Losing myself into the process

There are things in life that you do with utmost involvement, losing yourself completely to the point where you are not there anymore. I had these moments in Badger Solar Racing at UW Madison. People might refer to this as the "flow state."

Badger Solar Racing is an engineering student organization at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The mission of the club is to provide unparalleled learning opportunities that foster hands-on learning experiences. The goal of the club is to build a solar car and compete in the Formula Sun Grand Prix and the American Solar Car Challenge.

I joined this club as a freshman in August 2021. I did not know anything about cars or electrical systems to build and get things working. The only thing I knew was what I learned in high school, which was purely theoretical to me.

Attending the very first meeting, I felt completely intimidated! The members in the club were talking all the tech jargon and discussing problems I had no clue about. Basically, it was a "What the heck" moment! They were talking about circuits as if they were gossiping about people. I was impressed by them, but at the same time, I had this question of whether I was even supposed to be there.

One thing that kept me going was the promise I made to myself that in university, I was going to pick something and become an expert in it. I wanted to throw my life into it and see what would happen. So whenever I felt demotivated or pressured, this is all I needed to think of: just stick with the process and go with it.

When I joined the club, I was a high voltage member. In Fall 2023, I became the electrical director of the club. Three years of unwavering commitment to the club's success took me to a spot I had never imagined.

One thing I learned is that if you do something, no matter what it is, with complete involvement, it will eventually yield results you have never imagined. Whatever we imagine is only limited to what we have gathered in our minds. But we say something is fantastic when things you have never imagined happen.

There were times in the club when I went into the workshop and had to just start working—whether it was designing a board, stripping a wire, soldering a component, or cleaning a mess—then it would eventually happen very effortlessly. Most of the time, I get into this state of completely losing myself in the process even when I do things I don't like willingly. Here, note this again: when I do it willingly. If I were to do things unwillingly, it would have been the worst experience for me. I understood that the very basis of my experience was determined just by my willingness. If I was simply willing to accept the situation and do whatever was needed, my experience was joyful and pleasant. But whenever I did not accept the situation around me and unwillingly went through it, it just turned my emotions ugly, which eventually degraded my ability to think and act effectively.

So, whether I liked it or not, just by being willing and throwing myself into the work, the whole experience was wonderful. When you do something beyond your likes and dislikes, that is when you can throw yourself completely into it since there is no "you" anymore. It is just the process. This is when you get into the flow state of doing things, and what people may think is a big ordeal will be an effortless task for you. In this state, time moves fast in my experience; I can go hours and hours on an empty stomach, and I am not distracted by things happening around me.

I attribute my success in this club to my ability to simply be willing and do whatever was needed joyfully. Again, I was ready to do whatever was needed for the success of the club and not just the things I liked.

Here is a video which might help you to lose yourself into the process and achieve "flow state".