Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience- Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

P.s. The books is about flow state by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.

The Psychology of Optimal Experience

TWENTY-THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO Aristotle concluded that, more than anything else, men and women seek happiness.

While happiness itself is sought for its own sake, every other goal—health, beauty, money, or power—is valued only because we expect that it will make us happy.

Much has changed in the more than a thousand years since Aristotle's time. Over this period, the world has undergone tremendous changes.

Our continuous exploration and discovery of the principles of the external world have led to an understanding of stars and atoms that has surpassed our imagination.

The gods of the Greeks were like helpless children compared to humankind today and the powers we now wield.

And yet on this most important issue very little has changed in the intervening centuries.

We do not understand what happiness is any better than Aristotle did, and as for learning how to attain that blessed condition, one could argue that we have made no progress at all.

Despite the fact that we are now healthier and grow to be older, despite the fact that even the least affluent among us are surrounded by material luxuries undreamed of even a few decades ago (there were few bathrooms in the palace of the Sun King, chairs were rare even in the richest medieval houses, and no Roman emperor could turn on a TV set when he was bored), and regardless of all the stupendous scientific knowledge we can summon at will, people often end up feeling that their lives have been wasted, that instead of being filled with happiness their years were spent in anxiety and boredom.

Is this because it is the destiny of mankind to remain unfulfilled, each person always wanting more than he or she can have? Or is the pervasive malaise that often sours even our most precious moments the result of our seeking happiness in the wrong places?

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has spent nearly twenty-five years using the tools of modern psychology to explore this ancient question or this elusive phenomenon: When do people feel most happy? If we can begin to find an answer to it, perhaps we shall eventually be able to order life so that happiness will play a larger part in it.

What he "discovered" was that happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance.

It is not something that money can buy or power command.

It does not depend on outside events but rather on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.

Yet we cannot reach happiness by consciously searching for it. "Ask yourself whether you are happy," said J. S. Mill, "and you cease to be so."

It is by being fully involved with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly.

Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychologist, summarized it beautifully in the preface to his book Man’s Search for Meaning: "Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue…as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a course greater than oneself."

So how can we reach this elusive goal that cannot be attained by a direct route?

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s studies over the past quarter-century have convinced him that there is a way: It is a circuitous path that begins with achieving control over the contents of our consciousness.

Our perceptions about our lives are the outcome of many forces that shape experience, each having an impact on whether we feel good or bad.

Most of these forces are outside our control. There is not much we can do about our looks, our temperament, or our constitution.

As ordinary individuals, we cannot decide—at least so far—how tall we will grow, how smart we will get. We can choose neither parents nor time of birth, and it is not in your power or mine to decide whether there will be a war or a depression.

These and innumerable other conditions determine what we see, how we feel, and what we do. It is not surprising that we believe our fate is determined by external factors.

Yes, this sounds a lot like fatalism.

On those rare occasions when we feel in control of our actions and masters of our own fate, we experience a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment that is long cherished and becomes a landmark in memory for what life should be like.

This is what we mean by optimal experience.

Such events do not occur only when the external conditions are favorable, nor do they necessarily happen at pleasant times, but when they do occur, you suddenly gain many rich, epiphany-like experiences.

Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times—although such experiences can also be enjoyable if we have worked hard to attain them.

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. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen.

For a child, it might come from placing the last block on a tower she has built, trembling after many failed attempts. For an athlete, it might come from breaking their own record after continuous failures. For a programmer, it might come from mastering a complex piece of code and program.

For each person, there are thousands of opportunities and challenges to expand ourselves.

Flow State Activities

Specifically, people in a flow state almost universally share the following nine characteristics:

The activity itself becomes intrinsically motivating.
Attention is highly focused on the current activity, with any external distractions only causing temporary lapses in concentration.
Temporary loss of self-awareness, such as forgetting one's social status, hunger, or fatigue.
A merging of action and awareness.
A distorted sense of time, often feeling that time passes more quickly than usual.
A sense of control over the current activity, recognizing one's ability to manage and respond appropriately to subsequent actions.
Immediate feedback, with each part of the activity providing feedback on the previous step.
A balance between the perceived challenges of the activity and one's own skill level.
Clear goals for the activity.

The 8 Characteristics of Flow

Csikszentmihalyi describes eight characteristics of flow:

Complete concentration on the task;
Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback;
Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down);
The experience is intrinsically rewarding;
Effortlessness and ease;
There is a balance between challenge and skills;
Actions and awareness are merged, losing self-conscious rumination;
There is a feeling of control over the task.

Related Posts:
You can find them here: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

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