2. Find an appropriate challenge–skills balance

Finding an appropriate balance between your skills and the challenge at hand is arguably the most critical step. To experience flow, you need to find a challenge that is within reach but still requires effort to achieve. A high challenge for an Olympian might induce terror in a recreational athlete, while a recreational runner’s goals might be too much for a novice. Fortunately, the more experience you have in setting goals for yourself, the easier this becomes. 

Even at the individual level, people are far from static when it comes to their bodies and minds. A good challenge today may be too much or too little next week, depending on your mood, your physical health, and your fitness. Fluctuations in perceived skill level are normal and they can even change mid run as you feel particularly good (or particularly bad). Being aware of your current skills and the available challenges out there is a never-ending dance between the two variables.

The inverted-U theory of performance and anxiety (Yerkes & Dodson 1908) posits that humans generally improve performance as the pressure to succeed heightens, but only to a certain point. Beyond that point, the challenge becomes too high, anxiety sets in and the performance suffers. Alternatively, when the pressure to succeed is too low, you are likely to become bored or even apathetic. The stimulus theory of human motivation suggests that stimulation (challenge) is a necessary and innate need and that without adequate stimulation from our environment we become bored, agitated, and even disoriented. Therefore, you should consider the intensity of the challenge set for a run and how far reaching that challenge might be, given current skills. If you reach too high, anxiety overrides the moment; if you set the goal too low, boredom sets in and the desire to continue with the activity fades.

As you experience success in meeting your goals and facing challenges, you build self-efficacy, a belief that you have what it takes to accomplish the goals you set for yourself. As self-efficacy increases, you feel more comfortable risking failure by setting more challenging goals. Not only will you be more apt to have more flow moments, you will find greater personal satisfaction in your running altogether.

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