As an adult while visiting my Mother one weekend I noted that she had a copy of the Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune laying by the front door.* I was impressed that she was expanding her world and reading about the bigger issues of the day via the Tribune…

Today we are celebrating three days: International Day of Women and Girls in Science, National Inventors Day and Thomas Edison’s Birthday. These all have something in common. Let’s start with Thomas Edison. We grow up learning that Edison invented the lightbulb. He actually improved the lightbulb. He also worked very…

Why Climate Change can be an Opportunity for Economic Development Are you not sure what to do about economic development from an economic development perspective? Let’s face it. There are still some people out there that are not convinced. They’re not convinced climate change is an issue that requires our…

You have read my essays about being in flow. You might be thinking to yourself that being in flow is for the most creative and important of endeavors. Certainly flow can be used to generate the important work you do. …

In economic development work “Business Retention and Expansion” or “BRE” is very important work. Simply put, it is the work of assuring local businesses have all the resources they need to continue to expand and grow in place. We don’t want them to leave! Ultimately in BRE we want the…

Strive for novelty, unpredictability, and complexity. Yes, that’s right. If you strive for these types of experiences you will be in flow more often and you will be happier. Research has shown that people who are in flow are happier and more fulfilled more of the time than those who…

In an earlier post I said that flow follows focus. Flow demands it. You have to be focused on the task at hand in order to have any hope to trigger flow. However if the task seems just slightly more difficult than what you are accustomed to then you focus…

Awareness is one of the characteristics of flow. We talked about being fully aware of your surroundings when in flow. You are not a zombie but just the opposite. You are fully aware of what is going on and your environment. How do you achieve this level of awareness? It…

Now that we have established our Major Transformative Purpose (MTP) we can establish what the Steven Kotler and the Flow Research Collective team calls “high hard goals” or HHGs’. A HHG is one that is what someone might call a “reach goal” or a “push goal”. It is a goal…