Flow is an optimal case of intrinsic motivation proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and characterized by a person completely immersed in a feeling of energetic concentration, full involvement and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Basically, the flow is completely absorbed in what one is doing. Csikszentmihalyi identified six factors that encompass the experience of flow and all of which must occur in combination. To truly experience flow, Csikszentmihalyi says one must experience both a high level of challenge and a high level of skill. Entering a state of flow is important because it allows a person to take pleasure in what they do, to have a successful experience and to persevere. Happiness is defined as “frequent positive affect, high life satisfaction, and infrequent negative affect” (Lyubomirsky, Schkade, and Sheldon 2005). According to the article Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change, a person's level of happiness is determined by three main factors: a genetically determined set point for happiness, circumstantial factors relevant to happiness, and activities and practices linked to happiness. There are many ways to spark flow and bring that positive improvement to a person's performance. An entire segment of psychology is dedicated to positive psychotherapy, which deals with increasing positive emotions, engagement, and meaning. The article Positive Psychotherapy explains how Martin Seligman suggested that happiness can be divided into three manageable elements, including positive emotion, engagement and meaning. Six exercises were used in this study to increase the positive emotions and engagement a person felt, including several different tasks intended to focus on position...... middle of paper ...... a person's life. In the future, it would be very interesting to see the effects that positive psychotherapy and the notion of flow can have on the performance of a team as a whole. If an individual person could achieve peak performance by getting into flow, if an entire team could get into flow, they would be very competitive. It would be incredibly powerful for a coach to be able to create flow within a team. Additionally, it would be interesting to see which sports this would work best for. However, because flow is a very organic concept and it is very difficult to tell whether a person has actually achieved flow, it would be very difficult to compare results across a wide range of sports. At the academy and within the Coast Guard, being able to generate flow would be a very useful skill to be able to accomplish the difficult tasks encountered on a daily basis..