“In all our studies of extreme performance improvement, the people and organisations who covered the most distance in the shortest time were aways the ones who were tapping into passion and finding flow.”*

Vital gifts are for others.  We can’t give them to ourselves, but there are benefits.  We get to grow up to the gift – who we become, and how we become a generative being.

Rohit Bhargava says of those who want to predict the future: ‘you will become more curious, observant and understanding of the world.’**  We can claim these same things as benefits of growing up to, or being worthy of, the gift.

In becoming worthy of the gift we must open our minds, our hearts and our wills.  Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler list a number of “mind hacks” which they claim increases focus, and focus is important because ‘flow follows focus.^ Here they are: focus on the user; share everything; look for ideas everywhere; think big bit start small; never fail to fail; spark with imagination, rule with data; be a platform [for others]; and, have a mission that matters.^

We can also grab these because flow is what happens when we’re completely immersed in giving our gift to to others.  This may all sound like an indulgence to those who have lists of urgent things to do, believing doing the things which energise them is something that will have to wait for the future, but futurists know the only time for pursuing what energises us is now.

(*Author and consultant John Hagel, quoted in Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler’s Bold.)
(**From Rohit Bhargava’s Non-Obvious.)
(^From Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler’s Bold.)