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According to many past thinkers, men and women could only realize their potential when they had nothing to do. It is during leisure, according to the Greek philosophers, that we become truly human by devoting time to self-development - to learning, to the arts, to political activity.
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
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If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going.
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Irwin Corey
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It is how we choose what we do, and how we approach it, that will determine whether the sum of our days adds up to a formless blur, or to something resembling a work of art.
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
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Do the thing, and you shall have the power.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
Compensation
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If you don’t do them, you won’t suffer, or fail or blow it - today. But that simple error in judgement, compounded over time will ruin your chances for success.
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Jeff Olson
The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness
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To create harmony in whatever one does is the last task that the flow theory presents to those who wish to attain optimal experience; it is that involves transforming the entirety of life into a single flow activity, with unified goals that provide constant purpose.
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
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Inner congruence ultimately leads to that inner strength and serenity we admire in people who seem to have come to terms with themselves.
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
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“He who desires but acts not,” wrote Blake with his accustomed vigor, “breads pestilence.”
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
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What does it benefit to man if he gains the entire world, but loses himself? I have tried first to conquer myself; I don’t care if I lose the world.
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
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The family context promoting optimal experience could be described as having five characteristics. The first one is clarity: the teenagers feel that they know what their parents expect from them–goals and feedback in the family interaction are unambiguous. The second is centering, or the children’s perception that their parents are interested in what they are doing in the present, in their concrete feelings and experiences, rather than being preoccupied with whether they will be getting into a good college or obtaining a well-paying job. Next is the issue of choice: children feel that they have a variety of possibilities from which to choose, including that of breaking parental rules–as long as they are prepared to face the consequences. The fourth differentiating characteristic is commitment, or the trust that allows the child to feel comfortable enough to set aside the shield of his defenses, and become unselfconsciously involved in whatever he is interested in. And finally there is challenge, or the parents’ dedication to provide increasingly complex opportunities for action to their children.
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
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To succeed one may have to play by a different set of rules from what one would prefer - is a hallmark of strong people.
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
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That’s the choice you face every day, every hour: A simple, positive action, repeated over time. A simple error in judgement, repeated over time.
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Jeff Olson
The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness
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With only one out of twenty people ever achieving their goals, it’s quite likely that you will be the only one around the path - at least for a while.
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Jeff Olson
The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness
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The best strategy is to assume that these seventy or so years are our only chance to experience the cosmos, and we should make the fullest use of it.
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
