The ESTE™ Framework (Figure 1) facilitates the exploration of your innate interest or preference in entrepreneurship, science, technology, or engineering. As you embark on your ESTE™ journey, you will come to understand and appreciate the differentiation between these domains that align with how you tend to think and behave. Also embedded in the ESTE™ Assessment are identifiers of certain personality traits, some of which have been found to be positively correlated with flow (i.e., open-mindedness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness).

Let’s say you learn (or confirm) that your innate interests and strengths reside in the entrepreneurial domain. You also happen to be a conscientious individual – you strive to do the right thing, and you are thoughtful and thorough in your actions. The ‘flow’ experience in your activities including those related to work, will most likely occur during those activities that align with your entrepreneurial spirit. As you are also a conscientiousness individual, the likelihood of reaching the flow state is even higher in these situations.

What does it mean to be in a “flow” state or “in the zone”?

Remember the last time you did something, and time just seemed to fly by? You were probably so absorbed in the activity at hand, that you became completely unaware of your surroundings and the dimension of time. Your focus and energy on the activity in which you were engaged came so effortlessly and automatic. This universal experience is often described as being “in the zone” or “flow”. It is recognized and reported across all ages, classes, genders, and cultures and can be experienced during various types of activities ranging from sports, art, music, and even work.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, considered one of the co-founders of positive psychology, was the first to identify, research, and describe the experience we now refer to as ‘flow’ or being ‘in the zone’. Csikszentmihalyi operationalized the flow experience into the following sub dimensions:

Balance of high challenge and high skill: the activity is achievable, positive, and provides an optimal level of new information where the challenge of the activity is balanced by the requisite skills needed to meet the challenge. If the level of challenge exceeds the level of skill required to accomplish the activity, then anxiety can occur; if both the challenge and skill are low, then apathy can set in; and if the challenge is low, but the required skill level is high, then boredom can occur (Figure 2).

Concentration: your focus and energy on the activity is optimal and undivided.

Merging of action and awareness: your concentration and commitment to the activity are at their highest level. You have a heightened sense of awareness and the activity seems effortless.

Clarity of goals: the expectations surrounding the activity are clear.

Unambiguous feedback: the outcome of the activity is immediate and non-ambiguous and can be provided by external factors or individuals or by yourself.

Sense of control: you feel that you are in full control and can impact your external environment.

Loss of self-consciousness: you are so absorbed in the activity, that you “forget yourself”.

Transformation of time: you are unaware of the passing of time akin to the notion that “time flies when you’re having fun”.

Autotelic: the activity itself gives you intrinsic pleasure and you are internally motivated when doing this activity, even to the extent that you will seek out this activity.

How to leverage the ESTE™ Framework and operationalize increased states of flow for you and others.

1.    Know that if you tend to have the personality traits of open-mindedness, conscientiousness, and/or agreeableness, you are more likely to reach states of flow.

2.    Identify opportunities or environments in which your natural abilities (your ESTE™ preference) align with the challenge.

3.    Ensure the goals to the activity, assignment, or project are attainable, motivating, clear, and unambiguous.

4.    Set up a support system (your team, manager, department, colleagues, friends) to receive timely feedback. Become comfortable at being both your own cheerleader and honest critiquer at any given time.

5.    If you are also a parent or teacher, provide opportunities to increase the likelihood of optimal experiences in daily activities to foster and generate flow.

[Kennedy JW. The Relationship between the big five personality traits and likelihood of experiencing flow. Thesis presentation 2019; Csikszentmihalyi et al (2018); APA handbook of giftedness and talent (pp. 215–229). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000038-014]

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