flow the psychology of optimal experience by mihaly csikszentmihalyi

Work is structured like a game, whereas most leisure activities are not. The number for leisure was much lower at 18%. In research done by Csikszentmihalyi, people signaled experiencing flow 54% of the time at work. Surprisingly, work produces more flow experiences than leisure time. Work is one of the best environments for flow. Concentrate at will and for long periods of time To become an Autotelic Person, you need to: He is never bored or anxious and it is always involved with what goes on in the moment.īy having an autotelic self, you can enjoy life even when circumstances are brutish and nasty. For him, potential threats are transformed into enjoyable challenges. “Autotelic”: from Greek, auto (self) + telos (goal)Īn Autotelic Person finds his objectives within. To maximize the time spent in flow, you must take the principles of flow and apply to all your life.Īnd to do that, you must develop an “Autotelic Personality”. Making Flow the Normįlow can be experienced in almost every setting. The more an activity looks like a game, the more enjoyable it becomes. Once you achieve your goals, go back to step 1 and create even bolder goals Make an effort to improve every skill required Develop the skills needed to make progress.Dedicate your full attention to the task. Create a major goal and as many subgoals as needed The 5 Principles to Transform Any Activity into Flow Without full attention, you cannot absorb the information you need to continue “in the zone”.

But when skills are much higher than the challenge, you will feel bored.īut you cannot experience flow without investing your attention.Īttention is what selects the relevant bits of information from the potential millions of bits available. If the task is too difficult, you will feel anxious and won’t be able to experience flow. Your skills match the opportunities for actionįlow happens when your skill matches the difficulty of the task.The experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost.”įlow is when you’re so invested in a project that you lose track of time. “The state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. Learning how to transform any task into a flow experience will be the key to unlock long lasting happiness. The author defines them as Flow experiences. These experiences are universal to all cultures and time periods. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Happiness is not a constant state of mind. “Subjective experience is not just one of the dimensions of life, it is life itself.”

Flow the psychology of optimal experience by mihaly csikszentmihalyi