Finding Flow: The Psychology Of Engagement With Everyday Life

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Basic Books, Apr 6, 1998 - Self-Help - 192 pages
From one of the pioneers of the scientific study of happiness, an indispensable guide to living your best life.
What makes a good life? Is it money? An important job? Leisure time? Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi believes our obsessive focus on such measures has led us astray. Work fills our days with anxiety and pressure, so that during our free time, we tend to live in boredom, watching TV or absorbed by our phones.
What are we missing? To answer this question, Csikszentmihalyi studied thousands of people, and he found the key. People are happiest when they challenge themselves with tasks that demand a high degree of skill and commitment, and which are undertaken for their own sake. Instead of watching television, play the piano. Take a routine chore and figure out how to do it better, faster, more efficiently. In short, learn the hidden power of complete engagement, a psychological state the author calls flow. Though they appear simple, the lessons in Finding Flow are life-changing.

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Contents

The Content of Experience
17
How We Feel When Doing Different Things
35
The Paradox of Work
49
Copyright

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About the author (1998)

Mihaly Csikszentmihaly is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University and the founder and co-director of the Quality of Life Research Center. He is the author of a number of books, including the bestselling Flow, The Evolving Self, Creativity, and Being Adolescent. He lives in Claremont, California