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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes

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Famous Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes

“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 could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record; for a violinist, mastering an intricate musical passage. For each person there are thousands of opportunities, challenges to expand ourselves.”

HappinessChallengesFlowAccomplishmentExpansionReaching Your GoalsBecoming BetterStretching Oneself
Book:Flow: the psychology of optimal experience
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“Few would argue that a simpler consciousness, no matter how harmonious, is preferable to a more complex one. While we might admire the serenity of the lion in repose, the tribesman’s untroubled acceptance of his fate, or the child’s wholehearted involvement in the present, they cannot offer a model for resolving our predicament. The order based on innocence is now beyond our grasp. Once the fruit is plucked from the tree of knowledge, the way back to Eden is barred forever.”

FlowOpportunitiesOptions In Life
Book:Flow: the psychology of optimal experience
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“Flow is the process of achieving happiness through control over one's inner life. The optimal state of inner experience is order in consciousness. This happens when we focus our attention (psychic energy) on realistic goals and when our skills match the challenges we face.”

StatesHappensFacesOrderEnergyProcessGoalChallengesAttentionConsciousnessFocusAchieveSkillsFlowRealisticPsychicsInner LifeOptimalChallenges We FaceRealistic GoalsAchieving Happiness
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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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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“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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“But to change all existence into a flow experience, it is not sufficient to learn merely how to control moment-by-moment states of consciousness. It is also necessary to have an overall context of goals for the events of everyday life to make senseTo create harmony in whatever one does is the last task that the flow theory presents to whose who wish to attain optimal experience; it is a task that involves transforming the entirety of life into a single flow activity, with unified goals that provide constant purpose.”

DoeStatesMomentsLastsPurposeWishGoalExistenceConsciousnessEventsTheoryActivityFlowTasksHarmonyConstantEverydayMake SenseSufficientEveryday LifeTransformingUnifiedStates Of ConsciousnessEntiretyOptimal
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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“A paycheck is a sufficient impetus to motivate some employees to do the minimum amount to get by, and for others, the challenge of getting ahead in the organization provides a satisfactory focus for a while. But these incentives alone are rarely strong enough to inspire workers to give their best to their work. For this a vision is needed, an overarching goal that gives meaning to the job, so that an individual can forget himself in the task and experience flow without doubts or regrets. The most important component of such a vision is an ingredient we call soul.”

GivingImportantSoulEnoughJobsIndividualStrongGoalChallengesWorkForgetVisionDoubtFocusInspireRegretAmountNeededFlowTasksOrganizationWorkersSufficientEmployeeIngredientsMinimumComponentsIncentivesStrong EnoughPaychecksImpetusForget Him
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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“A Web site that promotes flow is like a gourmet meal. You start off with the appetizers, move on to the salads and entrees, and build toward dessert. Unfortunately, most sites are built like a cafeteria. You pick whatever you want. That sounds good at first, but soon it doesn't matter what you choose to do. Everything is bland and the same.”

WantFirstsMatterMovingSoundPicksBuiltFlowMealsYou ChooseSiteDessertSaladBlandGourmetAppetizersCafeteriaEntrees
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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