Zero to Dangerous - Workbooks
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Mitigating the Dark Side of Flow

Flow feels like the meaning of life for good reason. The neurochemicals that underpin the state are among the most addictive drugs on earth. Equally powerful is the psychological draw ~ Steven Kotler, The Rise of Superman
 
 

Table of Contents

 

Key Takeaways

  1. Flow Is Dangerous
  1. Fully Alive & Deeply Committed Is a Risky Business That Costs Not Less Than Everything
  1. Flow Hacking Risks to Watch For
  1. Servant Leadership
  1. Becoming a Flow Conscious Leader
 

Exercise - What Is Your Highest Risk of the Dark Side of Flow?

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Flow Hacking Risks to Watch For:
  1. Continually Pushing the Challenge Level
  1. Painlessness, Invincibility & Avoidance
  1. Workaholism & Dopamine Itchiness
  1. Losing The Key To The Lock Of Flow
  1. Becoming a Bliss Junkie
  1. Dopamine Distortions & Sense of Self Inflation
Mitigating Hypomania
  1. Remove stimulants such as caffeine
  1. Regulate your nervous system; exercise, journaling, sleep, nutrition, mindfulness
  1. Anchor to routine
  1. Have others “check you”
      2.  
      Where do you live?
 
Write Down Your Highest Risk of the Dark Side of Flow.
Your notes

Glossary

Continually Pushing the Challenge Level: Sooner or later, if we stay on this path long enough, pushing past one’s comfort zone is going to require exceeding traditional margins for safety.
Painlessness, Invincibility & Avoidance: Using flow to kill pain, getting a distorted sense of one’s capability and avoiding uncomfortable feelings that need to be addressed.
Workaholism & Dopamine Itchiness: Discomfort when not working or engaged in flow that makes relationships and recovery challenging.
Losing the Key to the Lock of Flow: Being locked out of the state with no way back in.
Becoming a Bliss Junkie: Requiring flow to get good work done and relying on it for productivity.
Dopamine Distortions & Sense of Self Inflation: Becoming sporadically “manic”, excessive excitement, distorted perception of one’s own worth, excessive sense of what you’re capable of.
Manic: Excessive excitement, distorted perception of one’s own worth, excessive sense of what you’re capable of.
Hypomania: “Hypomania is the common thread that connects these world changers, a thread as invisible, as powerful, and stretching back as far in time as a strand of DNA. Ideas pour out of hypomanics, a mix of the ridiculous and the brilliant.”― John D. Gartner, The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America.
 
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