Welcome back to The Edge, where we explore the mindset and habits that separate good from great, from athletes to investors to sports bettors. If the first step was understanding that mental toughness is your real advantage, the next is learning how to channel it.
This week we focus on flow, that rare state where preparation, confidence, and focus come together and performance feels almost effortless. Whether you are chasing a perfect round of golf, running a business, or placing a smart wager, flow is the edge that keeps you locked in when it matters most.
When the World Goes Quiet
If you’re lucky, there’s a moment on the tee box, at your desk, or on the field when the world goes quiet. Eyes on the target or goal. A deep, stabilizing breath. A clear picture of the shot or path forward. All channeled into an effortless, practiced swing. What happens next matters, especially if money is on the line. But if you are looking to improve and reach the next level, it does not matter as much as how you set up and then execute the shot or business playbook.
Approaching sport and work with this mindset is what University of Chicago researcher, author, and psychologist Mihály Csikszentmihalyi referred to as the autotelic mindset. You are in it for the doing, not necessarily the applause. Yet, when done to perfection, it often leads to acquiring higher skills. You are in it for the moments that matter first, for the process and the process improvement. When you approach sport and work this way, you make space to experience a flow state: that deep absorption where action and awareness merge, time blurs or disappears altogether, and performance feels effortless. Csikszentmihalyi wrote that the best moments in life come when we are stretched to our limits by something we enjoy that is both challenging and worthwhile.
What “Autotelic” Really Means (and Why It Wins)
Autotelic means the activity is rewarding in itself. Autotelic athletes, entrepreneurs, and creators design their environments so flow can happen: clear goals, tight feedback, and a challenge, resulting in skill match just beyond comfortable. Those three levers are the on-ramp to flow across domains, from the driving range to the trading desk to the studio to the operating room.
In Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csikszentmihalyi shares research on how, by designing the way information enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness, unlock potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives.
In sport science, flow is described (and measured) by nine experiential markers that show up when you are in it:
- Challenge/Skill balance: Was the task slightly above my current level?
- Action/Awareness merge: Did the routine “run itself”?
- Clear goals: Did I define success tightly?
- Unambiguous feedback: Did I get an immediate signal?
- Concentration: Was attention steady and undivided?
- Sense of control: Did I feel agency over the process?
- Loss of self-consciousness: Was self-talk quiet and useful?
- Time transformation: Did the block feel fast or altered?
- Autotelic experience: Did the doing feel rewarding in itself?
What does all this mean for golfers, weekend warriors, young athletes, or rising stars? It means that to be an elite athlete, training the mind as well as the body is what gets you to the top. For artists, entrepreneurs, writers, or anyone, setting yourself up to achieve a flow state is a path to a richer, more rewarding existence.
Golf and Achieving a Flow State
Golf punishes outcome-chasing, known as “pressing” on the course. That is why sport psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella drills routine, target imagery, and acceptance. His advice is disarmingly simple: “A good pre-shot routine is like being in a quiet room, where pressure cannot get you. Make it simple: Pick your target, see the shot, and swing.” You do not control the bounce; you do control your process. Letting go of the outcome is as important, if not more, than “practice makes perfect.” Just ask Rory McIlroy.
Build Rotella’s teaching into your athletic practice: define a clear goal or target, embrace unambiguous feedback (ball flight vs. intention), develop and protect the ability to concentrate by anchoring on the routine, and maintain a sense of control by executing the same sequence regardless of stakes. Watch how self-consciousness and negative “what if I choke?” dialogue disappear while time transforms into unending presence. By accepting the result and moving on, you protect the autotelic loop on the next swing or attempt.
In an interview on Mark Immelman’s On the Mark podcast, Rotella shared that athletes have free will and the opportunity to design their mindset, while acknowledging that controlling the mind is always a challenge. “We get to choose how we perceive our golf swings and our talent and our game,” he said. “You basically have to learn how to stay in the present moment and get your head in a good place. Even at the top level, it is a challenge to think of nothing but where you want the ball to go.”
Life’s Work: Building a Flow-Rich Operating System
Csikszentmihalyi showed that flow can occur in the workplace as well. Surgeons, musicians, talented teens, and more were all studied in his attempt to map peak performance and happiness. Applying a similar setup in the workplace and choosing a career that is intrinsically rewarding to mind, body, and spirit can invite flow into the day-to-day.
Achieving Flow Across Arenas
- Stock traders: Use a written playbook (setups), fixed risk per trade, and post-trade journaling to create clear goals, control, and fast feedback. Focus on process quality over P&L dopamine. Quick wins are data, not necessarily flow.
- Artists, writers, makers: Aim for long, uninterrupted sessions. Define constraints (palette, form, word count). Seek immediate sensory or external feedback to maintain challenge–skill balance.
- Teams and future of work: Operate in short cycles with a clear definition of done, visible metrics, and local autonomy. Fewer but more meaningful status meetings, agile thinking, and a build–measure–learn process.
Is Flow Achievable for Sports Betting?
For bettors who can separate winning from the process of making structured bets and treating gambling like a skill domain, there is a better chance of protecting both bankroll and attention while occasionally entering a flow state.
A Possible Autotelic Betting Framework:
- Clear goals: Define your sport, markets, and edges. Decide what qualifies as a good bet.
- Unambiguous feedback: Track every wager, including the amount, price, stake, thesis, and outcome. Wins and losses alike can be “bad” if the process was off.
- Challenge/Skill balance: Size stakes to skill, bankroll, and appetite. Start with sports you understand; add complexity only as discipline improves.
- Routine and acceptance: Pre-bet checklist, place and record the wager, then let it go. No tilt, no chase.
For What It’s Worth, Take What Works for You
I had the pleasure of meeting Csikszentmihalyi in graduate school. He lectured for our exercise physiology students and later met with our small sport psychology group in a private Q&A at the University of Colorado–Boulder. It was one of my top grad school experiences. Having felt flow as an athlete, and then reading his work that gave it a name, was intense. Achieving a fleeting flow state almost transcended human bounds. It felt like a glimpse into something ethereal, beyond reach except for those who have been there and believe it exists.
I asked him directly about the connection between flow and spirituality. He shook his head and said he did not want to go there. His reaction suggested others had asked the same. At the time, I thought perhaps he believed linking his life’s work to spirituality might make it seem less credible. Since he has since passed, I will never know, but his work resonated deeply.
While flow may be easier for some than others, good coaches like Rotella and researchers like Csikszentmihalyi offer a roadmap to peak performance. If you have ever experienced flow in sport, art, systems design, or meaningful work, you know it is unforgettable. It takes practice, and it requires work you both enjoy and find challenging.
Be willing to adjust goals, welcome and tighten feedback, and match challenge to skill. Protect attention with rituals and accept results with grace, win or lose. Do that in golf and scores follow. Do it in work and joyful output compounds. Do it in betting, and you trade thrills for structured decisions that keep you in the game. Build the system and flow shows up more often.
That’s The Edge.
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