Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• It is by being fully involved with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Trying, Details, Looks

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2009). “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, p.11, Harper Collins

  11 Copy quote

• Attention is like energy in that without it no work can be done, and in doing work is dissipated. We create ourselves by how we use this energy. Memories, thoughts and feelings are all shaped by how use it. And it is an energy under control, to do with as we please; hence attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Memories, Feelings, Important

  12 Copy quote

• The more a person feels skilled, the more her moods will improve; while the more challenges that are present, the more her attention will become focused and concentrated.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Focus, Challenges, Attention

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.58, Penguin

  11 Copy quote

• Optimal experience is that rare occasion when we feel a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment that is long cherished and that becomes a landmark in memory for what life should be like.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Memories, Long, Rare Occasion

  12 Copy quote

• I have a naive trust in the universe - that at some level it all makes sense, and we can get glimpses of that sense if we try.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Trying, Glimpse, Levels

  7 Copy quote

• When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Creativity, Rest Of Life, Living More

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2009). “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and”, p.2, Harper Collins

  14 Copy quote

• Participate as fully as possibly in the world around you.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  World

  10 Copy quote

• The most important step in emancipating oneself from social controls is the ability to find rewards in the events of each moment.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Important, Events, Rewards

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

  9 Copy quote

• And, in fact, you can find that the lack of basic resources, material resources, contributes to unhappiness, but the increase in material resources do not increase happiness.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Facts, Unhappiness, Increase

  9 Copy quote

• An ideal organization is one in which each worker's potentialities find room for expression.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Work, Expression, Organization

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.86, Penguin

  11 Copy quote

• If you're alone with nothing to do, the quality of your experience really plummets.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Solitude, Quality, Ifs

  10 Copy quote

• It is as if evolution has built a safety device in our nervous system that allows us to experience full happiness only when we are living at 100%-when we are fully using the physical and mental equipment we have been given.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Happiness, Business, Safety

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.24, Penguin

  10 Copy quote

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

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Encouragement, Creativity, Self

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2009). “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and”, p.11, Harper Collins

  9 Copy quote

• A person who forgoes the use of his symbolic skills is never really free.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Skills, Use, Symbolic

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

  12 Copy quote

• To gain control over the quality of experience, one needs to learn how to build enjoyment into what happens day in, day out.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Quality, Needs, Gains

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

  10 Copy quote

• If we agree that the bottom line of life is happiness, not success, then it makes perfect sense to say that it is the journey that counts, not reaching the destination.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Life, Happiness, Business

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.38, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• Only direct control of experience, the ability to derive moment-by-moment enjoyment from everything we do, can overcome the obstacles to fulfillment.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Overcoming, Obstacles, Moments

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2009). “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, p.16, Harper Collins

  8 Copy quote

• A thoroughly socialized person is one who desires only the rewards that others around him have agreed he should long for - rewards often grafted onto genetically programmed desires.A person who cannot override genetic instructions when necessary is always vulnerable..The solution is to gradually become free of societal rewards and learn how to substitute for them rewards that are under one's own powers.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Long, Desire, Rewards

  21 Copy quote

• Look at problems from as many viewpoints as possible. Figure out the implications of the problem. Implement the solution.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Looks, Viewpoints, Problem

  10 Copy quote

• If a leader demonstrates that his purpose is noble, that the work will enable people to connect with something large - more permanent than their material existence - people will give the best of themselves to the enterprise

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  People, Giving, Leader

  11 Copy quote

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

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Moving, Gourmet, Sound

  "Go with the flow". Interview with John Geirland, www.wired.com. September 1, 1996.

  7 Copy quote

• Our jobs determine to a large extent what our lives are like. Is what you do for a living making you ill? Does it keep you from becoming a more fully realized person? Do you feel ashamed of what you have to do at work? All too often, the answer to such questions is yes. Yet it does not have to be like that. Work can be one of the most joyful, most fulfilling aspects of life. Whether it will be or not depends on the actions we collectively take.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Jobs, Business, Work

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.9, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

• Pain and pleasure occur in consciousness and exist only there

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Pain, Consciousness, Pleasure

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

  10 Copy quote

• The solution is to gradually become free of societal rewards and learn how to substitute for them rewards that are under one's own powers. This is not to say that we should abandon every goal endorsed by society; rather, it means that, in addition to or instead of the goals others use to bribe us with, we develop a set of our own.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Mean, Goal, Use

  6 Copy quote

• Entropy is the normal state of consciousness - a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Normal, Consciousness, States

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

  34 Copy quote

Page 4 of 8

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin