Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes - Page 4

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• 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

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

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  World

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

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Solitude, Quality, Ifs

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• 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

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• 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

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• We can transform reality to the extent that we influence what happens in consciousness and thus free ourselves from the threats and blandishments of the outside world.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Reality, World, Consciousness

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

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• 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 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.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Self, Goal, Effort

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2013). “Flow: The Psychology of Happiness”, p.42, Random House

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• ...perhaps the most distinguishing trait of visionary leaders is that they believe in a goal that benefits not only themselves, but others as well. It is such vision that attracts the psychic energy of other people, and makes them willing to work beyond the call of duty for the organization.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Inspirational, Business, Work

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• 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

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• Try to be surprised by something every day.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Trying

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• The foremost reason that happiness is so hard to achieve is that the universe was not designed with the comfort of human beings in mind...It seems that every time a pressing danger is avoided a new and more sophisticated threat appears on the horizon...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

  Spiritual, Mind, Comfort

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• Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Discipline, People, Way

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

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• 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

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• Sir John Templeton: "My ethical principle in the first place was: 'Where could I use my talents that God gave me to help the most people?'"

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Ethical Principles, People, Use

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.78, Penguin

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• 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”

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• 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”

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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”

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Looks, Viewpoints, Problem

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• 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

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