Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  97 Copy quote

• 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

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  27 Copy quote

• 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”

  71 Copy quote

• 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

  81 Copy quote

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

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Inspiration, Inspire, Trying

  22 Copy quote

• 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

  17 Copy quote

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

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Joy, Needs, Increase

  44 Copy quote

• 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

  92 Copy quote

• 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

  37 Copy quote

• However, a good life consists of more than simply the totality of enjoyable experiences. It must also have a meaningful pattern, a trajectory of growth that results in the development of increasing emotional, cognitive, and social complexity.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Meaningful, Business, Good Life

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.20, Penguin

  15 Copy quote

• 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”

  61 Copy quote

• Purpose provides activation energy for living.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Energy, Purpose, Activation

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

  11 Copy quote

• Few things are sadder than encountering a person who knows exactly what he should do, yet cannot muster enough energy to do it. "He who desires but acts not," wrote Blake with his accustomed vigor, "Breeds pestilence.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Desire, Energy, Vigor

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

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  21 Copy quote

• 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

  49 Copy quote

• Some individuals have developed such strong internal standards that they no longer need the opinion of others to judge whether they have performed a task well or not. The ability to give objective feedback to oneself is in fact the mark of the expert.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Strong, Business, Giving

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

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  21 Copy quote

• When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. They become rigid and defensive, and their self stops growing.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Self, People, Growing

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

  7 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

• Find a way to express what moves you.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Moving, Expression, Way

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

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  16 Copy quote

• 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.

  13 Copy quote

• 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”

  30 Copy quote

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