# Repeating flow activities may stop flow experiences
Flow activities are enjoyable and you’ll be bound to repeat enjoyable activities. If you repeat the same activities again and again, you will eventually be proficient in the activity. Unfortunately once your skill has surpassed the challenge that you have initially set, you will start to feel boredom instead of flow. Having a challenging activity that requires skill is one of the crucial component of flow (The components of flow experience).
To restore back the flow experience, one will have to increase the difficulty of the activity. This task is not as easy as it may sound as you will risk yourself from increasing the difficulty by too much, resulting in anxiety instead of flow.
For example, my 3-year-old might initially discover flow in solving 4 piece jigsaw puzzle. Eventually she’ll experience boredom as the activity stops becoming too easy for her. I then introduced her to 9 piece jigsaw puzzle and she into flow again. When she got bored again, I started to introduce 200 piece jigsaw puzzle to her and she stopped solving the puzzle! I finally tried to go back to 100 piece jigsaw puzzle and support her more to help get back into flow again.
# References
Mihaly, Flow (p. 39).
Most people would grow tired of such work very soon. But Rico has been at this job for over five years, and he stills enjoys it. The reason is that he approaches his task in the same way as an Olympic athlete approaches his event: How can I beat my record? […] Rico knows very soon he will reach the limit beyond which he will no longer be able to improve his performance at his job. So twice a week he takes evening courses in electronics. When he has his diploma he will seek a more complex job, one that presumably he will confront with the same enthusiasm he has shown so far.
Mihaly, Flow (pp. 74 - 75).
When he first starts playing (A1), Alex has practically no skills, and the only challenge he faces is hitting the ball over the net. This is not a very difficult feat, but Alex is likely to enjoy it because the difficulty is just right for his rudimentary skills. So at this point he will probably be in flow. But he cannot stay there for long. After a while, if he keeps practicing, his skills are bound to improve, and then he will grow bored just batting the ball over the net (A2)