Experiencing flow - Los Cabos international film festival

Sometimes, everything feels like an obstacle or a distraction. This happens when we are not focused on our own purpose—the steps or tasks we are completing are aimless.

But other times, everything in a day seems to fall into place. Great things come one after another like dominos, and you can’t help but think, “yes!” That feeling comes when you are in flow. You are able to navigate your day with a sense of ease, achievement, and excitement.

Getting to that place—being in flow—requires you to be both open minded to possibilities, and focused on what you want. And once you are in that state, you will feel that “yes!” continuously.

In Pivot to Clarity, I share my day full of “yes!” while traveling home from Los Cabos. My purpose for the day was to arrive home safely. The events that unfolded to allow that were simple, yet extraordinary. It was a full day that was also energizing. All choices and actions moved me forward.

Today, just before traveling home from another Los Cabos trip, a friend shared with me her recent extraordinary “yes!” experience.

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A mom’s “yes!”

My friend rang my room about an hour before my airport shuttle. “When is your check out? Do you have a few minutes?” Me: “Sure! Please come.”

[She was beaming when she entered. We only see each other when I visit the resort, so we are always smiling. This was bigger.]

“I had the most wonderful adventure last night. May I tell you? It’s about my son…”

[Here’s where the purpose shows. Being a great mom for her only child, a son, now an adult and living in Guadalajara, is very purposeful for her.]

“My son is a designer for a film company, and he is in town for a celebration of their new film, The Whale, with Brendan Fraser. He is too polite to ask for tickets for his parents, but yesterday I won two tickets and was able to go! And there’s more…”

She went on to tell me how she’d entered to win two tickets, and won. But the tickets turned out to include more than just getting to see the film (by happenstance, kismet, manifestation, “yes!”… whatever you want to call it).

Why I like to call this a “yes!” is because it includes a series of choices that add up to this wild and wonderful adventure that kept unfolding, until two in the morning. It included:

    • Entering to win tickets (and winning for that night, and choosing to go)
    • Accidentally walking down the red carpet when trying to avoid crowds
    • Not having a “bracelet” yet she and her husband were waived through (without even mentioning that her son was part of the event)
    • Getting past the discomfort of feeling she did not belong there
    • Seeing her son on stage and him being recognized twice: once by the film producer and again by the Los Cabos mayor
    • Capturing a video of her son talking about the poster he designed for the film
    • Accidentally walking the red carpet again, and just smiling and waving at fans (as if it was just as it should be)
    • Heading into a private film event when she thought she was headed for the parking lot (and again being waived through without a bracelet)
    • Her son being thrilled, not at all embarrassed, to find his parents at a table and choosing to sit with them and introduce them with pride
    • Feeling surprisingly energized upon arriving home near 3am
“Yes!” Isn’t magic, but can feel like it is

What would it take to feel in flow like this during our workday? I do at times. Is it only a leader/owner who does? That needn’t be the case. What’s possible?

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