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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes

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Famous Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes

“...if we expended all our energies solely on taking care of our own needs we would stop growing. In that respect what we call "soul" can be viewed as the surplus energy that can be invested into change and transformation. As such, it is the cutting edge of evolution.”

IfsNeedsSoulCareEnergyChangeBusinessCuttingGrowingEvolutionTransformationEdgesSurplusCutting Edge
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“The downside, of course, is that over time religions become encrusted with precepts and ideas that are the antithesis of soul, as each faith tries to protect its doctrines and institution instead of nurturing the evolution of consciousness. If one is not careful to distinguish the genuine insights of a religion from its irrelevant accretions, one can go through life following an inappropriate moral compass.”

IfsTryingIdeasSoulFaithCoursesBusinessConsciousnessMoralEvolutionProtectInstitutionsCarefulFollowingInsightGenuineDoctrineIrrelevantCompassNurturingInappropriateAntithesisMoral Compass
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“Jane Fonda, who divided her life into three acts, decided after her sixtieth birthday that she was now facing the final act, and came to the following conclusion: "I thought to myself, well if that's the case and if what I'm scared of isn't death, but getting to the end with regrets, then I've got to figure out what would be the things that I would regret when I got to the last act if I hadn't done them or achieved them by then. And they were: having an intimate relationship and having made a difference."”

IfsWellsMadeEndsDoneWould BeLastsThreeDifferencesBusinessCasesFiguresRegretDecidedFinalsScaredFollowingConclusionIntimateDividedJaneIntimate Relationships
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“However, a good life consists of more than simply the totality of enjoyable experiences. It must also have a meaningful pattern, a trajectory of growth that results in the development of increasing emotional, cognitive, and social complexity.”

SocialGrowthResultsBusinessEmotionalDevelopmentExperiencePatternsMeaningfulComplexityGood LifeEnjoyableTotalityCognitiveTrajectory
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“To know oneself is the first step toward making flow a part of one's entire life. But just as there is no free lunch in the material economy, nothing comes free in the psychic one. If one is not willing to invest psychic energy in the internal reality of consciousness, and instead squanders it in chasing external rewards, one loses mastery of one's life, and ends up becoming a puppet of circumstances.”

IfsKnowsFirstsEndsRealityEnergyLosesBusinessConsciousnessStepsEconomyWillingMaterialsBecomingCircumstancesFlowRewardsOneselfInternalsLunchMasteryFirst StepsPsychicsChasingPuppetsKnowing OneselfFree Lunch
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“...perhaps the most distinguishing trait of visionary leaders is that they believe in a goal that benefits not only themselves, but others as well. It is such vision that attracts the psychic energy of other people, and makes them willing to work beyond the call of duty for the organization.”

PeopleInspirationalBelieveWellsEnergyGoalWorkBusinessLeaderVisionWillingDutyBenefitsOrganizationTraitsPsychicsVisionariesCall Of DutyVisionary Leaders
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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“When each of these three elements of vision-concern for excellence, for people and for the wider environment-are present, business is transformed from a tool for making profits into a creative, humane experiment for improving life.”

PeopleInspirationalThreeBusinessVisionCreativeEnvironmentElementsConcernToolsExcellenceProfitExperimentsTransformedImprovingHumane
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“Our jobs determine to a large extent what our lives are like. Is what you do for a living making you ill? Does it keep you from becoming a more fully realized person? Do you feel ashamed of what you have to do at work? All too often, the answer to such questions is yes. Yet it does not have to be like that. Work can be one of the most joyful, most fulfilling aspects of life. Whether it will be or not depends on the actions we collectively take.”

FeelsPersonsDoeActionJobsWorkAnswersBusinessOur LivesDependsBecomingAspectIllDetermineAshamedJoyfulFulfillingAspects Of Life
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“Enjoyment, on the other hand, is not always pleasant, and it can be very stressful at times. A mountain climber, for example, may be close to freezing, utterly exhausted, and in danger of falling into a bottomless crevasse, yet he wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Sipping a piña colada under a palm tree at the edge of the turquoise ocean is idyllic, but it just doesn't compare to the exhilaration he feels on the windswept ridge.”

WantFeelsMayHandsFallBusinessTreeDangerExampleMountainOceanStressEdgesCompareExcitementEnjoymentPleasantExhaustedPalmsStressfulFreezingClimbersExhilarationRidgesPalm TreesSippingIdyllicTurquoiseMountain Climbers
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“Contrary to what most of us believe, happiness does not simply happen to us. It's something that we make happen, and it results from doing our best. Feeling fulfilled when we live up to our potentialities is what motivates differentiation and leads to evolution.”

BelieveDoeFeelingsHappensHappinessResultsBusinessEvolutionContraryFulfilledDifferentiation
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“Some individuals have developed such strong internal standards that they no longer need the opinion of others to judge whether they have performed a task well or not. The ability to give objective feedback to oneself is in fact the mark of the expert.”

NeedsGivingWellsFactsIndividualStrongAbilityBusinessOpinionJudgingStandardsTasksMarkOneselfObjectivesExpertsInternalsFeedback
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“Half a century ago, the Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl wrote that happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy - it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself.”

HappinessGoalBusinessHalfGreaterCenturyConsequenceOneselfPsychiatristWant To Be HappyHalf A CenturyUnintended ConsequencesViktor Frankl
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“What I "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.”

PeoplePersonsDoeFactsHappensAbleHappinessChanceResultsQualityPsychologyConditionsEventsDependsDiscoveryExperienceFortunePreparedDetermineHappyCommandInterpretationHappy LifeBe PreparedBeing HappyGood FortuneCultivatingInterpretingRandom Chance
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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“Many business leaders today view their jobs as entailing responsibility for the welfare of the wider community. These individuals do not define themselves as profit-making machines whose only reason for existing is to satisfy escalating expectation for immediate gain.”

ReasonTodayJobsIndividualCommunityViewsBusinessResponsibilityLeaderExpectationsGainsMachinesProfitWelfareBusiness LeadersEscalating
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“The foremost reason that happiness is so hard to achieve is that the universe was not designed with the comfort of human beings in mind...It seems that every time a pressing danger is avoided a new and more sophisticated threat appears on the horizon...Whether we are happy depends on inner harmony, not on the controls we are able to exert over the great forces of the universe”

MindHumansHardReasonSeemsAbleSpiritualUniverseForceHuman BeingsAchieveDangerDependsComfortHarmonyThreatHorizonSophisticatedAvoided
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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“If the firms that employ an increasing majority of the population are driven solely to satisfy the owner's greed at the expense of working conditions, of the stability of the community, and of the health of the environment, chances are that the quality of our lives will be worse than it is now.”

IfsJobsCommunityChanceQualityEnvironmentOur LivesConditionsMajorityEnvironmentalGreedPopulationDrivenFirmOwnersExpensesStabilityChances AreWorking Conditions
Book:Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
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“Whether we like it or not, each of us is constrained by limits on what we can do and feel. To ignore these limits leads to denial and eventually to failure. To achieve excellence, we must first understand the reality of the everyday, with all its demands”

FeelsFirstsRealityCan DoAchieveDemandLimitsExcellenceEverydayDenial
Book:Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
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“Today many American corporations spend a great deal of money and time trying to increase the originality of their employees, hoping thereby to get a competitive edge in the marketplace. But such programs make no difference unless management also learns to recognize the valuable ideas among the many novel ones, and then finds ways of implementing them.”

WayTryingIdeasTodayDifferencesDealsNovelEmpowermentProgramIncreaseManagementEdgesValuableCorporationsEmployeeOriginalityMarketplaceImplementingDelegationEmployee Recognition
Book:Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and
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“It is when we act freely, for the sake of the action itself rather than for ulterior motives, that we learn to become more than what we were. When we choose a goal and invest ourselves in it to the limits of concentration, whatever we do will be enjoyable. And once we have tasted this joy, we will redouble our efforts to taste it again. This is the way the self grows.”

WaySelfActionJoyGrowsGoalEffortTasteLimitsSakeMotiveConcentrationEnjoyableUlterior Motive
Book:Flow: The Psychology of Happiness
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“Attention is like energy in that without it no work can be done, and in doing work is dissipated. We create ourselves by how we use this energy. Memories, thoughts and feelings are all shaped by how use it. And it is an energy under control, to do with as we please; hence attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience.”

ImportantDoneUseFeelingsEnergyMemoriesAttentionQualityPleaseToolsTasksImprovingThoughts And Feelings
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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“Most of us become so rigidly fixed in the ruts carved out by genetic programming and social conditioning that we ignore the options of choosing any other course of action. Living exclusively by genetic and social instructions is fine as long as everything goes well. But the moment bioloical or social goals are frustrated- which in the long run is inevitable - a person must formulate new goals, and create a new flow activity for himself, or else he will always waste his energies in inner turmoil.”

WellsPersonsLongMomentsRunningActionCoursesEnergySocialGoalFineActivityWasteFlowInevitableFixedProgrammingInstructionLong RunsFrustratedConditioningTurmoilRutsNew Goal
Book:Flow: the psychology of optimal experience
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“The rules themselves are clear enough, and within everyone’s reach. But many forces, both within ourselves and in the environment, stand in the way. It is a little like trying to lose weight: everyone knows what it takes, everyone wants to do it, yet it is next to impossible for so many.”

KnowsWayWantTryingLittlesEnoughNextForceLosesClearEnvironmentImpossibleWeightLose Weight
Book:Flow: the psychology of optimal experience
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