Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Goals transform a random walk into a chase.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Altius, citius, fortius—is”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

If we are so rich, why aren't we happy?

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Find a way to express what moves you.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Shift often from openness to closure.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Develop what you lack.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Try to be surprised by something every day.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“THE AUTOTELIC SELF: A SUMMARY”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

For better or worse, our future is now closely tied to human creativity.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Participate as fully as possibly in the world around you.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“no worthwhile effort in one’s life is either a success or a failure.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Inner conflict is the result of competing claims on attention.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Wake up in the morning with a specific goal to look forward to.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

We cannot deny the facts of nature, but we should certainly try to improve on them.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“The whine of the victim is absent from his repertoire—as from that of practically all the individuals we interviewed.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Unless a person knows how to give order to her thoughts, attention will be attracted to whatever is most problematic at the…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual,…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Happiness is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated , and defended privately by each person.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

There are managers so preoccupied with their e-mail messages that they never look up from their screens to see what's happening in…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The mood state Americans are in, on average, when watching television is mildly depressed.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The germ of an idea doesn't make the sculpture that stands up... so the next stage is hard work

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The happiest people spend much time in a state of flow - the state in which people are so involved in an…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Someone who knows his desires and works with purpose to achieve them is a person whose feelings, thoughts, and actions are congruent…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“By nature, however, we are born ignorant. Therefore should we not try to learn? Some people produce more than the usual amount…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

If a leader demonstrates that his purpose is noble, that the work will enable people to connect with something large - more…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Through learning we grow, becoming more than we were before, and in that sense learning is unselfish, because it results in the…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

To live means to experience-through doing, feeling, thinking. Experience takes place in time, so time is the ultimate scarce resource we have.…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

For original ideas to come about, you have to let them percolate under the level of consciousness in a place where we…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“To say that the theory of relativity was created by Einstein is like saying that it is the spark that is responsible…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“One of the most ironic paradoxes of our time is this great availability of leisure that somehow fails to be translated into…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

To know oneself is the first step toward making flow a part of one's entire life. But just as there is no…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“The mental framework that makes science enjoyable is accessible to everyone. It involves curiosity, careful observation, a disciplined way of recording events,…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“A great view does not act like a silver bullet, embedding a new idea in the mind. Rather, what seems to happen…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Most of us become so rigidly fixed in the ruts carved out by genetic programming and social conditioning that we ignore the…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

A thoroughly socialized person is one who desires only the rewards that others around him have agreed he should long for -…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“A second level of analysis for conceptualizing spirituality is in terms of personalized goals or strivings, or what Emmons and colleagues have…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“On the job people feel skillful and challenged, and therefore feel more happy, strong, creative, and satisfied. In their free time people…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi