1. What Are the Keys to a Successful Career?
Identifying Flow in Your Life
Presented by:
Jill Stratton, Ph.D.

2. Psychology
What comes to mind?

3. Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.
--Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania

4. Negative Versus Positive Psychology

5. Life Satisfaction Anxiety Depression Joy Schizophrenia Happiness
140,000
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
Life Satisfaction
Anxiety
Depression
Joy
Schizophrenia
Happiness
142,988
80,891
125,162
7,967
4,921
7,428

6. When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life." ~John Lennon

7. What are 3 things that bring you
JOY
right now?

9. Less positive nuns: 33% lived to be 85 Happy nuns: 90% lived to be 85
The Nun Study
Less positive nuns: 33% lived to be 85
Happy nuns: 90% lived to be 85
On average, the happier nuns lived 9 years longer than the less happy nuns.
Danner (2001)

10. The Nun Study

11. Subjective Well Being = ∑( PA) / ∑(NA) + Meaning & Purpose
Happiness = The Sum of our Positive Affect /
The Sum of our Negative Affect
Subjective Well Being =
∑( PA) / ∑(NA) + Meaning & Purpose

12. Lyubomirsky’s Determinants of Happiness

13. Circumstances = 10-15% of the difference between
Research on the “Circumstances”
Income/Wealth
Age
Gender
Marriage
Religion
Education
Beauty
Circumstances = 10-15% of the difference between
happy and unhappy people !!

14. What about lottery winners?

15. Focus on your strengths Cultivate relationships
What Are Some Intentional Acts?
Focus on your strengths
Cultivate relationships
Express gratitude for what you have/what is going well
Help other people
Stay optimistic, avoid pessimism
Stay in shape, live healthy
Try to rebound quickly from negative events
Have goals and ambitions that you value

16. Write down one of your top strengths.
Be specific!

17. Activity

18. Provide a deep sense of meaning
Natural
Effortless  Flow
Energizing
Provide a deep sense of meaning
Connect you with the deepest sense of who you are
Building upon your strengths leads to a significant boost in happiness and well-being.
~Dr. Wendy Ulrich

19. People who do focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs. They are more productive too, both individually and in teams. And they are more than three times as likely to say they have an excellent quality of life.
~The Gallup Organization

20. Flow Comes out of Positive Psychology
Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.
--Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania

21. Flow + Joy = Career Success
FLOW Defined…
Csikszentmihalyi defines flow “as an
almost automatic, effortless, yet
highly focused state of consciousness.”
Flow + Joy = Career Success

22. So what exactly is FLOW?
Flow- When individuals engage in activities and lose
awareness of time and space, they are
involved with flow experiences.
Think of an activity you did as a child when you lost all track of time …..

23. Can you think of someone who embodies Flow?
Musicians Athletes Kids at play

24. 9 Characteristics of Flow
Clear Goals
Unambiguous and immediate feedback
Skills that match challenges
Merging of action and awareness
Centering of attention on a limited stimulus field
A sense of potential control
A loss of self-consciousness
An altered sense of time
An autotelic experience

25. Skills that Match Challenges

27. How can I identify what puts me in Flow?
What do you like to do? Do more of it! Results?
Talk to a trusted advisor or coach
Learn something new
Meditate
Identify your strengths, use your strengths
Be present and acknowledge what brings you joy!

28. Think of one way in which flow connects with you in your professional life…

29. Think about a time you were in flow…
What skills and abilities did you use when you were in flow?
What would your life look like if you spent more time in flow?
What brings you joy in your life, and how can you spend more time doing that?

30. What do you need to change in your professional life to obtain flow?
Attitude?
People?
Career or a Job?
Living in the Moment?
Appreciation?
New Challenges?
Take a risk?

31. What can you achieve by maximizing your own Flow?

32. Does flow make a person happy?
“In many ways, the
secret to a happy life
is to learn to get flow
from as many of the
things we have to do as
possible” (Csik, p. 113).

33. May the “flow” be with you!

34. Let’s continue the conversation!
THANK YOU!
Let’s continue the conversation!
Jill Stratton