences that give you the restorative flow you so deeply need. What's more,
in this age of hyper-commercialization, you may feel like you need to defend your pursuits if
they're not earning you large sums of money or recognition. It's OK to write poetry even if
you're not published. It's OK to throw pots or ride horses even if they never "win" you anything.
Know that your passions are serving an essential purpose in helping keep you balanced and
energized in life—they increase your resilience, your immunity, your creativity, and your
optimism—not only is that enough, it's everything!

Pro-Tip: Given your relatively gentle nature and rich inner life, you "may" find yourself less than
fully embodied. You might not have excelled in organized sports, and you may shun the
vigorous and challenging in favor of the more contemplative and restorative. Consider
boosting your resilience by easing into cardio and strength training, sign up for a fun race, test
your boundaries (mentally) build some muscle (physically) and not only will you find yourself
more resilient, you'll also be rewarded with more Flow when you do return to your happy
place!

Further Learning: check out flowgenomeproject.com/learn/videos/ to learn more about

Embodied Cognition, Flow and Creativity, and the Neurochemistry of Flow.

Want to go deeper? Check out our online and in-person trainings and adventure programs to
level-up your Flow game!
 FLOW GOER



Favorite website: yogaglo.com, gaiam.com

Core piece of equipment: LuluLemon ButtHuggers

Catch phrase we wish you didn't ever say: "Namaste"

Alright—out of all the Flow Profiles, you're the flowiest! And by that, we don't mean that you
actually have more Flow than everyone else, but your life, your attitude, your activities, hell,
even your clothing all reinforce to yourself and others that being in Flow is a central part of
who you are. You've done some soul-searching to get here too—either taking the road less
traveled from the get go, or burning out in the Rat Race and bravely rebuilding a second act
that's more aligned for you.

Where the other profiles tend to find flow at special times under specific conditions, you seek a
life that is in flow all the time. You may believe in serendipity, synchronicity and that everything
happens for a reason.

Typical Flow Hacks: yoga, meditation, ecstatic dance, new circus, internal martial arts, eco-
tourism, personal growth retreats
 FLOW GOER



Special Caution: In your admirable effort to minimize struggle, conflict and stress in your life,
you can overshoot and lose the grit that makes the pearl. Beware the Bliss Junkie!!! The
paradox of flow is that all of that "effortless effort" takes A LOT of work! And it's an incredibly
fine line between "going with the flow”—only doing things when it's effortless and easy—and
just being plain old flakey. And be vigilant of any of your behaviors that keep life in fuzzy soft
focus—especially self-medicating.

Pro-Tip: Train your off-side. Be impeccable with your commitments. Be on time. Create a
catchment system for all of your meetings, ToDos, and finances (Getting Things Done is a great
place to start, and the iTunes/Android app stores). You've already worked so hard to create a
lifestyle around flow, and paradoxically, you will find even more flow in your life by tackling
head-on the least flow-y parts of your life (and everyone else’s) Practice having crucial
conversations and getting comfortable resolving conflict cleanly. Nail your finances. As hard
and counterintuitive as this sounds, you've already done the even harder part—building your
life around flow in the first place. All you've got to do now is close the open-loops and
surrender fully into your bliss! (namaste!)

Further Learning: check out flowgenomeproject.com/learn/videos/ to learn more about Grit,

Mindsets, Zen to Done, and Expert Performance Theory.

Want to go deeper? Check out our online and in-person trainings and adventure programs to
level-up your flow game!
 CROWD PLEASER

Favorite website: facebook.com 


Core piece of equipment: Cameraphone

Catch Phrase We Wish You Didn't Ever Say: “FOMO” “YOLO” or pretty much any emoticon,
ever

You're most at home in the thick of it—hanging with friends, going to the big game, concerts,
conferences, and anywhere you can thrive on the energy and inspiration of interacting with
others.

You typically find your flow while lost in the moment in the company of friends and like-minded
folks. A classic extrovert, you gain a charge from intense events, but unlike your Hard Charging
flow cousin, that intensity for you comes more from the power of the shared experience than
from the risks involved.

Typical Flow Hacks: festivals, conferences, social/political causes, nightlife, sports teams
(playing and watching), social media, managing organizational teams
 CROWD PLEASER

Special Caution: As a Crowd Pleaser, you should pay special attention to the "Hedonic
Treadmill”—where More, Better, Bigger does not always get you back to that initial hit of flow
that fired you up in the first place. And rallying more people to the "cause" can backfire,
leaving you trapped repeating behaviors that actually take you further from the struggle, focus
and deep reward of a fully dimensioned flow state (see: Frat Boys, Ravers, Facebook junkies).

Pro Tip: Flow, as T.S. Eliot once said "costs not less than everything" and if you want more of it,
you may need to tone down the compulsive socializing, go deeper in your training and
practices, and when you do come back online with your crew? You'll be leading everyone to
higher heights than ever before (and if you're into alcohol, MDMA and other common social
lubricants, consider laying off so you can more clearly assess the value of how and with whom
you're spending your time) .

Further Learning: check out flowgenomeproject.com/learn/videos/ to learn more about

Group Flow, Hedonic Engineering, and the Neurochemistry of Flow.

Want to go deeper? Check out our online and in-person trainings and adventure programs to
level-up your flow game!
 How big do you want to play?

“If your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime,

you’re not thinking big enough.”

– Dr. Wes Jackson, McArthur Fellow

Visit us at www.flowgenomeproject.com