book review flow

Book Review: Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

In the positive psychology world, Flow is a classic book, and for good reason. It was published in 1990 by one of the founding fathers of positive psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, after he had already led decades of research on “optimal experience”. Csikszentmihalyi (he coaches us to say “chick-sent-me-high” to get close to the correct pronunciation) and his colleagues were after the very peak of life; asking, when we are thriving the most, what are we doing? What many of us imagine is pure relaxation: let me lie on a beach for weeks on end, sipping beverages and nibbling grapes, and surely this would be the peak of life. This illustrates why we all need the science of happiness. While we imagine total relaxation as the peak of life, we are often quite bad at predicting our own happiness .

What Csikszentmihalyi and his colleagues found was not relaxation. As Flow says “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.” Flow is “the zone” –that almost magical state of mind where you become completely absorbed in something very challenging, but possible. Because you are the edge of your ability, it takes all of your mental energy to make progress. You have no spare cycles to think “Am I doing this right?” or “Do I need to get milk on the way home?” Csikszentmihalyi writes that flow is “The state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”

So how do we get to this amazing state of mind? By focusing. Completely. Much easier said than done in this distracting world we live in. But it’s worth focusing completely on a challenge because doing so helps us to achieve flow. Csikszentmihalyi writes “The shape and content of life depend on how attention has been used…attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience…attention shapes the self, and is in turn shaped by it.”

Part of why I enjoyed Flow so much is the repeated connection that Csikszentmihalyi makes between optimal experience and games. (As many of you know, my career has largely been leading the design and development of games, and I’m currently working on a game that teaches the science of thriving at work.) The author writes how “even routine details can be transformed into personally meaningful games that provide optimal experiences.”

But we don’t have to be playing games to achieve flow. While many of us think of work as a burden and our free time as happy time, Csikszentmihalyi (and I) believes that the right work provides ample opportunities for thriving. “In fact, working people achieve the flow experience–deep concentration, high and balanced challenges and skills, a sense of control and satisfaction–about four times as often on their jobs, proportionately, as they do when they are watching television.”

Tying games and work together, Csikszentmihalyi says work can be a better experience when it’s more like a game. “The more a job inherently resembles a game–with variety, appropriate and flexible challenges, clear goals, and immediate feedback–the more enjoyable it will be.”

Perhaps needless to say, I highly recommend Flow to anyone who wants to achieve the peak of life–at work and elsewhere.

Have you read Flow? Will you? When do you achieve flow at work? How can you make your work more like a good game, that supports you getting into flow? How can you multitask less, to achieve flow more? I’d love to read your answers. You might love to read Flow .

This book is psychological masterpeice! While reading, I would advise applying the knowledge to your every day life

Information without application makes no sense

Great read and I recommend this book to anyone !

11/10 rating

I did not like it, it’s full of author’s thoughts and relative/subjective conclusions/theories that are presented as facts supported by examples. This is the main reason the book is extensive and boring to read, each point the author wants to present then one or more forced example are introduced. Scientists know that examples are not the path to accept theories as laws. The approach in how things are presented are so subjective that sometimes appears to contradict the logic. My impression is that the book is over-valuated, a 5 over 10.

I found this book too technical and boring to read also. I got through a little over half the book and decided this was way too much work.

You are not alone, Rick; not everyone is as nerdy as we are at Happy Brain Science! That’s why we read all the books and studies, then put them into short reviews, summaries, blogs, workshops, and coaching…so they are more easily digestable for everyone!

Thanks for commenting, and please let us know if we can help with anything. Flow is worth the work, even if the book isn’t worth reading to you!

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book summary - flow

Flow : the psychology of optimal experience.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author of Flow, is sorta like the Godfather of positive psychology ... Hailed by researchers and positive psychologists from every corner of the globe -- "Mr. C" as I'm sure he's known as in many circles -- has redefined the way we approach “a life worth living” in the modern world.

Csikszentmihalyi's calls these meaningful moments that make life worth living, moments of “optimal experience," also known as the "Flow " state.

And through various case studies, Csikszentmihalyi delves deeply into how we can achieve “Flow” in our personal and professional lives in order to lead happier, more meaningful lives. “Flow” is much more than just a practical guide for leaders -- it’s essential. Rather than being idle, doing what you love is a pathway to greater meaning, happiness, and a self of higher complexity. Csikszentmihalyi says that it is best to think about the universe in terms of order and chaos (entropy). That healthy human beings ﬁnd order pleasing is a clue to its intrinsic value, and to its role in the creation of happiness. The bringing of order to consciousness, “control of the mind,” is therefore the key to happiness.

However, what gives us this control?

“Flow helps to integrate the self because in that state of deep concentration consciousness is unusually well ordered. Thoughts, intentions, feelings, and all the senses are focused on the same goal. Experience is in harmony. And when the ﬂow episode is over, one feels more ‘together’ than before, not only internally but with respect to other people and the world in general." — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The Big Ideas

Happiness revisited: When are people most happy?
The anatomy of consciousness: How Flow brings order to everything.
Enjoyment + quality of life: The elements that dictate the triggers of joy and pleasure.
The conditions of flow: The eight steps to “Flow”, and how to bring it about for yourself.
The flow of thought: Lifelong learning, consciousness, science, and mastery.
Work as flow: Bring about full engagement—for yourself and those you lead.
The making of meaning: Cultivating purpose + the meaning of meaning.

HAPPINESS REVISITED

“You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger.

Csikszentmihalyi’s research began not by looking at the nature of happiness per se, but by asking the question: “When are people most happy?” That is, what exactly are we doing when we feel enjoyment or fulﬁllment? Finding this out included buzzing people on a pager at random points through a week. They were required to write down exactly what they were doing and the feelings that the activity produced. The discovery was that the best moments did not happen by chance, according to the whim of external events, but could reasonably be predicted to occur when a speciﬁc activity was undertaken. The activities described as being of highest value, which when undertaken banished worry or thoughts of other things, were dubbed “optimal experiences,” or simply “ﬂow.” People in a state of ﬂow feel that they are engaged in a creative unfolding of something larger; athletes call it “being in the zone,” mystics have described it as “ecstasy,” and artists term it “rapture.” You and I may recognize our ﬂow experiences as simply those that seem to make time stand still. You stop thinking and just do.

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The anatomy of consciousness.

Rather than being idle, doing what you love is a pathway to greater meaning, happiness, and a self of higher complexity. Csikszentmihalyi says that it is best to think about the universe in terms of order and chaos (entropy). That healthy human beings ﬁnd order pleasing is a clue to its intrinsic value, and to its role in the creation of happiness.

ENJOYMENT AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE

“..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.”

One of the key distinctions the author makes is between enjoyment and pleasure. While challenging tasks that require all our attention are enjoyed, mere pleasure does not have to engage us—it is passive. Television, drugs, and sleep can all be pleasurable, but involve little conscious will and therefore do not really assist our growth. The lesson of optimal experience is that we are genuinely happy when we are in control.

Optimal experience is that which is directed by us and gives us a sense of mastery.

This is why goals are so enjoyable to pursue: They bring “order in awareness,” irrespective of the feeling one may get in seeing a goal actually achieved. An ordered mind itself is a source of happiness.

THE CONDITIONS OF FLOW

There are eight major components to Flow. Most people report at least one and often all of the following eight components with regard to being in a state of flow… As you read them, think about something that you love doing in your own life. And if you hate your life, then picture an athlete “in the zone” and see if you can relate.

Confront tasks we have a chance at completing.
Concentration (which is usually possible when we take on a task or activity that has…)
Clearly defined goals and… Provides you with
immediate feedback as to how much you’re crushing it/making progress (ex: every time you score a point, receive an applause, solve a problem, etc.) Whatever activity you’re partaking in
feels effortless and allows you to forget (even for a little while) about the worries and frustrations of everyday life (ex: bills, work, relationship issues, etc.) You’re in
control . Insecurities disappear.
Confidence arises. You stop caring what everyone else thinks about you. And paradoxically, your personal self-worth tends to come back stronger after the flow experience is complete.
You completely lose track of time.

So, now that you know the stages of flow, how can you bring it about in your own life to enhance or spur your levels of personal + professional fulfillment?

THE FLOW CENTERED CULTURE

Flow makes you feel more alive, certainly, but it has another, perhaps surprising effect: The growth in complexity entails both awareness of your uniqueness simultaneously with renewed understanding of how you ﬁt into your world and your relationships with other people. Flow reconnects you to the world as well as making you more unique. This double effect has tremendous implications for the rejuvenation of communities and nations. The author suggests that the most successful nations and societies of the twenty-ﬁrst century will be those that make sure people have the maximum opportunities to be involved in ﬂow-inducing activity. …Hmm, take a wild guess why Gallup’s 2013 poll called the “State of The American Workplace” tells us that 70% of workers are unfulfilled. He refers to the inclusion of “the pursuit of happiness” in the American Declaration of Independence, a far-sighted aspiration that unfortunately metamorphosed into an expectation that it is government’s role to provide happiness. Whereas goal seeking is a major part of contemporary western culture, a ﬂow focused culture would re-introduce an “in the moment” way of life… Best-selling books like the Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle, are reviving the necessity of “just being”. And I think it’s really important. With increasing prosperity, if more of the population is engaged in doing what they love, the whole attitude to time would change. Time would cease to be framed by the work patterns of an industrial culture, with its sharp divisions between “work” and “leisure.” Instead, time would be determined by individuals’ subjective attitude to the activity in which they are engaged, that is, whether the activity is ﬂow inducing or not. It’s said that contemporary western and particularly American culture is youth obsessed, one consequence being the terrible fear of aging. Yet the pressure of passing time is relieved if you are truly living and enjoying yourself in the moment, in other words, in a state of ﬂow.

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THE FLOW OF THOUGHT

To avoid meaninglessness, we can either devote our lives to pleasure, which usually ends in ruin or mental entropy, or sit back on autopilot and try not to think about all our possible choices in life. This last possibility amounts to a surrender to whatever happen to be the societal values of the day, letting ourselves be deﬁned more as a consumer than as a person.

Csikszentmihalyi ﬁnds Freud to be particularly relevant here. Freud’s “id” was a representation of the instinctual drives of the body, while his “superego” represented the external world to which our sense of self may be shaped. Freud’s third element in consciousness, the ego, is that part of ourselves that has managed to gain an autonomous sense of self in spite of our bodily urges or environment. It is here, leaving behind the animal and the robot, where humanity is to be found. A person living within this consciousness is doing so by will, and since the universe never makes things easy for us, this person must become increasingly complex (not in terms of confusion but higher order -- sort of like solving a huge issue, or finally closing a huge deal with a client that was very difficult to work with).

Csikszentmihalyi’s research established a fascinating point about the ﬂow experience: After each instance, a person is more than the person they were before. Each piece of knowledge absorbed, each new reﬁnement of a skill, enlarges the self and makes it more highly ordered, forming, in his words, “an increasingly extraordinary individual.” This is why opportunities to create ﬂow can be addictive—life without them feels static, boring, and meaningless. Happiness and a sense of meaning can therefore be increased, the author says, simply by doing more of what we love doing.

The question of “the meaning of life” may not be answered in its most esoteric sense (that is, why does anything exist), but can be answered at a subjective, personal level: The meaning of life is whatever is meaningful to me.

The experience of ﬂow does not need an explanation for those who enjoy it; we are simply aware that it gives us the two things vital to happiness: a sense of purpose and self-knowledge.

WORK AS FLOW

"it is possible to find a unifying purpose that justifies the things [people] do day in, day out—a goal that like a magnetic field attracts their psychic energy, a goal upon which all lesser goals depend. This goal will define the challenges that a person needs to face in order to transform his or her life into a flow activity. Without such a purpose, even the best-ordered consciousness lacks meaning." — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Flow is a peak mental state in which someone becomes deeply involved in something by following a specific set of principles. Again, in order to identify those principles, Csikszentmihalyi conducted a series experiments. By applying enough concentration, having a clear set of goals, and measuring your own results, you can bring about a sense of flow in any activity you’re doing.

Even if it’s something that most people would consider boring.

For instance, a factory worker counting muffins on an assembly line can bring about a state of flow, simply by trying to beat his own time over and over again. Counting 1,000 muffins on Monday, and 1,100 on Tuesday. Flow requires standardization. It’s process oriented. Sometimes focused more on making the boring bearable than making the enjoyable extraordinary.

But no matter who you are and what you’re doing, you’re bound to lose focus every now and then. Learning how to get yourself into an immediate state of flow can be helpful in those times.

THE MAKING OF MEANING

Every single, living, breathing, person on this planet, if mentally and emotionally stable, will seek to find their place in the bigger picture of life. People are purpose-driven by nature. When we lack this sense of purpose, some of us go crazy trying to find it.

As leaders, we play a critical role in the lives of many more people in addition to our friends and family -- we have a teams, businesses, or nonprofits that thrive or dive depending on our leadership.

We’ve all seen or heard about organizations that seem to lose their personality after the passionate founder that built it up stops hanging around the office or retires. The solution here, is to define the values of your organization, make em’ simple, and align with them.

In other words: talk the talk + walk the walk.

When your people see that you’re not the type of leader that thrives on hypocrisy, they’ll value your integrity, and in turn, begin to truly feel part of the team.

There are also times when a leader that cares deeply about his people, will sacrifice his values to meet the needs of others. The challenge of the conscious leader is to cultivate harmony between his values and the values of those he leads.

FINAL NOTES

Flow can’t be forced on anyone, it’s a personal level of extreme immersion. That said, those who can cultivate Flow for themselves, will tend to be happier and more fulfilled. To help others find flow, set up the conditions to do (see The Conditions of Flow) so, by setting up a culture/environment that’s conducive to Flow.

A great flow-inducing environment looks like this:

Control - allows people to manage themselves vs. get managed by others.

Collaboration - allows people to connect with one another.

Content - gives people the ability to choose their work.

“Order” aka Structure = Good

We tend to thrive with clarity. No secret there. But how many things can we be clear about at the same time? Answer: just one thing at a time.

Constraints = Liberation. To expound on the power of creating structure/order, think about this: what do FlashNotes and Twitter have in common? Answer: both incorporate constraints. Twitter = say it in 140 characters or less. FlashNotes = read a book in 10 minutes or less.

“Disorder” = Bad. The Flow theory implies that a person that brings about order of consciousness is more engaged and productive, as well as happy. Naturally, “disorder” being the opposite of the above, implies that a lack of clarity + structure in life/work results in dis-engagement, lack of enthusiasm, and a general lack of meaning and purpose. Bottom line: too much of anything isn’t good for anyone. None of us can “find” flow, we’ve got to pick something to get up for in the morning and cultivate it into something that brings about the flow state. However, if we end up getting so deeply involved in something that we neglect the other dimensions of life, we’ll fall right out of balance.

And so, Flow requires a synergy between seemingly opposite disciplines in life: focus , order and consistency seem to clash with freedom, openness, and that “time-warp” feeling.

Keep it flowin' ~ Dean Bokhari

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Flow: T he Psychology of Optimal Experience | By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi | Series: P.S. Paperback: 336 pages | Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics; 1ST edition (July 1, 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 0061339202 ISBN-13: 978-0061339202
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Optimize Your Life With Flow: A Book Review

I’m sure you’ve experienced a moment when you’re totally ‘in the zone.’ Your attention is fully focused on what you’re doing – no thoughts about what you’re going to have for dinner. It might have happened during a sporting activity, at work, or while reading a book. You were 100% in the moment. This is flow.

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced Me-high Cheek-sent-me-high ) is a deep dive into this state. It’s a fantastic book, blending science, practical advice, and philosophical thought into an extremely engaging read. We’re going to discuss the book overall then look at some of the essential takeaways.

Although relatively easy to read, there’s a lot to unpack. The overall message is that cultivating flow states lead to a happy life.

He begins with an overview of the current science regarding some elements of human experience: happiness, consciousness, and quality of life. He then moves on to discuss flow as a concept. He gives examples from all areas of life to illustrate how it can be applied. Finally, he concluded with a philosophical discussion about the meaning of life.

I honestly can’t recommend the book enough. I found myself nodding in agreement as Csikszentmihalyi explained views very similar to my own. He’d then shift onto an idea I’d never considered but makes perfect sense.

What is Flow?

Throughout the book, Mihaly uses the terms flow and optimal experience almost interchangeably.

“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.”

When we’re operating at these limits, we don’t have the mental capacity to think about anything other than the task at hand. We become absorbed by the activity. Our internal monologue stills. We react.

That’s not to say that it’s a state that doesn’t support complex thought; flow states also occur in mentally demanding activities. The defining factor is that they’re all-encompassing.A physicist puzzling over a theorem will temporarily lose themselves in their work. Their brain has no room for anything not related to the problem at hand.

However, flow isn’t exclusive to high performers. Novices can experience it too. In fact, any activity can be converted into a flow state.

Is Flow the Secret to an Enjoyable Life?

“The optimal state of inner experience is one in which there is order in consciousness. This happens when psychic energy-or attention- is invested in realistic goals, and when skills match the opportunities for action.”

You now have an understanding of what the flow state is. Mihaly argues that the most rewarding lives maximize the amount of flow state we experience. He’s a world-renowned psychologist whose work is centered around happiness, so his opinion carries some weight.

“When a person is able to organize his or her consciousness so as to experience flow as often as possible, the quality of life is inevitably going to improve, because, … even the usually boring routines of work become purposeful and enjoyable.”

Think about the flow states you experienced over the past few weeks. They don’t need to be grand or exciting. Did you enjoy them? Did they make you feel satisfied? Mihaly argues that the very best life is in essence one long flow state.

How to Trigger a Flow State?

If you weren’t aware of the concept before reading this article, then the flow states you’ve experienced up to this point are probably not intentionally cultivated.

In my opinion, the most useful advice Mihaly gives is to add complexity to the tasks you’re doing; just not so much that you become overwhelmed and the task isn’t completable. Rather, strike the balance so that you’re working towards challenging but completable tasks.

The difficulty of the task forces us to apply our full attention to it. It’s when our attention is given fully to the task that we enter into a flow state.

“Of course these chances for enjoyment must be cultivated; they don’t just happen.”

You can make any task challenging. It doesn’t matter how simple. My favorite example is when Mihaly writes about walking. He lists several ways we can add complexity:

Plan a route to include stopping at certain locations.
Pay attention to your style of walking – cultivate an economical style of movement.
Track things: time, distance, landmarks seen.
Add mini-challenges: time the changes of lights, only step on certain slabs, etc…

Orient your life around flow states by focusing on challenging but completable goals.

Cultivate an Autotelic Personality

Mihaly stresses that the goals you aim for should be picked by you. A lot of the world will do things because they are ‘supposed to.’ How many people go to work because they need to rather than because they desire to?

An autotelic personality is the opposite of the ‘I should do this’ attitude. The goals you choose to work towards should be chosen without consideration of how they appear to others. Do it because it interests you. It’s somewhat paradoxical; although we’re aiming for challenging goals, the end result is almost unimportant. It’s the act of flow that brings enjoyment.

“Learning to enjoy immediate experience. The outcome of having an autotelic self — of learning to set goals, to develop skills, to be sensitive to feedback, to know how to concentrate and get involved — is that one can enjoy life even when objective circumstances are brutish and nasty.”

He offers an excellent example of this when he discusses political prisoners.

Rather than succumb to despair, the prisoners decide to translate a poem into Hungarian. They worked through the poem line by line. Each prisoner would think of the best translation they could, share it with each other, and then vote on the best one.

This is arguably a pointless task, but it kept everyone fully engaged and in good spirits through a very bleak experience. If you develop an autotelic personality, you can enjoy even the most challenging situations life throws at you.

Living a Life of Purpose

According to Mihaly, experiencing lots of flow states is not enough to live a fulfilled life. It’s important to develop an overarching theme that connects them. Structure your goals so that each pushes you further towards a certain path.

“The separate parts of life will fit together — and each activity will “make sense” in the present, as well as in view of the past and of the future. In such a way, it is possible to give meaning to one’s entire life.”

This was one of the few areas of the book I didn’t agree with. I have several hobbies that are wildly unrelated and don’t contribute to one long-term purpose. I don’t think that makes them any less valid. Should a successful businessman avoid pursuing his basket weaving hobby? It seems this a valid part of his life worth exploring even if it doesn’t contribute to his business goals.

In my opinion, a fulfilled life needs both long-term purpose and openness to spontaneity.

Final Thoughts

I’ve offered a summary of the most important concepts Mihaly covers. By no means is this a comprehensive review – there are many valuable ideas not discussed.

The ideas that we’ve explored can keep you busy for a long time. Develop an autotelic personality and cultivate flow states in your life. Remember, set challenging but achievable goals. If you structure your life in this way, not only will you get more done, but you’ll also be happier.

Go forth and flow!

By: Scott O’Neill

Start improving your life with these quotes From Darren Hardy’s The Compound Effect.

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Summary and Key Ideas.

Check out these quotes from Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave.

Flow: Book Summary & Review

In Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author, dissects what “ flow ” is and how we can reach it. Very briefly, flow can be defined as “the state of mind in which we lose ourselves in our work”.

Flow Summary

Real-life applications, flow criticism, mihaly ted talk, flow review.

About the Author : Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, together with Martin Seligman, is often considered one of the founders of Positive Psychology , which is the branch of psychology studying happiness, satisfaction, and self-development.

How to Reach Flow

These are the steps you need to take to reach a flow state:

Clarity of goals : your work must have a purpose and an end state. If your work is too big, you must identify smaller goals
Immediate feedback : immediate feedback helps us stay fully focused by “gamifying” our experience
Engage at the edge of your ability : when it’s too difficult, we become frustrated, and when it’s too easy, we’re bored. Right in the middle is where flow happens
Do it because you want : you can’t reach a flow state when you are executing orders you are not happy to follow. Doing it without direct expectations for material rewards is even better

Learn more about how to handle disempowering orders :

10 Ways to Maintain Power When Executing Orders

And, finally:

Mental mastery : ultimately, it’s up to you to enter flow. It requires a certain control of your mind, which you can achieve with trial and error, meditation, and training

Csikszentmihalyi indeed invites people to look for opportunities in their lives in which they can create the elements of flow.

For example, instead of just folding clothes out of boredom, focus on doing it better, or quicker. While shopping, focus on doing it in the most efficient way possible.

How Flow Feels Like

How do you know if you are reaching flow? Here is what flow feels like:

Total immersion : during flow, you don’t even realize what’s happening around you
Focus and concentration : you are fully focused on your task
Time flies : when you’re in flow, you don’t even realize time passing by, so it feels like time flies
Feels good : flow is a rewarding state in itself. It gives you a sense of control over your work, which spills over into a sense of control over your life. And you don’t care about problems, worries, or what others think of you

Flow Personalities

A few personality traits are more likely to get you into a state of flow. These include:

Growth mindset : people with a growth mindset are more likely to seek and enjoy challenges (check out “ how to develop a growth mindset “)
Clarity of purpose : find a goal in what you’re doing, and find a goal and a WHY for your life (also read “ Start with WHY ” and “ Man’s Search for Meaning “)
Openness to criticism : being ego-resilient and open to honest feedback allows you to take all feedback and opportunities for improvement (also read “ Thanks for The Feedback “)
Locus of control : feeling like you are the one who chooses what to do and you have the power to change your life’s predicament
Focus : being able to focus on one activity at a time without distractions is a crucial element for reaching flow (also read “ The One Thing ” and “ Essentialism “)

Flow Is Enjoyment, Not Pleasure

Pleasures are reactions to specific actions that are good for our survival or procreation. Food and sex are typical pleasures. But chasing pleasure can lead to addiction and never moving forward in life.

Enjoyment, instead, makes us better people while we are also feeling great.

My Note: I only partially agree with this one. In the end, this is a major over-simplification. Read my “criticism of Flow” below.

In my opinion, there is one crucial lesson to learn to improve your life:

Internalize that you always have a choice

You cannot enter flow when you are following orders or doing things that you don’t really want to do. And it’s not just about “flow”, it’s about efficiency, mood, life pleasure, and success as well.

This was a major issue for me: the moment the alarm rang, I hated it and felt like I was “forced” to get up and prepare for work.

The moment I forced myself to change my attitude, I became happier and more effective.

Always remind yourself that you have a choice. And if you are doing something, it’s because you are choosing to do it.

I enjoyed the book, yet I also have some important criticisms of “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”. Here are the main ones:

Flimsy connection between flow and happiness?

Flow is considered one of the very first books on positive psychology .

Since then, it’s been computed into several “happiness formulas” in many successive books. Mostly by non-psychologists, but, notably, Martin Seligman also included it in his happiness formula (see: “ Flourish “).

However, I still don’t see such a strong connection between flow and a happy life. While flow certainly wouldn’t make anyone sadder, I also don’t see how it can be a central part of a happy life.

The author says that the best moments in our lives occur during flow, but that’s his own personal feeling, and he has no data or other way of backing it up.

Flow has limited utility when mastering a craft

Today, it seems to me that everyone is obsessed with “flow”. Yet, by the author’s own description, a state of “flow” is only achievable when you’re doing a task you’re already good at.

There is no point in seeking “flow” when you’re learning, which is what you should probably be doing most of the time unless you’re already world-class (and let’s face it: we’re probably not there yet).

Flow is not easily applicable to all realms of life

Some activities, like team activities, are more easily conducive to flow. And some activities, by presenting immediate and obvious feedback, are also more conducive to flow.

That also means that some other activities are not as easily conducive to flow. And personally, I found some recommendations to reach flow anytime and anywhere borderline ridiculous. Trying to grocery shop or fold T-shirts to achieve flow didn’t seem like it added anything to life. I personally feel it’s much better to grocery shop while listening to some music and/or looking at and interacting with the people around.

Silly differentiation between “pleasure” and “enjoyment”

The author seems to have an agenda to promote “enjoyment” over “base pleasures”. And he says that pleasures don’t make us better.

To me, that’s hogwash. Sex, a pleasure, does make you better with physical activities, and, as any woman can tell you, there are ways to improve your technical skills, so it’s not true that pleasures don’t make you improve.

And even eating can be seen as a skill or, as well, as an art. Slowing down to enjoy it for longer, for example, or chewing better, which will help you digest better.

Why should you do anything without expecting something else?

One of Csikszentmihalyi’s tenets for “flow” is doing it without any expectations of receiving anything back.

I don’t think it’s realistic—or even advisable—to simply “do things without expecting a return”. What’s the point of doing anything if you don’t expect something as a result or as a consequence of your hard work?

I am writing this summary because I expect it will be helpful to people reading it. If not, it will be helpful to make myself remember the crucial steps to reaching flow. And if all goes well, it will help me do both while also contributing to making me financially independent.

And I think there is nothing wrong with that, -and I don’t think it stops me in any way from achieving “writing flow”.

I have listed a lot of criticism for “Flow”. Yet, I also believe that the ability to focus fully on one’s own work is crucial to success. And also to a happier, flourishing life.

That’s what I am grateful to “Flow” for: giving me a few pointers to make it easier for me to fully focus on a specific task or activity.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi also has a TED talk on flow:

If Csikszentmihalyi is in flow and experiencing ”enjoyment,” he is surely hiding it well there 🙂

Flow is a hugely popular concept these days, so I was very curious to review the original work.

I liked it, but also found that “ flow ” has a limited scope (or, better: it’s been so overhyped that it expanded beyond its original scope).

For example, if you want to learn and improve, you shouldn’t be focusing on reaching flow, which only happens when you’re already good at something; you should focus on your weakness.

Working on your weaknesses is not necessarily enjoyable, but it’s what will take you forward in life.

In my opinion, since flow is so dependent on so many variables that are not always under your control, it’s not good to obsess over “ flow “. Instead, it’s better to focus on total immersion in your work (also read: Deep Work ). The two are similar, but total immersion does not necessarily need all the steps that Csikszentmihalyi lists in “Flow” while giving you all the same benefits.

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“Csikszentmihalyi arrives at an insight that many of us can intuitively grasp, despite our insistent (and culturally supported) denial of this truth. That is, it is not what happens to us that determines our happiness, but the manner in which we make sense of that reality. . . . T he manner in which Csikszentmihalyi integrates research on consciousness, personal psychology and spirituality is i lluminating.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

The bestselling classic that holds the key to unlocking meaning, creativity, peak performance, and true happiness.

Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi'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 ("the leading researcher into ‘flow states’" —Newsweek) 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, unlock our potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

Print length 336 pages
Language English
Publication date 1 July 2008
Dimensions 2.29 x 13.46 x 20.07 cm
ISBN-10 0061339202
ISBN-13 978-0061339202
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"Documents a set of scientific discoveries about human nature that actually illuminates the life experiences of all persons." — Howard Gardner, author of Frames of Mind

“Flow is important....The way to happiness lies not in mindless hedonism, but in mindful challenge.” — New York Times Book Review

“Rethinks what motivates people.” — Newsweek

"An intriguing look at the age-old problem of human happiness." — Library Journal

“[A] passionate and eloquent defense...[of] intellectual as well as emotional commitment to pleasure, for society’s sake as well as our own.” — Booklist

“Csikszentmihalyi arrives at an insight that many of us can intuitively grasp, despite our insistent (and culturally supported) denial of this truth. That is, it is not what happens to us that determines our happiness, but the manner in which we make sense of that reality. . . . a deep cultural critique . . . the manner in which Csikszentmihalyi integrates research on consciousness, personal psychology and spirituality is illuminating.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Explore[s] a happy state of mind called flow, the feeling of complete engagement in a creative or playful activity” — Time magazine

“The insightful analyst Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues that the key to gratification is completely absorbing work—he calls it ‘flow.’” — Salon.com

From the Back Cover

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi'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.

About the Author

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934-2021) was a professor at Claremont Graduate University and former chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. His books include Creativity, The Evolving Self and the national bestseller Flow .

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial Modern Classics (1 July 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0061339202
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061339202
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 227 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 2.29 x 13.46 x 20.07 cm
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
#67 in Self-Help for Happiness
#399 in Society & Social Sciences
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Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Summary & Notes

Rated : 9/10

Available at: Amazon

ISBN: 0061339202

Related: Deep Work , Mastery

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A fantastic book that brings together research on “flow” states to craft a story (and actionable suggestions) on how we can all become happier with work and life.

I continue referring back to this book, and it blends well with many other books, like Deep Work , or Mastery . Heavily cited by other authors, it will force you to think about how you structure your life and the activities you pursue.

Introduction

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.
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.
"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.” - Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
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.

Chapter 2: The Anatomy of Consciousness

This ability to persevere despite obstacles and setbacks is the quality people most admire in others, and justly so; it is probably the most important trait not only for succeeding in life, but for enjoying it as well.

Attention as Psychic Energy

The mark of a person who is in control of consciousness is the ability to focus attention at will, to be oblivious to distractions, to concentrate for as long as it takes to achieve a goal, and not longer. And the person who can do this usually enjoys the normal course of everyday life.

Complexity and the Growth of the Self

The self becomes complex as a result of experiencing flow. Paradoxically, 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 our 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.

Chapter 3: Enjoyment and the Quality of Life

There are two main strategies we can adopt to improve the quality of life. The first is to try making external conditions match our goals. The second is to change how we experience external conditions to make them fit our goals better.

The Elements of Enjoyment

As our studies have suggested, the phenomenology of enjoyment has eight major components.
When people reflect on how it feels when their experience is most positive, they mention at least one, and often all, of the following.
First, the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing.
Second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing.
Third and fourth, the concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback.
Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life.
Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions.
Seventh, concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.
Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours.

A Challenging Activity That Requires Skills

It is important to clarify at the outset that an “activity” need not be active in the physical sense, and the skill necessary to engage in it need not be a physical skill. For instance, one of the most frequently mentioned enjoyable activities the world over is reading.
Competition is enjoyable only when it is a means to perfect one’s skills; when it becomes an end in itself, it ceases to be fun.
In all the activities people in our study reported engaging in, enjoyment comes at a very specific point: whenever the opportunities for action perceived by the individual are equal to his or her capabilities.

Clear Goals and Feedback

The reason it is possible to achieve such complete involvement in a flow experience is that goals are usually clear, and feedback immediate.
Unless a person learns to set goals and to recognize and gauge feedback in such activities, she will not enjoy them.
The feedback can be anything, as long as it contains the message: I have succeeded in my goal.

Concentration on the Task at Hand

One of the most frequently mentioned dimensions of the flow experience is that, while it lasts, one is able to forget all the unpleasant aspects of life.

Chapter 4: The Conditions of Flow

The Effects of the Family on the Autotelic Personality

There is ample evidence to suggest that how parents interact with a child will have a lasting effect on the kind of person that child grows up to be.
The family context promoting optimal experience could be described as having five characteristics.
The first one is clarity : the teenagers feel that they know what their parents expect from them—goals and feedback in the family interaction are unambiguous.
The second is centering , or the children’s perception that their parents are interested in what they are doing in the present, in their concrete feelings and experiences, rather than being preoccupied with whether they will be getting into a good college or obtaining a well-paying job.
Next is the issue of choice : children feel that they have a variety of possibilities from which to choose, including that of breaking parental rules—as long as they are prepared to face the consequences.
The fourth differentiating characteristic is commitment , or the trust that allows the child to feel comfortable enough to set aside the shield of his defenses, and become unselfconsciously involved in whatever he is interested in.
And finally there is challenge , or the parents’ dedication to provide increasingly complex opportunities for action to their children.
The presence of these five conditions made possible what was called the “autotelic family context,” because they provide an ideal training for enjoying life.

Chapter 5: The Body in Flow

Higher, Faster, Stronger

Even the simplest physical act becomes enjoyable when it is transformed so as to produce flow. The essential steps in this process are:
(a) to set an overall goal, and as many subgoals as are realistically feasible;
(b) to find ways of measuring progress in terms of the goals chosen;
(c) to keep concentrating on what one is doing, and to keep making finer and finer distinctions in the challenges involved in the activity;
(d) to develop the skills necessary to interact with the opportunities available; and
(e) to keep raising the stakes if the activity becomes boring.
What we found was that when people were pursuing leisure activities that were expensive in terms of the outside resources required—activities that demanded expensive equipment, or electricity, or other forms of energy measured in BTUs, such as power boating, driving, or watching television—they were significantly less happy than when involved in inexpensive leisure. People were happiest when they were just talking to one another, when they gardened, knitted, or were involved in a hobby.

Sex as Flow

It is especially difficult to keep enjoying sex with the same partner over a period of years. It is probably true that humans, like the majority of mammalian species, are not monogamous by nature.
How to keep love fresh? The answer is the same as it is for any other activity. To be enjoyable, a relationship must become more complex. To become more complex, the partners must discover new potentialities in themselves and in each other. To discover these, they must invest attention in each other—so that they can learn what thoughts and feelings, what dreams reside in their partner’s mind. This in itself is a never-ending process, a lifetime’s task. After one begins to really know another person, then many joint adventures become possible: traveling together, reading the same books, raising children, making and realizing plans all become more enjoyable and more meaningful. The specific details are unimportant.

Chapter 6: The Flow of Thought

To enjoy a mental activity, one must meet the same conditions that make physical activities enjoyable. There must be skill in a symbolic domain; there have to be rules, a goal, and a way of obtaining feedback. One must be able to concentrate and interact with the opportunities at a level commensurate with one’s skills.
For instance, one of the simplest ways to use the mind is daydreaming: playing out some sequence of events as mental images. But even this apparently easy way to order thought is beyond the range of many people.
There are several levels at which history as a flow activity can be practiced. The most personal involves simply keeping a journal. The next is to write a family chronicle, going as far into the past as possible.
The study of history, science, philosophy, or any other topic can be the means to flow.

Chapter 7: Work as Flow

Autotelic Jobs

The more a job inherently resembles a game—with variety, appropriate and flexible challenges, clear goals, and immediate feedback—the more enjoyable it will be regardless of the worker’s level of development.
To improve the quality of life through work, two complementary strategies are necessary.
On the one hand jobs should be redesigned so that they resemble as closely as possible flow activities—as do hunting, cottage weaving, and surgery.
But it will also be necessary to help people develop autotelic personalities by training them to recognize opportunities for action, to hone their skills, to set reachable goals.
Neither one of these strategies is likely to make work much more enjoyable by itself; in combination, they should contribute enormously to optimal experience.

Chapter 8: Enjoying Solitude and Other People

Studies on flow have demonstrated repeatedly that more than anything else, the quality of life depends on two factors: how we experience work, and our relations with other people.

The Conflict Between Being Alone and Being With Others

How is it possible to reconcile the fact that people cause both the best and the worst times?
This apparent contradiction is actually not that difficult to resolve. Like anything else that really matters, relationships make us extremely happy when they go well, and very depressed when they don’t work out.

The Pain of Loneliness

To fill free time with activities that require concentration, that increase skills, that lead to a development of the self, is not the same as killing time by watching television or taking recreational drugs. Although both strategies might be seen as different ways of coping with the same threat of chaos, as defenses against ontological anxiety, the former leads to growth, while the latter merely serves to keep the mind from unraveling. A person who rarely gets bored, who does not constantly need a favorable external environment to enjoy the moment, has passed the test for having achieved a creative life.

Taming Solitude

One does not actually have to be a god, but it is true that to enjoy being alone a person must build his own mental routines, so that he can achieve flow without the supports of civilized life—without other people, without jobs, TV, theaters, restaurants, or libraries to help channel his attention.
It is this constant concentration on a workable goal that makes sailing so enjoyable. But when the doldrums set in, they might have to go to heroic lengths to find any challenge at all.
Yet how one copes with solitude makes all the difference. If being alone is seen as a chance to accomplish goals that cannot be reached in the company of others, then instead of feeling lonely, a person will enjoy solitude and might be able to learn new skills in the process. On the other hand, if solitude is seen as a condition to be avoided at all costs instead of as a challenge, the person will panic and resort to distractions that cannot lead to higher levels of complexity.

Flow and the Family

Many successful men and women would second Lee Iacocca’s statement: “I’ve had a wonderful and successful career. But next to my family, it really hasn’t mattered at all.”
The problem remains with the period of puberty, roughly the five years between twelve and seventeen: What meaningful challenges can be found for young people that age? The situation is much easier when the parents themselves are involved in understandable and complex activities at home. If the parents enjoy playing music, cooking, reading, gardening, carpentry, or fixing engines in the garage, then it is more likely that their children will find similar activities challenging, and invest enough attention in them to begin enjoy doing something that will help them grow. If parents just talked more about their ideals and dreams—even if these had been frustrated—the children might develop the ambition needed to break through the complacency of their present selves. If nothing else, discussing one’s job or the thoughts and events of the day, and treating children as young adults, as friends, help to socialize them into thoughtful adults.

Chapter 9: Creating Chaos

Coping with stress is key to maintaining your ability to have flow experiences.

The Power of Dissipative Structures

The peak in the development of coping skills is reached when a young man or woman has achieved a strong enough sense of self, based on personally selected goals, that no external disappointment can entirely undermine who he or she is. For some people the strength derives from a goal that involves identification with the family, with the country, or with a religion or an ideology. For others, it depends on mastery of a harmonious system of symbols, such as art, music, or physics.
Those who know how to transform a hopeless situation into a new flow activity that can be controlled will be able to enjoy themselves, and emerge stronger from the ordeal. There are three main steps that seem to be involved in such transformations:
1. Unselfconscious self-assurance.
These people believe their destiny is in their hands. They don’t doubt their own resources would be sufficient to allow them to determine their own fate.
They also recognize they are part of an environment and must do their best within that system.
Basically, to arrive at this level of self-assurance one must trust oneself, one’s environment, and one’s place in it.
2. Focusing attention on the world.
Avoid focusing on your own ego, and instead be aware of alternative possibilities, open to the surrounding world.
3. The discovery of new solutions.
Focus on the entire situation, including oneself, and discover whether alternative goals might be more appropriate, and whether other solutions exist.

The Autotelic Self: A Summary

The difference between someone who enjoys life and someone who is overwhelmed by it is a product of a combination of such external factors and the way a person has come to interpret them—that is, whether he sees challenges as threats or as opportunities for action.
The “autotelic self” is one that easily translates potential threats into enjoyable challenges, and therefore maintains its inner harmony. A person who is never bored, seldom anxious, involved with what goes on, and in flow most of the time may be said to have an autotelic self. The term literally means "a self that has self-contained goals," and it reflects the idea that such an individual has relatively few goals that do not originate from within the self.
The autotelic self transforms potentially entropic experience into flow. Therefore the rules for developing such a self are simple, and they derive directly from the flow model. Briefly, they can be summarized as follows:
1. Setting goals.
One must have clear goals to strive for. A person with an autotelic self learns to make choices without much fuss and the minimum of panic.
They also learn to define the goals, challenges, and a system of action in a specific direction to reach a larger goal.
2. Becoming immersed in the activity.
The person grows deeply involved in whatever they are doing, balancing expectations and demands with one’s capacity to act, ensuring neither stagnation, nor gross disappointment.
3. Paying attention to what is happening .
Concentration leads to involvement, which can only be maintained by constant inputs of attention. Athletes are aware that in a race even a momentary lapse can spell complete defeat.
The same pitfalls threaten anyone who participates in a complex system: to stay in it, he must keep investing psychic energy.
4. Learning to enjoy immediate experience.
The outcome of having an autotelic self—of learning to set goals, to develop skills, to be sensitive to feedback, to know how to concentrate and get involved—is that one can enjoy life even when objective circumstances are brutish and nasty. Being in control of the mind means that literally anything that happens can be a source of joy.
To achieve this control, however, requires determination and discipline. Optimal experience is not the result of a hedonistic, lotus-eating approach to life. A relaxed, laissez-faire attitude is not a sufficient defense against chaos.
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 sense.

Chapter 10: The Making of Meaning

As long as enjoyment follows piecemeal from activities not linked to one another in a meaningful way, one is still vulnerable to the vagaries of chaos. Even the most successful career, the most rewarding family relationship eventually runs dry. Sooner or later involvement in work must be reduced. Spouses die, children grow up and move away. To approach optimal experience as closely as is humanly possible, a last step in the control of consciousness is necessary.
What this involves is turning all life into a unified flow experience.
It is true that life has no meaning, if by that we mean a supreme goal built into the fabric of nature and human experience, a goal that is valid for every individual. But it does not follow that life cannot be given meaning.
From the point of view of an individual, it does not matter what the ultimate goal is—provided it is compelling enough to order a lifetime’s worth of psychic energy.
As long as it provides clear objectives, clear rules for action, and a way to concentrate and become involved, any goal can serve to give meaning to a person’s life.

What Meaning Means

In this sense the answer to the old riddle “What is the meaning of life?” turns out to be astonishingly simple. The meaning of life is meaning: whatever it is, wherever it comes from, a unified purpose is what gives meaning to life.
The second sense of the word meaning refers to the expression of intentionality. And this sense also is appropriate to the issue of how to create meaning by transforming all life into a flow activity. It is not enough to find a purpose that unifies one’s goals; one must also carry through and meet its challenges. The purpose must result in strivings; intent has to be translated into action. We may call this resolution in the pursuit of one’s goals. What counts is not so much whether a person actually achieves what she has set out to do; rather, it matters whether effort has been expended to reach the goal, instead of being diffused or wasted.
The third and final way in which life acquires meaning is the result of the previous two steps. When an important goal is pursued with resolution, and all one’s varied activities fit together into a unified flow experience, the result is that harmony is brought to consciousness. Someone who knows his desires and works with purpose to achieve them is a person whose feelings, thoughts, and actions are congruent with one another, and is therefore a person who has achieved inner harmony.
Purpose, resolution, and harmony unify life and give it meaning by transforming it into a seamless flow experience. Whoever achieves this state will never really lack anything else. A person whose consciousness is so ordered need not fear unexpected events, or even death. Every living moment will make sense, and most of it will be enjoyable. This certainly sounds desirable. So how does one attain it?

Forging Resolve

Inner conflict is the result of competing claims on attention. Too many desires, too many incompatible goals struggle to marshal psychic energy toward their own ends. It follows that the only way to reduce conflict is by sorting out the essential claims from those that are not, and by arbitrating priorities among those that remain. There are basically two ways to accomplish this: what the ancients called the vita activa , a life of action, and the vita contemplativa , or the path of reflection.
Immersed in the vita activa , a person achieves flow through total involvement in concrete external challenges.
Successful executives, experienced professionals, and talented craftspeople learn to trust their judgment and competence so that they again begin to act with the unselfconscious spontaneity of children. If the arena for action is challenging enough, a person may experience flow continuously in his or her calling, thus leaving as little room as possible for noticing the entropy of normal life. In this way harmony is restored to consciousness indirectly—not by facing up to contradictions and trying to resolve conflicting goals and desires, but by pursuing chosen goals with such intensity that all potential competition is preempted.
This is where the presumed advantage of a contemplative life comes in. Detached reflection upon experience, a realistic weighing of options and their consequences, have long been held to be the best approach to a good life.
Activity and reflection should ideally complement and support each other. Action by itself is blind, reflection impotent. Before investing great amounts of energy in a goal, it pays to raise the fundamental questions: Is this something I really want to do? Is it something I enjoy doing? Am I likely to enjoy it in the foreseeable future? Is the price that I—and others—will have to pay worth it? Will I be able to live with myself if I accomplish it?

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Insights on Work, Organisation Design, Experience, Leadership and Change.

Book Review: Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ( pronounced “CHICK-sent-me-high-ee”) is probably one of the most important books I have read for my profession, as well as for myself as Human Being. I read this for the first time more than 15 years ago and have now read it again to review some of the concepts investigated in this book. The concept of Flow has had a very important effect on both psychology and management, the Flow Model developed by the author as a consequence of his research is still widely adopted. We can really define this book as a classic , yet when re-reading, it also left some bitter taste.

The reason is simple: we have had for almost 20 years the entire knowledge on what really can get people in the flow , and yet we have not been able to exploit fully the potential of Flow for people.

What is Flow

In many ways, people always assumed that happiness and enjoyment where states linked to relaxation. What Csikszentmihalyi and his fellows’ researchers discovered is instead that: 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.

The sense of Enjoyment

This is all linked to the definition of Enjoyment , which spans a big portion of the book. Csikszentmihalyi states that the phenomenology of enjoyment has eight major components. and when people describe what they enjoyed they list at least 1 component

First, the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing.
Second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing.
Third and fourth, the concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback.
Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life.
Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions. Seventh, concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.
Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours.

The combination of all these elements causes a sense of deep enjoyment that is so rewarding people feel that expending a great deal of energy is worthwhile simply to be able to feel it.

How do we enter the State of Flow?

The author explores the way Flow is formed and concludes this to be a balance between the right level of challenge, and the right level of experience. Flow is therefore reaffirmed as a dynamic state, not always easy to achieve. The two key components are represented by the author in a graph, where Flow is represented as a corridor between two other states: boredom and anxiety .

Flow Theory ( Csikszentmihalyi, 1988, 1991, 1993 cited in Hood, 2007)

The first happens when the level of our skills is higher than the level of challenge posed by the goal we have. The second is instead experienced when the level of challenge is higher than the skills we have.

But Flow is dynamic: we might get into a challenge level that is higher than expected, we, therefore, enter a state of Anxiety, and this pushes us to learn new skills , thus moving back into the flow channel . Same happens if we have developed too many skills into a field so that it becomes “too easy” for us. In this case, by working on our goals, we can climb back into the flow channel moving away from Boredom.

With this, the author creates a strong link with concepts of Motivation that we have already seen for example in Pink’s work , as well as with principled of Curiosity and Learning Agility that I have also already written about.

Here a short video that summarizes the key concepts of the book.

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.

I just want to single out a few key aspects: having goals, receiving feedback (which is why Candor becomes such an important skill), gratitude and strong Listening .

Why aren’t we in permanent Flow?

This is the most interesting part of the book, i.e. the exploration of why Flow is not (and cannot be) a permanent state. First of all, as we’ve seen, is a dynamic experience . Inertia alone would move us towards boredom by simply not doing much. Seeking flow too often can actually create a state of dependence, similar to that of drugs.

More simply, we spend many energies during our Flow state, and it takes time to recharge. There are many psychological implications as well we need to consider, as Flow is also a delicate balance between our internal self and the external factors that can influence it.

Flow at Work

There are a few unexpected consequences of re-reading this book today. The first is its insistence on Experience. In a world so focused on Customer Experience and Employee Experience , the concept of flow can really help to understand what works and what doesn’t. After all, in 1996 Csikszentmihalyi himself was one of the first in seeing the web as a way to stage experiences rather than just navigating contents . And made also an immediate link with the key issue that technology was about to create: a severe issue with attention.

communication is instantaneous. I’m afraid after a while we may not pay much attention to it. The gates of attention allow very few things to come in. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Go with the Flow , Wired, 1996

A second consequence is an impact on the new forms of work . I have already written about this, but the recent focus on self-management can be directly linked with a better link to motivation drivers and flow. The author himself had dedicated a chapter in the book on the concept of Flow at Work, and looked at few examples related to the fact that Work itself created a paradoxical imbalance between flow situation and “stress”.

A third consequence is directly linked with the concept of Purpose , both at an individual and organisational level . The recent trends we have discussed organisations trying to better define their purpose can be read as a way to intentionally design culture that stimulates experiences of Flow for their collaborators. Can we also design organisations that allow this?

Below the famous Ted Talk by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on what Flow means.

Flow has been a disrupting book in many ways. Research has continued to deepen the understanding around the basics of Flow, yet too many people are simply unaware of the basics of the Theory of Flow. Which is why, for example, I’ve used this intensively in my training experience, at all levels in the organisation.

Flow for me becomes also something more than just an individuals’ research for enjoyment. Culture, Motivation, Purpose, all dynamic elements that need to be intentionally designed around the idea that we need to create the conditions for Flow to happen. This the challenge for us in the future, more and more.

I also feel happy for this to be the last Review I publish in 2019. It has been an intense year in terms of reading , and I truly believe this book to be foundational in understanding what people management should be about: enabling performance by creating the conditions for the flow to happen.

Did you read Flow? What have been your feelings?

Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Goodreads Reviews

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BOOK REVIEW : Finding Fulfillment With the ‘Flow’ : FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, <i> by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi</i> . Harper & Row. $21.95, 303 pages

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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi opens his book, “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,” with what may be the quintessential paradox of our bedraggled 20th Century.

“Despite the fact that even the least affluent among us are surrounded by material luxuries undreamed of even a few decades ago . . . 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.”

The author, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, approaches this apparent paradox with a wide-ranging intelligence and curiosity, along with the social scientist’s standard arsenal of questionnaires and interviews. Csikszentmihalyi asks what it is that leaves certain individuals feeling happy, alive, fulfilled. What imbues their lives with meaning and purpose?

The author draws on the words of an extremely wide range of “informants,” from assembly line workers to businessmen, rock climbers to musicians, teen-agers to septuagenarians, in the United States and abroad.

With their help, Csikszentmihalyi arrives at an insight that many of us can intuitively grasp, despite our insistent (and culturally supported) denial of this truth. That is, it is not what happens to us that determines our happiness, but the manner in which we make sense of that reality.

We are happiest not in pursuit of external remedies to our malaise--money, sex, or power for their own sake, but when we are fully absorbed in meaningful activity--be it intellectual, physical, artistic or spiritual--to the degree that we can “forget” ourselves, only to reemerge from such an experience feeling even more ourselves.

At the same time, we are more fulfilled to the degree our lives “make sense” to us. We are, after all, a meaning-making creature, and we are happiest when we are evolving a “greater complexity of consciousness.”

Developmental psychology has demonstrated that the growth of the self is predicated on active interaction with the environment, at the physical, cognitive and emotional level.

The author suggests that as adults we cease this active participation with our world. We let others ascribe to us our meaning. We lose what Walker Percy called our “sovereignty,” and, with that, any chance for genuine happiness.

Csikszentmihalyi is fairly explicit about the nature of the activities that are most conducive to this sort of growth.

They offer an opportunity for deep concentration, a sense of control and satisfaction, behavior that is goal-directed and bounded by rules, and the disappearance of concern for the self. When these conditions converge, we experience what the author calls “flow.”

A “flow” experience, unlike the passive experiences of shopping, watching television, taking drugs (all of which tend to numb or distract us from our feelings), generally leads to that “greater complexity of consciousness,” continually expanding our sense of who we are. And it feels good, for we become the architects, not the recipients of our life’s meaning.

The content of “flow” experiences is not critical: For the rock climber, “flow” can arise in the purposeful absorption in the task of scaling a precipice; whereas for an itinerant quoted at length, “flow” is experienced in the effort to fit life experiences into his evolving knowledge of God’s will.

This book also offers a deep cultural critique. Although Csikszentmihalyi acknowledges there are psychological and neurological impediments to experiencing “flow,” he attacks 20th-Century Western culture for fostering the belief that happiness and fulfillment are materially rooted and outside the self.

These arguments and observations are not altogether original; yet the manner in which Csikszentmihalyi integrates research on consciousness, personal psychology and spirituality is illuminating.

At times the book leaves the reader with the sense of an overreaching and ambitious application of a good idea, and yet there are important questions left unaddressed.

Why, for instance, are some people able to create the kind of meaning out of early trauma that allows them to go on to live productive and fulfilling lies, while others get bogged down in despair? And how to differentiate between the murderer and the artist, the one utterly absorbed and even finding meaning in the details of the execution, the other in his creation? But perhaps it is not for a book such as this, but rather for the novelist or the theologian to shed a more penetrating light on such questions.

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Flow Summary

1-Sentence-Summary: Flow explains why we seek happiness in externals and what’s wrong with it, where you can really find enjoyment in life, and how you can truly become happy by creating your own meaning of life.

Favorite quote from the author:

Table of Contents

Video Summary

Flow review, audio summary, who would i recommend the flow summary to.

This summary has been sitting in my library forever. I’ve been meaning to pick it up ever since I read The Happiness Hypothesis , as the concept of flow is mentioned there.

Flow is a simple title for a book the author’s name I can’t pronounce to save my life, you do it: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (apparently it’s mi-ha-yee cheeks-sent-me-high). Published in 1990, Mihaly digs into “the state of effortless work”, where challenges and skills align perfectly and time seems to fly.

Here are my 3 take-aways:

Pleasure and enjoyment are two different things.
Flow is where challenges and skills match.
Life goals are irrelevant, so set a life goal.

I bet 1 and 3 have you scratching your head, so let’s do some explaining!

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

Lesson 1: Pleasure and enjoyment are not the same thing.

This is a really cool differentiation. Pleasure is what most people nowadays confuse with happiness. It comes from sensory experiences , like eating a pizza, getting a massage, or having sex and takes away your control of your attention .

When you’re busy munching on a tasty slice of chicken supreme, you can’t really control what you pay attention too, because all of it is taken up by your sense of taste.

Enjoyment , on the other hand, comes from concentrating and consciously focusing , which gives you back your control over your attention.

This is where true happiness lies, as enjoyment allows you to work towards your most important goals and to go beyond the limitations of your genes .

Many people opt for pleasure instead of enjoyment, which the world makes easy, as we seem to live in instant gratification-land now , which is also why many people are so miserable .

But how can you find enjoyment? By trying to spend a lot of time in flow.

Lesson 2: Flow is the state where challenges and skills match, so that time flies by.

Flow is what’s behind every good video game . It is the state where you are so immersed in the activity you’re doing, that you’re completely forgetting about all your worries and anxieties , and you look up after hours, wondering where time went .

How can you trigger it?

Pick an activity you find rewarding, something that’s meaningful to you, without any external incentive (like money or fame).
Make sure the challenge of the activity matches your skill level.

The first part is straight forward. It means you should have fun . Plant a tree, draw a comic, write an article about the Minions , whatever you think is meaningful to you.

There can’t be any money involved. Don’t do it for fame, wealth, or even religion. Just because you think it’s awesome.

Part 2 is a bit harder. Flow is triggered when the challenge isn’t so hard you’ll get frustrated , while your skills aren’t so good already that you get bored .

It’s right in between.

If you decide to pick up chess, play on an easy setting against your computer first. Then, get a friend to play against you who’s slightly better than you. Once you consistently beat her, you can move to the next level.

Basically, flow is where your life feels like the perfect game: you just want to keep on going and going and going.

So make some time for your hobbies or take up a fun project – you never know what the skills might be good for .

Lesson 3: Life goals are irrelevant, so set a life goal.

I love this. The summary says you can create your own meaning of life . To do so, you simply have to set an ultimate goal for your life .

Here’s the best part: It doesn’t matter what that goal is, as long as it keeps getting you into flow without caring what other people think.

This is the best thing a book could tell you.

It’s all you want to hear.

Go set some crazy goal and tell others to get lost if they tell you it’s stupid. If it keeps you challenged so your skills keep growing and gets more complex as you go along, you’re golden.

This is exactly what I’m doing with Four Minute Books . I make sure I read and write every day, no matter if no one reads it. I do share it, so people can benefit, but I’m doing it for the sake of itself.

I have a hunch that the more you do of that, the more successful you’ll be .

First tip: Read the Happiness Hypothesis first , then this will make even more sense. It lists Flow as the best option of one of the two voluntary activities you should strive for, to maximize your happiness.

Second tip: Think back to when you were 8-14 years old. What did you enjoy doing the most? Chances are your flow activity is somewhere in there.

I can’t recommend this summary enough, it’s so packed with insights, I had some serious trouble picking 3 things. It makes sense from start to finish and it’s a very down-to-earth call-to-action for happiness.

It doesn’t scream at you to get happy, like some of the more over-enthusiastic self-help books (which have their place, ain’t that right, Spartan Up ?), but just shows you the path that’ll most likely get you there.

He also has a TED talk , which I have to check out yet, but I’m sure it is worth watching.

Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account*:

The 18 year old, who quit 3 sports teams already and is frustrated because she can’t seem to find the right thing, the 42 year old restaurant manager, who’s in a bit of a rut at work, and anyone who has never played a video game.

Last Updated on December 5, 2022

Niklas Göke

Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each. Born and raised in Germany, Nik also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Engineering from KIT Karlsruhe and a Master’s Degree in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich. He lives in Munich and enjoys a great slice of salami pizza almost as much as reading — or writing — the next book — or book summary, of course!

*Four Minute Books participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon. We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Our referral links allow us to earn commissions (at no extra cost to you) and keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

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Welcome to my Flow book summary!

“The key element of an optimal experience is that it is an end in itself.” (p. 67)

One-Sentence-Summary: Flow, the feeling of complete engagement in a creative or playful activity, is explored and techniques to control it are introduced in pursuit of building an optimal life full of enjoyment, not just pleasure.

booboo real-time book rating: ★★★★☆ (percentage of books with this rating: 34%)

“The pursuit of a goal brings order in awareness because a person must concentrate attention on the task at hand and momentarily forget everything else.” (p. 6) Time and time again, this comes up in my life, in my readings, in my writings. Goals are supremely important. If you don’t have goals, then you are part of someone else’s goals.

This blog will contain both my summary and review of the book Flow .

On pleasure versus enjoyment: “A person can feel pleasure without any effort, if they appropriate centers in this brain are electrically stimulated, or as a result of the chemical stimulation of drugs. But it is impossible to enjoy a tennis game, a book, or a §conversation unless attention is fully concentrated on the activity.” (p. 46)

As I read the book, you will find my in-progress Flow review and book summary notes below.

You are reading my book review and summary by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Be sure to check out my digital bookshelf for 100+ book summaries.

“To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social environments to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself. She has to develop the ability to find enjoyment and purpose regardless of external circumstances.” (p. 16)

Did you know I’m an author? I wrote four books on real estate investing , travel , and language learning .

Thanks for visiting and thanks to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi for writing Flow !

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Do you wish to find heightened creativity and satisfaction? We all can achieve this state, blending psychology, philosophy, and practical insights. The book "Flow" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a groundbreaking exploration of optimal human experience. Hop on and learn about how to be in your flow always.

Have you ever been so engrossed in an activity that you lost track of time? You were so focused and engaged that you felt absorbed entirely and at peace. If so, then you’ve experienced flow.

Introduction

Flow is a state of optimal experience where you are fully immersed in the present moment and wholly absorbed in what you’re doing. It’s a state of effortless concentration where you feel challenged but not overwhelmed and are so focused that you lose track of everything else.

We will discuss the book “Flow,” by “ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi .” In his book Flow, Mihaly explores the psychology of optimal experience. He argues that flow is the key to a happy and fulfilling life. When we’re in flow, we’re not only more comfortable, but we’re also more productive, creative, and resilient.

In this summary, we will explore the concept of flow in more detail. We will share some of the research on flow and give you some tips on how to achieve flow in your own life. So if you’re interested in learning more about flow and how it can help you live a happier and more fulfilling life , we encourage you to read this summary until the end.

A businessman named David used to work hard day and night to further his business. And he had achieved success in his business to a great extent, and he had everything that could make him happy. Despite this, he is unsatisfied with his life – he cannot understand what is missing. What was missing in his life, which was incomplete?

That flow was absent in his life, so that he could feel real happiness and satisfaction. Great psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s investigation of the “optimal experience” has shown that what makes an experience truly an experience is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically feel a sense of happiness, creativity, and connection with life.

The Psychology of Flow teaches us how, by being mindful of the information that flows into our purposes, we can find true happiness, unlock our potential, and vastly improve the quality of our lives. In this video, we will learn how David got satisfaction and joy.

To understand the book better, we are going to discuss this book separately in 10 chapters. So let’s start.

Chapter 1: The Path to Happiness

Flow explores how we experience the emotion of happiness to live a happy, fulfilling life. This is achieved when we immerse ourselves in a state of sublimation that the author calls “flow,” a state of mind in which one is adaptive to challenges. We temporarily lose control over our sense of self and our time. Using a system of targeting and quick response, we can achieve a state of flow to create alignment with work, increase self-worth, and find meaning in life.

Happiness doesn’t come by seeking it – The more you aim for joy, the more you miss it. This happens as a “side effect” of your dedication toward a cause greater than yourself. In this chapter, the author explains where happiness comes from. According to their research, it is not something that passes by, nor is it the result of luck or randomness.

It is also something other than what we can measure with money. In other words, happiness does not depend on external effects but on how we perceive those effects. Although many believe that external forces determine joy and happiness, there are precious times when went rely upon earthly control of our actions rather than being in control.

And when this situation occurs, happy least, satisfaction, and supply will have even more positive long-term effects on our lives. That phenomenon is Csikszentmihalyi. This situation does not happen when people are inactive, but it does happen. When you are in a state of flow:

An hour seems to pass in the blink of an eye;
Karma and consciousness become one;
You feel entirely in control;
You think that what you are doing is essential;
And it is worth experiencing, which comes from intrinsic motivation.

So from today onwards, harness the power of flow to find real happiness.

Chapter 2: The Physical Composition of Human

Consciousness Looking at the past – adopting the old times , feelings, and thoughts of the cultures were considered ideal, the rule. It is no longer relevant in this day and time where we are advised to confess our thoughts and express the feelings we want to. People who control their thoughts and feelings are often described as “harsh” or “emotionless.”

However, according to the author, those who know how to take advantage of their discomfort to gain control over consciousness are the ones who live happily. Once we understand the machinery inside, we can control them and decide what life will be like. We, humans, have developed consciousness-specific points of evolution.

Because of this, we can make a “difference” between stimulus and response. Through this, we can use our senses for lying, writing poetry, or scientific hypotheses. And most importantly, regardless of external fluctuations, you can make yourself happy or unhappy by changing your assumptions. We can do all this ourselves.

Over their average lifetime, a person collects about 185 million information units, such as sounds, visual stimuli, or the nuances of feelings and thoughts. In this way, our knowledge makes up most of our understanding sets.

Now the question becomes, how does the information get into the mind? They are sent to the mind through “mental energy,” or, more simply, attention is attracted to that information. So you need to take care to bring the things to your benefit. For this, forget the external distractions and focus till you reach your goals.

Chapter 3: Happiness – Quality of Life

When we see someone rich, famous, or well-dressed, we automatically believe they live a complete life. However, later we realize this is not happiness. They are the ones who suffer. But do you know why? Because a person who wants to improve the quality of life not only enhances the quality of the environment but, more importantly, improves the quality of his experience.

We need to seek happiness, not fun. The author has pointed out a difference between happiness and fun . Pleasure satisfies simple therapeutic needs, such as eating or sleeping. Furthermore, fun meets needs and wants while also motivating oneself by using skill and concentration to overcome the limits of instinct, with which we can fulfill our great goals and simultaneously control ourselves.

However, most people want instant gratification to compensate for their difficult days. Making fun a priority isn’t challenging, but putting a sense of happiness over the fun is easy. Creating fun and rewarding but challenging to achieve removes them from great opportunities for innovation and development. For example, many people watch TV or movies after a tiring day at work. In this situation, they are inactive and can easily wander off.

At the end of the week, they are immersed in alcohol or drugs. But the result is often the same: they harm themselves and lose control. The mind often doesn’t do what we want it to do to achieve our goals, but we shouldn’t choose the path of least resistance either because it’s the easiest to stray from. “Most enjoyable activities don’t come naturally; they require an initial effort that you may not initially enjoy doing.

But once your skills begin to respond, they become a gift you can use.” they are precious. You can feel these changes yourself. Just make a start and unleash your remarkable results.

There are specific ways in which we can incorporate into our daily routine to achieve the goals we have set. The first way is to make external situations according to the plan, while the second is to experience external conditions so that they can be according to our goal.

One is based on manipulating the outer world, while the other option suggests changing our opinion about external situations, which is more correct.

The factors used to create flow are divided into eight parts. One or more of these factors are always active when experiencing flow.

First, flow is usually experienced when we are faced with tasks that we have the opportunity to accomplish.
Second, we can pay attention to what we are doing.
Third and fourth, focus is usually possible when the work has clear goals and immediate responses.
Fifth, a man works with a deep but comfortable partnership that drives awareness away from the worries and sorrows of everyday life.
Sixth, enjoyable experiences give people a sense of control over their actions.
Seventh, the concern about oneself disappears, yet after the end of the flow experience, the feeling of self emerges stronger.
Finally, the meaning of time changes; Hours pass by in minutes.

Chapter 4: Finding Flow

Looking at the actions that often create flow, we gradually understand what makes people happy. One morning in Naples, Italy, an American tourist bought a statue at an antique shop. Thought. The store owner told an offensive price of that statue, but when he saw that he would pay that price, He said that the item was not for sale. Now think, why did he do this?

The shop owner charges such a high price not because he wants to profit from the guest but because he wants to enjoy his intelligence. It helps sharpen his mind and train him to improve his sales skills.

Whenever we do something neither easy nor difficult, we push our limits to achieve more. For example, when you play tennis, you enjoy trying to hit the ball over the net the first time. But once you gradually master it, the work gradually becomes boring, and you start challenging yourself , like hitting the ball on the competitor.

If you choose a competitor who plays efficiently and is ten thousand times more skilled than you, then it will be much more difficult for you to win. You’ll soon learn the difference between knowing and being afraid because this challenge is so complex that you’ll miss out on the chance to practice a new skill. However, your skills improve if you choose a competitor slightly above your level.

As the book’s author himself states: “The choice comes at the border between boredom and anxiety when the challenges are balanced against the ability to perform. To improve, skill also needs to be balanced with personal goals and passions and should not be independent of circumstances such as the promise of an award if you do well—or threats and punishment if you don’t do well.

To get a sense of this, read about the life of potter Eva Zeisel, who was once imprisoned by Stalin’s forces. She constantly played chess in her mind to maintain her purity, memorized her poems, and exercised. She claims she can improve her skills, imagination, and talent even in the worst circumstances.

To overcome the fear and anxiety of contemporary life, A person should be so free from the social environment. To master that, learn how to create your awards. Also, develop the ability to find happiness and purpose regardless of external circumstances.

Chapter 5: Flow in the Body

One cannot depend entirely on art or sports to improve one’s life. On the other hand, our bodies always have infinite potential. If that possibility is ignored, the body’s functions will gradually end. For example, if you don’t practice, your body moves slowly and awkwardly, your eyes become less flexible, you only notice boring things, your ears only hear noises, and your mouth feels the taste. Therefore, knowing what happens in mind is essential to improve the quality of life.

Along with this, everyone must also practice sensory and physical skills. For most people, walking is just getting from here to there. But if you pay more attention to the environment – to other people, signposts, squares, architecture, landmarks.

Being more aware of your environment helps you learn more than automatic reactions. Indeed, the colorful world is full of inspiration. The sky has many forms, and meditating on those wonders can open you to a new and richer perspective. With, can feel connected to everything.

In addition, if we mention the attraction of the “magic” of the song, nowadays, with just one simple operation, we can access countless styles of songs. But rarely do we get lost entirely in those loud, delicate voices. And then, if you pay attention to the music you’re listening to, it opens up a whole new level:

Intelligibility, feeling your body’s reactions to each beat, each sound.
Association when equivalent images come to mind.

So analyzing each structure of the piece and comparing it with other versions, other musicians.

But to make mindfulness reflective, we need to strengthen our self-mastery, and one of the most effective ways to practice is yoga. For a long time, yoga has been seen as a positive way to release the ego and attract attention to a specific target—yoga deals with non-violence, conformity, purity, discipline, and a higher power. You can gain unprecedented control over your mind – use the body you live in.

Chapter 6: Flow of Thought

The previous experience is about more than just the senses. Some of the most uplifting experiences we feel are born in the mind when some information requires thinking rather than using our senses. Among mental activities, reading is considered the most common flow-inducing behavior

. Use exercises like solving crosswords, playing sudoku, writing, and solving maths to bring flops into your thoughts. Apart from what we believe, the normal condition of the mind is a mess. When people try to focus, they are drawn to something else, making it impossible to maintain that focus for a long time.

But you can easily focus on your idea when you do one thing with the flow. And through this, whatever work you want to do, you can complete it in a much better way. Overall, flow is the only way to create a sequence in mind.

Chapter 7: Working with Flow

Does work always have to be complicated and overwhelming? No, not at all. Like any other simple task, your one study can become a source of flow: all it takes is goal setting, feedback, mastery, and challenge. Many highly skilled jobs are well done for a sense of flow. But do you know why only a few people still have that feeling while working?

Many people must be fully committed to working. They must consider experiences and inspiration as necessary, based only on stereotypes. Also, they need to learn that we should do work like this for this purpose. Let go of those prejudices and immerse yourself in the task to create a flow. Take the example of the older adults in a village in the Italian Alps.

For them, there is no difference between everyday work and free time. Every day he wakes up at 5 a.m. to collect milk from the cow, carries bales of hay for miles, tends to the orchards, and cooks food for the family. And when he was asked what he would like to change after becoming wealthy, he replied that nothing had changed.

Everything is as usual. They find themselves in a state of flow when they work rather than relax, which increases their confidence in their imagination and ability to focus.

The book also tells the story of a welder in a train factory. Many people knew him because of his curious spirit. He enjoyed doing every critical task in the production line. He also turned down any promotion opportunities because Welder wanted to do more manual work and enjoy turning them into challenges.

So, to achieve a state of flow, seek new challenges at work, aim to learn as much as possible, and stop wasting time or setting wrong goals.

Chapter 8: Taking People’s Happiness

Heavy traffic and busy offices affect the personal space of every person. Alone time helps us to focus but also leads to boredom. This is when we need support from people we know and trust, in other words: family, friends, and neighbors.

An ideal family is one of honest suggestions, unconditional acceptance, and support in achieving long-term goals. For example, parents who do something like carpentry or cooking instead of watching TV will inspire their children to follow positive role models in their field.

In comparison, being alone with friends plays a role in emotional nutrition: happiness, growth in energy, increase in connection, self-esteem, strength, and inspiration. Lastly, we must find opportunities for neighbors and communities to develop new things.

If you turn your heart away from communities, you are denying yourself help and support in the future and keeping yourself in a conservative, lonely cage. That’s why to invest in relationships correctly; in the end, what you will get, but the result, will be surprising.

Chapter 9: Playing With Challenges

This chapter discusses the need for a healthy competition mechanism, especially if you must work in flow.

Some people derive their disruptiveness from within, others from external factors such as religion, country, or family, while some from mastery of art, music, or science. They stress the importance of turning adverse conditions into flow conditions and “emerge stronger from challenges” to enjoy themself.

This concept is like finding opportunities in difficulty. If you want to change the condition positively, then you have to follow three steps:

Selfless unconscious self-assurance: Many believe their destiny is theirs. They also think they are part of an environment and should perform their best. To reach this level of self-assurance, you must trust yourself, your environment, and your role.
Paying attention to the world: Avoid paying attention to your vanity; instead, be open to the world around you in optional ways to be aware.
Explore new solutions: Keep paying attention to the whole situation, including your own, and find out if alternative goals can be better and whether other resources are available.

Autotelic self. This concept differentiates between those who triumph in difficult situations and those who become overwhelmed. The difference between the two is their thinking about external things.

The autotelic self is a person who can perceive the world with fairness. In this way, they are good at separating positivity or negativity from results and focusing on balancing it. They rarely have anxious feelings. And they are not afraid of what will happen if they get lost. They are ready to give their best while being in flow in every situation. These are the people who master the flow.

For this, the author has given a model. With which you can convert challenges into opportunities:

Adjustment of Goals: If you remember from the previous chapter, this is an essential factor in achieving flow conditions. Your goals should be clear and specific so you can focus on them properly by adjusting your actions according to the desired result.
Immerse yourself in Activity: After making a goal, you need to act. Remember, no empire like Rome was created just by imagination. It took thousands of hours of hard work and consistent wisdom. It would help if you were completely immersed in action by satisfying your neurochemical receptors to achieve greatness. So set goals and chase them.
Pay attention to what is happening: Attention is essential for practicing mindfulness. You should be aware of the environment and things around you, especially paying more attention to a specific task.
Learn to enjoy the experience immediately: Create your perspective on the world, regardless of the outcome. Becoming an autotelic self means setting goals, developing skills, being proactive about feedback, paying attention to them, and correcting mistakes to perform better next time.

In this way, develop such habits within yourself that lead you to live life like a stubborn person with a scientific outlook.

Even after reading this chapter, you may think that happiness comes easily when we become rich, beautiful, and healthy. But what if things don’t go as planned, and luck intends to train you a little? Sometimes we are unlucky enough to face danger and defeat.

But don’t give up because doing so makes you feel helpless. Instead of giving up, use these three tips:

First, let go of your ego and have faith in your ability to handle a situation. For example, when you are doing important work on your computer, and it suddenly hangs without any reason, or when you are in a hurry, and your car unexpectedly breaks down, it affects your whole day.

Then you feel unlucky and say, “Why is this happening to me?”, We all probably say this to ourselves when we feel bad for something that happened contrary to our intentions. Therefore, we need to rethink the problem. If the car breaks down, consider that it runs continuously, making it minor to break. I need to call a mechanic to fix it or create an alternate goal, like canceling the meeting and finding ways to get home.

After this, be aware of your environment. Charles Lindbergh was the first human to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. For most people, this is a dangerous and scary task, but instead of focusing on the fear, Lindbergh kept faith in his ability to get there. Because of this, they were successful. Through mindfulness, Lindbergh overcame fear to make a historic flight.

Instead of just fear, focus on your work; you can do what you feel is risky. Third, find new solutions instead of facing challenges. For example, Mr. A has only one chance of promotion but must compete with people close to the boss.

Here, they have three options: find some way to convince the boss so that the boss selects based on merit, or change the job means going to another company that can give him more growth opportunities.

Or start your own business and spend time working on your projects. Now imagine what you would have done if you were in their place. Whatever your answer, stay focused on your work, and don’t be too scared to face challenges.

Chapter 10: The Meaning of Life

This last chapter explains how people synthesize experience into a meaningful picture. To find a reason to live, we need a goal. The result is; the optional important thing is that you challenge yourself. When you set a goal, work with determination and willpower. And lastly, maintain a balance between dreams and desire.

An example of this is given in the book. Malcolm X grew up in poverty and drug addiction and was sent to prison. Here, reading and thinking inspired her to become a social worker who fights for the rights of people and improves their quality of life. Now imagine a world where we have no specific goal, no desire. So can we fight deadly diseases, create masterpieces, or walk on the moon?

No. It can only be possible to do some of this with a purpose. To know the true meaning of LIFE, first set a goal that challenges you. Then try your best to achieve that goal, and when you achieve that goal, you will quickly gain the meaning of LIFE and genuine happiness. In the true sense, this will bring flow in LIFE.

Let us learn. Let’s repeat the lessons learned once:

Use the power of flow to find true happiness.
Remember what things you are making a part of your understanding.
To achieve authentic happiness, start doing things you do not like to do initially.
To remove fear and anxiety from your life, learn to create your awards. Also, develop the ability to find happiness and purpose regardless of external circumstances.
Do yoga to feel the higher power of your LIFE.
Start reading to bring flow to your thoughts.
To achieve a flow state, seek new challenges at work, aim to learn as much as possible, and stop wasting time or setting wrong goals.
Invest in relationships correctly; in the end, the results you will get will be surprising.
Maintain focus on your work and move forward in LIFE. And don’t be too afraid to face challenges.
Start finding the meaning of your life by setting a goal.

From this book, we learned about achieving flow in this book. If you want absolute joy, use all the methods mentioned. I hope you understand this book well and take care of the essential things mentioned to achieve real happiness.

Flow Book Review

“Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a groundbreaking exploration of optimal human experience.

The book delves into the concept of “flow,” a state of complete absorption and focus that leads to heightened creativity and satisfaction. Csikszentmihalyi draws on extensive research to explain how individuals can achieve this state, blending psychology, philosophy, and practical insights.

By emphasizing the alignment of skill and challenge, he offers a blueprint for enhancing productivity and happiness. A thought-provoking read that illuminates the path to a more fulfilling life through the pursuit of optimal experiences.

Thank you !

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Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience – Book Review 1

Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Those with an interest in cognitive psychology or philosophy. Also for those who want to understand flow states, how we find flow, and the purpose of flow.

Difficulty to Digest:

The book Flow contains vocabulary and philosophical references which may be difficult for some individuals to digest. That being said, one read through will provide almost everyone with insights into flow states and how they impact happiness.

Key Insights:

This book heavily examines flow states while peppering how these flow states can contribute to meaning in life. The book defines flow as a state of being, where full concentration is given to a task and the sense of self disappears (what might also be called ‘getting in the zone’). Flow conditions require specific goals be made with useful, instant feedback, and the individual believing the goal is possible. The book argues to achieve meaning, we must be making progress.

Flow doesn’t necessarily dictate whether the activity is productive or useful, however, flow has been linked to states of happiness. During self-reflection, we rarely identify as being happy during single self aware moments. Instead, we tend to link our happiest times to instances where we were in flow. During those moments, we didn’t necessarily consider ourselves happy, because we focused on the task at hand. During reflection, however, these are some of our most valuable moments.

Getting Into Flow

Csikszentmihalyi also explains there are many ways to achieve flow. You can create flow through activities that engage either the mind or the body. Flow can come through sensory experiences or from powerful intellectual pursuits. You can find flow states alone or with others. While the range of activities varies wildly, individuals tend to describe their flow experiences in roughly the same way – fully focused on a task, with no outside distraction. A sense of time disappearing while pushing toward completing a goal.

The book argues chaos is the natural order of the world and flow involves taking control of and organizing your thoughts. Creating strong flow states comes more naturally to some, but it can also be learned. As you practice creating order, you’ll naturally find more ways and deeper ways to achieve flow states. This can lead to greater happiness and greater skill in a number of realms.

These are just a few brief paragraphs which are nowhere near covering the depth of the book. As flow is a powerful and pervasive concept, it’s worth digging into more deeply. In addition, Csikszentmihalyi adds a few points about how flow can provide meaning. While the argument runs deeper, in essence it’s that meaning is derived from whatever tasks you choose to find meaningful. You have a lot of power to decide what you want.

Other Considerations:

While flow can be a highly pleasurable and productive state, it’s important to notice what you’re spending your time on. You can pick tasks that increase or decrease your happiness, depending on their nature and how meaningful they are to you. For example, playing video games can create a flow state quite easily as you focus attention and strive toward goals. You may, however reflect on that time and feel it was wasted (while others will feel it was time well spent). Simply being in flow does not mean happiness, you must examine your flow activities within the context of your values and goals.

Flow states, as described in this book, speak about setting challenges equivalent to your skill level. As you look for flow in your own life, be sure you’re not finding activities that simply engage your attention, without providing a challenge. An example is watching television – perhaps your attention is engaged, but without a challenge of some sort it’s unlikely to put you into a true flow state. To increase the challenge, you might focus on understanding the storytelling techniques or character development better. Or perhaps there’s another, entirely different, activity that would provide you more of a challenge.

Work, or just about any other task, can become a flow state with the right mindset. Look for ways to add meaning to seemingly mundane tasks. If you have to fold laundry, see if you can increase the speed at which you finish a load. If your job interactions are getting a little stale, focus on eliminating filler words in your speech. There are an infinite number of ways to challenge yourself to create more fulfilling flow states. Keep looking for ways flow can add value to your life!

ANSWER THE EXERCISE IN THE COMMENTS: 1. Take some time to determine what activities you currently participate in which allow you to reach flow. What is the easiest way for your to enter these states? Physically? Mentally? Some combination? 2. Are the flow states in your lives leading to happiness or simply passing the time? When you reflect on these activities, do you think they were worthwhile? 3. How can you achieve more moments of complete concentration? What new skills might you want to take on which could induce a flow state? How can you add more flow to necessary tasks you don’t particularly like?

I encourage you to participate and build our community! If you have any questions or topics you’d like me to cover, please let me know. I’d be happy to look in to them for you.

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Flow book review and summary

August 28, 2021

This book is an exploration of happiness. a large part of the book discusses the why: why flow is important for anyone’s life, not just for athletes and other super-performers.

The Psychology of Optimal Experience Author: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

This title is a classic. Widely popular in everything from business to sports, the concept of flow stems directly from this book and the research on which it is based. Yet until recently I never read it. I felt I already understood the concept, because I had heard so much about it in other places. It never occurred to me to go to the original source, which anyway seemed like a dry research paper. Boy was I wrong.

Flow book content

The first surprise: this title is very readable. By no means is it a boring scientific read that takes heroic efforts to plow through. Secondly, instead of merely going into the how of flow, a large part of the book discusses the why : why flow is important for anyone’s life, not just for athletes and other super-performers.

More than anything else, this book is an exploration of happiness. What makes us happy? How can we live a fulfilling life? These are no simple questions to ask, but author Csikszentmihalyi makes a compelling and clear argument as to how happiness can be obtained (in passing, he even gives simple explanations for consciousness and the meaning of life!).

Ancient wisdom backed by science

The author touches on a lot of principles from ancient philosophies and religions, such as Stoicism and Buddhism. Yet the approach for a happy life set out in Flow is based upon scientific research, as opposed to rules and guidelines obtained from ancient wisdom. Not that there’s anything wrong with ancient wisdom, but it’s all the more impressive to see modern guidelines to happiness based on scientific research.

How to experience flow and happiness

So what does it come down to? On the one hand, happiness is not a destination where you arrive, but a condition that needs to be cultivated. It’s affected by the information we let into our thoughts and the way we seek happiness. Csikszentmihalyi makes a clear distinction between pleasure seeking and enjoyment, where pleasure is externally focused and hence a temporary fix for happiness, while true enjoyment comes from within and is sustainable.

On the other hand, it depends on how we engage in activities, and this is where flow enters the scene: the research shows surprisingly few moments of happiness occur when we’re idle. While engaged in work, in creating something, in pursuit of some kind of goal, stretching our abilities to their limits, those are the moments when most of us experience true happiness. This is when we’re in a state of flow.

Paradoxically, this means we often feel happier when working than when engaged in what most people consider leisure time: watching TV, getting drunk, lying on a beach for a week. Flow provides a solution: when the principles are understood, many activities can be turned into rewarding experiences that contribute to our happiness, and who would say no to that? ‍ ‍

⭐️ Rating: 4/5

View or buy Flow - The Psychology of Optimal Experience on Amazon

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Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

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Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Paperback – March 13, 1991

Purchase options and add-ons.

The bestselling introduction to "flow"--a groundbreaking psychological theory that shows readers how to improve the quality of life.

Print length 320 pages
Language English
Publisher Harper Perennial
Publication date March 13, 1991
Dimensions 5.31 x 0.72 x 8 inches
ISBN-10 0060920432
ISBN-13 978-0060920432
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com review, about the author.

His previous books include Flow and The Evolving Self. Flow was shown on the 1993 NBC Super Bowl broadcast as the book that inspired Jimmy Johnson, then coach of the Dallas Cowboys. It was also a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Quality Paperback Book Club.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; First Edition (March 13, 1991)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060920432
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060920432
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.72 x 8 inches
#2,194 in Medical Clinical Psychology
#5,641 in Medical General Psychology
#31,466 in Psychology & Counseling

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Mihaly csikszentmihalyi.

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Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's 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. Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state ...
Book Review: Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
In the positive psychology world, Flow is a classic book, and for good reason. It was published in 1990 by one of the founding fathers of positive psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, after he had already led decades of research on "optimal experience". Csikszentmihalyi (he coaches us to say "chick-sent-me-high" to get close to the ...
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
— Los Angeles Times Book Review "Explore[s] a happy state of mind called flow, the feeling of complete engagement in a creative or playful activity" — Time magazine "The insightful analyst Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues that the key to gratification is completely absorbing work—he calls it 'flow.'" — Salon.com
Flow : The Psychology of Optimal Experience
book summary - flow Flow : The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author of Flow, is sorta like the Godfather of positive psychology ... Hailed by researchers and positive psychologists from every corner of the globe -- "Mr. C" as I'm sure he's known as in many circles -- has redefined the way we approach "a life worth living" in the modern world.
My Top 5 Takeaways from Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Csikszentmihalyi refers to such occurrences as "optimal experiences" and the psychological and emotional state they produce as "flow," and this book is a scientific investigation of these phenomena and how to increase their frequency and intensity in our lives. Flow is cool, clinical, and sometimes discomfiting, which some people find ...
Optimize Your Life With Flow: A Book Review
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced ) is a deep dive into this state. It's a fantastic book, blending science, practical advice, and philosophical thought into an extremely engaging read. We're going to discuss the book overall then look at some of the essential takeaways.
Flow: Book Summary & Review + PDF
Flow: Book Summary & Review. By Lucio Buffalmano / 7 minutes of reading. In Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author, dissects what " flow " is and how we can reach it. Very briefly, flow can be defined as "the state of mind in which we lose ourselves in our work". Contents. Flow Summary.
FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper Perennial Modern
— Los Angeles Times Book Review "Explore[s] a happy state of mind called flow, the feeling of complete engagement in a creative or playful activity" — Time magazine "The insightful analyst Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues that the key to gratification is completely absorbing work—he calls it 'flow.'" — Salon.com
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
A fantastic book that brings together research on "flow" states to craft a story (and actionable suggestions) on how we can all become happier with work and life. I continue referring back to this book, and it blends well with many other books, like Deep Work, or Mastery. Heavily cited by other authors, it will force you to think about how ...
Book Review: Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Fig.1: Flow Theory ( Csikszentmihalyi, 1988, 1991, 1993 cited in Hood, 2007) The first happens when the level of our skills is higher than the level of challenge posed by the goal we have. The second is instead experienced when the level of challenge is higher than the skills we have. But Flow is dynamic: we might get into a challenge level ...
BOOK REVIEW : Finding Fulfillment With the 'Flow' : FLOW: The
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi opens his book, "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience," with what may be the quintessential paradox of our bedraggled 20th Century.
Book Review: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Book review. First published August 1991. Book Review: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Thomas E. Smith View all authors and affiliations. Based on: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Csikszentmihalyi Mihaly, Harper & Row, 1990. Volume 14, Issue 2.
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
The book Flow describes that there is a mental state in which human performance reaches excellence. This state features some interesting aspects, of which the most important is concentration. When a human being reaches this state, time seems to stop, enjoyment is superlative and self-consciousness disappears, as if one reached the state of ...
Book Review: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - This was one of my top book recommendations from last week. It was published in 1990 - 30 years ago - and is only more relevant and wise today. If anything could be more important to #livingyourbestlife it must be finding ways to get yourself into a state of flow.
Flow Summary
Flow is a simple title for a book the author's name I can't pronounce to save my life, you do it: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (apparently it's mi-ha-yee cheeks-sent-me-high). Published in 1990, Mihaly digs into "the state of effortless work", where challenges and skills align perfectly and time seems to fly. ... Flow Review. First tip ...
Book Review-Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
It was back in October of 2011 when I wrote my book review of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book Finding Flow. That was very early on in my process of knowledge building. In fact, I didn't write my post "Research in the age of electrons" until February 2012. Knowledge building for me is the process described in "Research in the age of ...
Brutally Honest
As I read the book, you will find my in-progress Flow review and book summary notes below. You are reading my book review and summary by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Be sure to check out my digital bookshelf for 100+ book summaries. "To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social ...
Flow: Book Summary & Review
Flow Book Review "Flow" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a groundbreaking exploration of optimal human experience. The book delves into the concept of "flow," a state of complete absorption and focus that leads to heightened creativity and satisfaction. Csikszentmihalyi draws on extensive research to explain how individuals can achieve ...
Flow: Book Review
The book argues chaos is the natural order of the world and flow involves taking control of and organizing your thoughts. Creating strong flow states comes more naturally to some, but it can also be learned. As you practice creating order, you'll naturally find more ways and deeper ways to achieve flow states. This can lead to greater ...
Flow book review and summary
Flow book review and summary. This book is an exploration of happiness. a large part of the book discusses the why: why flow is important for anyone's life, not just for athletes and other super-performers. This title is a classic. Widely popular in everything from business to sports, the concept of flow stems directly from this book and the ...
Book Review: FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
" Book Review: FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience." Transactional Analysis Journal, 23(3), pp. 175-176. Additional information. Notes on contributors. Lynn Vaughn. Lynn Vaughn, Ph.D., is a psychologist in private practice in Livonia, Michigan, U.S.A. She also conducts workshops in clinical applications and acts as a research ...
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
1- "This book summarizes, for a general audience, decades of research on the positive aspects of human experience—joy, creativity, the process of total involvement with life I call flow...This book tries instead to present general principles. along with concrete examples of how some people have used these principles, to transform boring and ...
FLOW BY MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI
For more videos like this, follow FightMediocrity on X: https://x.com/FightReads If you are struggling, consider an online therapy session with our partner B...

Book Review: Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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Setting and Holding Boundaries: Mastering Both Will Improve Your Life

book summary - flow

The Big Ideas

HAPPINESS REVISITED

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ENJOYMENT AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE

THE CONDITIONS OF FLOW

THE FLOW CENTERED CULTURE

THE FLOW OF THOUGHT

WORK AS FLOW

THE MAKING OF MEANING

FINAL NOTES

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Flow: Book Summary & Review

Flow Summary

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FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) Paperback – 1 July 2008

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Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Summary & Notes

Introduction

Chapter 2: The Anatomy of Consciousness

Chapter 3: Enjoyment and the Quality of Life

Chapter 4: The Conditions of Flow

Chapter 5: The Body in Flow

Chapter 6: The Flow of Thought

Chapter 7: Work as Flow

Chapter 8: Enjoying Solitude and Other People

Chapter 9: Creating Chaos

Chapter 10: The Making of Meaning

Book Review: Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

What is Flow

The sense of Enjoyment

How do we enter the State of Flow?

The 8 Characteristics of Flow

Why aren’t we in permanent Flow?

Flow at Work

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