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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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“..Such practices and beliefs, which interfere with happiness, are neither inevitable nor necessary; they evolved by chance, as a result of random responses to accidental conditions. But once they become part of the norms and habits of a culture, people assume that this is how things must be; they come to believe they have no other options.”

PeopleBelieveCultureBeliefChanceResultsPracticeConditionsHabitAssumingResponseInevitableInterfereNorm
Book:Flow: the psychology of optimal experience
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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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“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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“What does this contradictory pattern mean?one conclusion seems inevitable: when it comes to work, people do not heed the evidence of their senses. They disregard the quality of immediate experience, and base their motivation instead on the strongly rooted cultural stereotype of what work is supposed to be like. They think of it as an imposition, a constraint, an infringement of their freedom, and therefore something to be avoided as much as possible.”

PeopleThinkingMeanDoeSeemsMotivationQualityEvidencePatternsSensesConclusionSupposed To BeInevitableRootedStereotypeAvoidedContradictoryConstraintsHeedDisregardImpositionInfringement
Book:Flow: the psychology of optimal experience
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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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