I'm currently reading the book The Art of Impossible by Steven Kotler.

Now, I have the urge to write about what I learned.

So let me start by asking you a question...

Have you ever experienced peak human performance?

The state of consciousness athletes, software engineers, and culture-shifting artists swear by as their key to success.

You've felt it before:

• The state of effortless effort.

• Hyper focus and minimal errors.

• Unshakable confidence in your abilities.

• When skill turns into art and the opinion of others dissolves into the background.

• Time melts. 8 hours go by like 30 minutes.

• When you're light on your feet.

• When everything just "clicks".

That's flow state.

That's the secret to every high-performing, successful individual.

Athletes call it "The Zone".

Runners call it "Runner's High".

It's the state of elevated consciousness. Maximum enjoyment, effortless effort and productivity, and minimal pain.

As Benjamin Hardy once said: "Flow states have changed my life. I don't work hard. I chase flow states."

Flow state is the secret to achieving 8 hours of work in 2.

Flow state is a distraction from distractions.

It's when you're completely absorbed by the task at hand that you disconnect from reality.

Without flow, you're inefficient. Completing a simple task feels like climbing a mountain.

When you're in flow, the hardest task feels like a walk in the park.

The people who have the most flow are the happiest.

The problem with modern society is they are looking for quick fixes.

A boys trip to Japan that will never make it out of the group chat.

Going to the club on the weekend to "live their lives to the fullest" by doing the things that are destroying it.

A new productivity hack that will finally help them finish their never-ending To Do list.

You don't need more experiences, new shoes, or productivity hacks to be happy or find meaning in life.

You need more flow.

My friend, this is coming from someone who was born and raised in Dubai.

A couple of years ago, I used to be that kid who would wake up on a random Tuesday, use my parents' card, spend $100 on breakfast, waste another $500 on random things, thinking that it would make me happier.

If anything, it just made me feel worse. I was aimless in life. No purpose. No goal to chase. No reason to live.

But now I'm making $4,000-$5,000 per month. I spend less than $400 on myself (and the rest goes to getting mentorships and courses) and feel 100x happier.

If you want to:

• Be happier

• Be more productive

• Have more fulfillment

• have a sense of purpose in life

• Work less, earn more, and enjoy life

You need flow.

People ask me how I write 3-6 threads a week. A 3,000+ word newsletter every week, 14 tweets a week, sometimes even write 5 emails a week, and still write my thesis at the same time and stay focused the entire time.

The truth is, I'm not a productivity machine or guru, I just work in flow.

Whenever I'm not in flow, one sales email takes me 60 minutes to write. But when I'm in flow, it takes me 15 minutes.

Words come naturally. Things just click. It becomes fun.

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Before we begin…

Tomorrow I'll open 2 slots for my 1-on-1 mentorship to more than 1,300 people.

If you'd like to build, monetize, and systemize your brand…

And want to get early access…

Reply with "I'm in" and I'll send you the details today and you'll be given priority.

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2 Types Of Games In Life

Life has 2 types of games.

Finite games and infinite games.

Finite games are when you have a certain number of options. There are winners and losers. Chess, checkers, and spots, politics, status games are all examples of finite games.

Finite games turn you into an aggressive person. We play them because that's how we evolved as a species. To be the leader of the tribe you had to be #1. The only way to be #1 and stay there is to "beat" everyone else. You're the only winner.

But infinite games are the complete opposite.

They have no clear winners or losers. No established time frames. No fixed rules. There is no fixed number of players, it changes with time. Art, science, love, and wealth creation are infinite games.

Flow state is also another example of infinite games—but not in the way you'd think.

In Flow State you can't win—however, you can definitely lose.

But this doesn't mean you should not try.

You see my friend, everyone wants to "reach their full potential", but most people live far within their limits.

You're filled with hidden talents that you fail to use. You constantly live below your maximum. You behave below your optimum.

The reason you're not "reaching your potential" is because you've automatized the wrong processes. You're playing the wrong game and it's costing you time, effort, and mental suffering.

As Steven Kotler said:

“The only thing more difficult than the emotional toil of pursuing true excellence is the emotional toil of not pursuing true excellence.”

Not giving it your all is the worst thing you can do. Your subconscious mind knows that you can do more, that you're capable of achieving much much more, but you choose not to give it your all. That's why you feel terrible at the end of the day.

That's why the voice that's in the back of your head keeps you up at night.

How To Maximize Flow In Your Life

Imagine you have a car.

Let's say it's a BMW 320i 2019 model.

It's a good car, has decent horsepower, somewhat fast, some might even say it's their dream car.

Now imagine that the BMW 320i turned into a brand new M3 competition for the next 4 hours.

It's sexy, loud, fast, definitely luxurious, expensive, and most people's dream car.

Flow state is the same for your life.

It takes whatever you have and turbo-boosts it for a short period of time.

This is why flow state is so addictive.

It gives you a taste of what you're capable of.

Most people find happiness in that state of consciousness.

Hierarchy of Goals

Humans thrive when they have a hierarchy of goals to chase.

Goals give us a clear path to achieve a desired outcome.

This is why video games are so addictive. They have a clear path of where we want to go. Video games have immediate feedback and consequences to what you do. This forces focus.

Even people with ADHD can focus for hours when they have ADHD.

When you know where you want to go, you'll get there much more quickly.

Now imagine you were in flow state but you didn't have a clear goal.

You'd be wasting your energy. You would be making a lot of progress but in the completely wrong direction.

Flow is a double-edge sword. Use it wrong and the damage isn't 2x, but it's 100x.

Use it correctly, and it benefits you 100x.

The problem with goals is most people don't have one.

At least they weren't the ones who decided what goals to chase. Usually it's society who gave them goals.

School, university, work, mortgage, paying off debt, climbing the corporate ladder, start a family and never get to spend time with your kids, retire at 65, die.

It's monotonous. There's no one point where you were the one calling the shots.

But this is how most people choose to live their lives.

The problem with this is it's a "one-size fits all" type of solution and goal.

And one thing that you can absolutely bet your money on is there's no one-size fits all solution to anything.

Be bold enough to experiment with something new.

People might call you stupid, reckless, or naive.

But so were all the most influential people in history.

The 4% Rule

There's a sweet spot to flow.

That sweet spot is when the task at hand should be 4% higher than your actual skill level.

It's called the Flow State channel.

Think of a chess grandmaster playing against a beginner.

The grandmaster will get bored. There's no challenge there.

Now switch the board around, you're now the beginner playing against a grandmaster.

How would you feel?

Anxious, right?

The challenge is too big for you to learn anything.

The same applies to challenging ourselves.

What you're doing should be hard enough to force you to focus, experiment, and iterate.

The goal is to stretch, not snap.

The 3 Steps of Flow

Flow state is highly dopamine-dependent.

That means if you don't have dopamine, it's hard for you to focus.

Why?

Dopamine is our reward system. It sends these little chemical signals to the brain telling it, "This is good for our survival, we need more of it!"

But dopamine is just the spark that gets you there.

Steven Kotler says there are 5 main drivers for flow:

Curiosity, passion, purpose, autonomy, and mastery.

But for me, I like to think of them as 3 things:

1) Curiosity

Curiosity is what I preach about the most for a reason.

It's the spark that gets you going.

When you chase your curiosity, you get spurts of dopamine.

It requires effort, for sure, but it doesn't feel like it. If anything, it feels like play.

And in today's age, that's your winning edge.

If you don't know what you're curious about, start exploring what sounds interesting to you. Not what society tells you is interesting.

This is crucial for you to understand.

Because society can't teach you flow. If anything, they only teach you how to become monotonous factory workers who check boxes, ask no questions, and are obedient.

Flow state is a creative pursuit.

Schools are bad at teaching creativity. I don't want to get into how schools literally "kill" your creativity, just go and read NASA's Creative Genius Study and see for yourself.

My curiosity is health.

Any free time I have, whether I'm driving to the gym, to see a friend, on a run, or after the gym, I put on podcasts about health.

Whether they're physical, mental, or spiritual health.

I'm obsessed with it. I’m obsessed with how the human body works.

It's one of the main reasons why I mostly ghostwrite for therapists, health and mental health coaches.

I can write threads that go and gain 100,000, 500,000, and sometimes even 1,000,000+ views in just 30 minutes.

But others struggle to reach 10,000 views even after they've spent 5 hours writing one piece of content.

If you'd like to work with me and gain more email subscribers, leads and customers for your business without you having to lift a finger, click here to see what you're getting.

2) Purpose

Every human searches for one thing:

Their purpose in life.

Without purpose, a goal that's bigger than yourself, you feel worthless.

Purpose, for me, is helping others live a better life—no matter what that looks like to you.

If it was one sentence that shifted your mindset to something completely new and set you on a different trajectory where you became fitter, wealthier, and feel better, then my purpose has been fulfilled.

If it means you being able to have better relationships, my purpose has been fulfilled.

My goal is to serve others and make their lives better. For as long as I can remember, I've always had that goal.

This is one of the reasons why I love creating offers, mentorships, and group coaching programs. I get the greatest sense of purpose when I'm hand-in-hand working with people.

But more meaningful does not typically mean more pleasant.

Sometimes, the greater the purpose, the greater the challenge.

But you shouldn't shy away from it… if anything, you should go forward and lean into it.

Cuz not many people would do it. And if you won't, then no one else will.

Once you find your purpose this naturally leads into the next and final part.

3) Autonomy

There's nothing you'd rather do other than chase your purpose in life.

For me, this comes in the form of entrepreneurship.

This isn't about creating the next billion-dollar startup.

It's about monetizing your life's work into a self-fulfilling, self-actualizing goal.

If you can't monetize your work, then there's no chance that you'll achieve your purpose.

This is why you must learn how to sell.

If you don't, you'll spend the rest of your life working for someone else. You'll be overworked, underpaid, and unfulfilled in your life.

Being rich isn't the same as being autonomous. My old boss was rich. He wore a new Patek Philippe every day. He had owned several rental properties in downtown Dubai. His house had a clear view of Burj Khalifa.

But when he wanted to take a vacation, he couldn't.

The CEO wouldn't let him.

Even on the weekends he would go to Moscow, close a deal, then immediately fly back to come and work on Monday.

He had money, but he couldn't enjoy it.

He didn't have autonomy.

Being autonomous means having agency in your life.

You get to call the shots. You get to choose when to work, who you work with, what you do for work, where you do it without having to worry about the consequences.

When you have agency, you have complete control over your life.

If you want to be free and to achieve your purpose, you need agency, autonomy, and freedom.

The only way you can get them is by knowing how to sell.

When you know how to sell, you solve all your financial problems (which is a big chunk of your day-to-day problems). This frees up mental space that allows you to focus.

So the first step to selling is having people whom you can help and sell to.

The best way to find those people is by knowing how to write content that captures, holds, and converts people's attention.

If you'd like help with that…

Reply with "I'm in" and I'll send over the details for my 1-on-1 mentorship.

Again… 2 spots are left.

Act fast.

That's all for today. Enjoy the rest of your day.

- Hussain

P.S.

I didn’t get to finish the entire letter in one sitting.

The first hour of writing, I reached the 4% Rule.

Then guests came.

Now I just spent another 2-3 hours writing that last part of The 3 Steps of Flow.

That just goes to show how much progress you can make in Flow State.

I’ll see you tomorrow.