Book Review Blog

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Rating: 8 (of 10) stars

Summary: Csikszentmihalyi (who knows how to pronounce this?!), a renowned psychologist, explores how one can come to experience the tasks of life to their fullest by presenting readers with a condensed form of decades-worth of research on enjoyment. Through what he calls flow, an individual is able to fully enjoy life by focusing all of their conscious energy on whatever they may be doing at any moment. From scholars to sports enthusiasts to socialites, Csikszentmihalyi shows the common ground which people in states of flow stand upon. That is, they invest their full conscious attention upon a task and set realistic goals to be acheived during whatever task they are working on. This book is a reminder that in order to be truly happy in life, one must be constantly challenged to grow and learn. Despite the fact that sitting on the couch watching mind-numbing television while eating hot chocolate chip cookies can be a highly appealing activity for many of us at times, it is not enough for us to truly enjoy the little time we have in life. In order to reach “optimal expereince in life, we must learn to focus our conscious energy on something that challenges us and takes our full attention. Cheers to getting out what you put in!

A few favorite quotes:

” However well-intentioned, books cannot give recipes for how to be happy. Because optimal experience depends on the ability to control what happens in consciousness moment by moment, each person has to achieve it on the basis of his own individual efforts and creativity.” <— It’s important to realize that you can read as many books as you want to be about making money or being happy, but until you really have the drive to do something and the conscious control to set your mind on the goal at task, you cannot achieve anything.

“When all a person’s relevant skills are needed to cope with the challenges of a situation, that person’s attendion is competely absorbed by the activity…As a result, one of the most universal and distinctive features of optimal experience takes place: people become so involved in what they are doing that the activity becomes spontaneous, allmost automatic; they stop being aware of themselves as separate from the actions they are performing.”