Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes

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The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times...the best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to it's limited in voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Effort, Mind, Body

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Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Fall, Time Flies, Ego

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The happiest people spend much time in a state of flow - 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.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Inspirational, People, Cost

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We shape our life by deciding to pay attention to it. It is the direction of our attention and its intensity that will determines what we accomplish and how well.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Attention, Shapes, Pay

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A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Freedom, Joy, Recipes

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

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What I "discovered" was that happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is not something that money can buy or power command. It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Happiness, Happy, Discovery

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

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Nature, Interesting, Focus

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1997). “Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life”, p.128, Basic Books

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Try to be inspired by something every day. Try to inspire at least one person every day.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Inspiration, Inspire, Trying

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

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Order, Psychics, Skills

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If you do anything well, it becomes enjoyable. To keep enjoying something, you need to increase its complexity.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Joy, Needs, Increase

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Purpose provides activation energy for living.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Energy, Purpose, Activation

"Creating Purpose" by Jen Grisanti, www.huffingtonpost.com. Janaury 12, 2011.

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Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives...most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity...when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Art, Creativity, Rest Of Life

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To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social environment 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.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Independent, Punishment, Anxiety

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

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Find out what you like and what you hate about life. Start doing more of what you love, less of what you hate.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Life, Hate, What You Love

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996). “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention”, Harpercollins

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Act as if the future of the universe depends on what you do, while laughing at yourself for thinking that your actions make any difference.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Thinking, Differences, Laughing

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Goals transform a random walk into a chase.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Goal, Walks

"Go With The Flow" by John Geirland, www.wired.com. September 01, 1996.

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How we feel about ourselves, the joy we get from living, ultimately depends directly on how the mind filters and interprets everyday experiences. Whether we are happy depends on inner harmony, not on the controls we are able to exert over the great forces of the universe.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Happiness, Laughter, Joy

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

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To be successful you have to enjoy doing your best while at the same time contributing to something beyond yourself.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Success, Happy, Doing Your Best

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.28, Penguin

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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.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

People, Quality, Able

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

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Unless a person knows how to give order to her thoughts, attention will be attracted to whatever is most problematic at the moment.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Order, Giving, Attention

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

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It is not the hearing that improves life, but the listening.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Listening, Hearing

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Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Quality, Consciousness, Quality Of Life

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2009). “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, p.26, Harper Collins

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Half a century ago, the Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl wrote that happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy - it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Happiness, Business, Goal

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.48, Penguin

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To be creative, a person has to internalize the entire system that makes creativity possible. Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Art, Creativity, Hands

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996). “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention”, Harpercollins

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

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Business, Reality, Psychics

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.143, Penguin

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Born: September 29, 1934
Occupation: Professor
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