Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi; born 29 September 1934) is a Hungarian psychologist. He created the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state. He is the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He is the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College...
NationalityHungarian
ProfessionPsychologist
Date of Birth29 September 1934
way fleeting life-is
One of the surest ways to enrich life is to make experiences less fleeting.
overcoming obstacles moments
Only direct control of experience, the ability to derive moment-by-moment enjoyment from everything we do, can overcome the obstacles to fulfillment.
self people growing
When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. They become rigid and defensive, and their self stops growing.
magic our-actions flow
Repeatedly we question the necessity of our actions and evaluate critically the reasons for carrying them out. But in flow there is no need to reflect, because the action carries us forward as if by magic.
trying
Try to be surprised by something every day.
degradation corruption results
When a religion or ideology becomes dominant, the lack of controls will result in widening spirals of license leading to degradation and corruption.
doe kind forgotten
If an enterprise does not aspire to be the best of its kind, it will attract second-rate employees, and it will be soon forgotten.
trying chance talent
Often we don't have a good notion of what our talents are, because we have never had a chance to try them out.
world
Participate as fully as possibly in the world around you.
goal overcoming performances
To be overcome with the ultimate goal often interferes with performance.
competition way flow
Competition is an easy way to get into flow.
years ideas people
I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work, to make more understandable the mysterious process by which they come up with new ideas and new things. If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others, it's complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an individual, each of them is a multitude.
quality gains needs
To gain control over the quality of experience, one needs to learn how to build enjoyment into what happens day in, day out.
normal consciousness states
Entropy is the normal state of consciousness - a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable.