How do I get into flow?
Four phases, one cycle. Why the state can be prepared for, and why motivation is not enough.
Speaking
A talk you still feel on Monday.
45 to 90 minutes on flow, energy and recovery. At the end there is one thing everyone in the room can do from tomorrow.
Booked by
VolkswagenMercedes-BenzadidasBMWERGOGleiss LutzMerz LifecareSparkasse LandshutSchmidtCollegMITOcarePRIMAVERA LIFEBiohacking Congress
The model
Flow lives on a narrow edge.
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi described what the state actually depends on: the relationship between what a task demands and what a person can do. Too much demand and you get anxiety. Too little and you get boredom. Between them sits a narrow band.
The edge keeps moving. As people get better, they need more demand to reach the same state. That is why my talks are not about motivation but about the conditions under which a team keeps finding that edge.
Drawn after Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. The four phases on the home page go back to Herbert Benson; Steven Kotler made them widely known.
Topics
Seven topics, one throughline.
All of them rest on my book Die Flow-Formel (2025). Each one works as a keynote, as a keynote with Q&A, or as a half-day session.
Introduction
How do I come alive again?
Energy, awareness, connection, growth. Four pillars instead of good intentions.
How do I reach what I set out to do?
Biological manifestation: 60,000 thoughts a day, and how the brain decides which ones count.
How do I stay healthy and awake?
Not simply living longer, but staying in shape while you do. What actually decides it.
What really works, what is merely expensive?
Sleep, nutrition, movement, stress, relationships, surroundings. Six levers, honestly sorted.
Why does no high last forever?
The dark side of flow. What comes after the peak, and how a team handles it.
When does optimizing stop helping?
Ten years of self-measurement, and what survived it. I learned this the hard way.
Effect
What actually changes.
Leaders report being roughly five times more productive in flow, according to a survey by McKinsey. So the question isn't whether it pays off. It's how to make that state show up on purpose.
- Everyone leaves with one thing they will do differently starting tomorrow. Written down, not just resolved.
- The team has a shared language for burnout. That alone changes how meetings go.
- Leaders know the three rules that apply to their own team on Monday morning.
If you want, we measure it: a short survey before the talk, the same one four weeks later. You get the results either way, including the uncomfortable ones.
Boundaries
What I don't do.
- No selling products, neither from the stage nor afterwards.
- No diagnoses, no promises of healing, no dietary dogma.
- No talk meant to stand in for a culture instead of changing one.
If that's what you need, I'll say so on the call and point you to someone who fits better.
Process
Three steps. No more.
01
You reach out
I usually reply within two business days.
02
Intro call
30 minutes: who is in the room, and what should be different when they leave.
03
Stage
The talk itself, plus material for the weeks after.
Practical
The practical stuff.
Length45 to 90 minutes. Or a half-day session with hands-on work.
LanguagesEnglish and German.
FormatsKeynote, keynote with Q&A, or a half-day session. In person if you can, remote if you must.
TravelBased in Munich, 40 minutes from the airport. Anywhere in Europe without fuss. Farther out, let's talk.
FeeDepends on the format, the length and the travel. Schools, associations and nonprofits have their own rate. I'll give you the range on the first call, before you put work into it.
Flow appears exactly when thorough preparation meets the willingness to let go of the outcome completely, at the decisive moment.
From Die Flow-Formel, translated“600 people in the room, and at ten at night thirty of them were still arguing about it at the bar.”
As seen in
Coverage
What others have written.
FOCUSHealth: In the Flow26 Sep 2024
Men’s HealthBiohacking: more performance, less guesswork31 Jul 2024
WELT“The 90-minute cycle is biologically real”31 Oct 2022
DIE ZEITBiohacking: the system behind self-optimization4 Feb 2021
RTLBiohacking: what is behind the trend?13 Oct 2020
brand eins“Vermesst euch!”, the chapter Der Körperoptimierer. By Christoph KochIssue 03/2014
Contact
Let’s find a date.
Five fields. Everything else we sort out on the call.
Or just email me: office@flowgrade.de
Rather talk it through? Pick a slot in my calendar and we can sort it out in one conversation.
Thank you
Got it. I usually get back to people within two business days.