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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes

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Famous Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes

“If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual, they are a multitude. Like the color white that includes all colors, they tend to bring together the entire range of human possibilities within themselves. Creativity allows for paradox, light, shadow, inconsistency, even chaos -and creative people experience both extremes with equal intensity.”

PeopleIfsHumansDifferentLightTogetherIndividualWhiteCreativityCreativePossibilityColorEqualShadowChaosExtremesRangeComplexityParadoxIntensityMultitudesOne WordCreative PeopleInconsistencyColor White
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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“It is amazing how little effort most people make to improve control of their attention. If reading a book seems too difficult, instead of sharpening concentration we tend to set it aside and instead turn on the television, which not only requires minimal attention, but in fact tends to diffuse what little it commands with choppy editing, commercial interruptions, and generally inane content.”

PeopleIfsLittlesBookFactsSeemsTurnsReadingDifficultEffortAttentionTelevisionCommandConcentrationEditingTurn-onInterruptionsSharpening
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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“If you are interested in something, you will focus on it, and if you focus attention on anything, it is likely that you will become interested in it. Many of the things we find interesting are not so by nature, but because we took the trouble of paying attention to them.”

IfsInterestNatureInterestingAttentionPsychologyFocusTroublePay Attention
Book:Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
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“...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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“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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“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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“Each of us is born with two contradictory sets of instructions: a conservative tendency, made up of instincts for self-preservation, self-aggrandizement, and saving energy, and an expansive tendency made up of instincts for exploring, for enjoying novelty and risk-the curiosity that leads to creativity belongs to this set. But whereas the first tendency requires little encouragement or support from outside to motivate behaviour, the second can wilt if not cultivated.”

IfsFirstsLittlesMadeTwoSelfEnergyEnjoyBornCreativitySupportRiskEncouragementInstinctCuriosityConservativeTendenciesSavingInstructionBehaviourExploringPreservationContradictoryNoveltySelf PreservationSaving Energy
Book:Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and
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“I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work, to make more understandable the mysterious process by which they come up with new ideas and new things. [...] If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others, it's complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an "individual", each of them is a "multitude".”

PeopleIfsYearsIdeasDifferentShowsActionIndividualProcessCreativePersonalityResearchCome UpExtremesTendenciesMysteriousComplexityNew ThingsDevotedNew IdeasMultitudesContradictoryOne WordCreative PeopleThoughts And Actions
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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