Rating 8.0/10
A very good book on the psychology behind performance and enjoying our daily actions. The book is tiresome at times but the ideas are sound.
Quotes
Beautifully in the preface to his book Man’s Search for Meaning: “Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue…as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a course greater than oneself.”
“Usually what happens is that the person finds himself back at square one, with a new list of wishes, just as dissatisfied as before.”
“It seems that every time a pressing danger is avoided, a new and more sophisticated threat appears on the horizon.”
“The problem arises when people are so fixated on what they want to achieve that they cease to derive pleasure from the present. When that happens, they forfeit their chance of contentment.”
“The roots of the discontent are internal, and each person must untangle them personally, with his or her own power.”
“While exotic pleasures and expensive recreations temporarily take the mind off the basic question “Is this all there is?” few claim to have ever found an answer that way.”
“values and institutions no longer provide as supportive a framework as they once did, each person must use whatever tools are available to carve out a meaningful, enjoyable life.”
“The person who cannot resist food or alcohol, or whose mind is constantly focused on sex, is not free to direct his or her psychic energy.”
“The largest part of free time—almost half of it for American adults—is spent in front of the television”
“Some information that conflicts with an individual’s goals appears in consciousness. Depending on how central that goal is to the self and on how severe the threat to it is, some amount of attention will have to be mobilized to eliminate the danger, leaving less attention free to deal with other matters.”
“When the information that keeps coming into awareness is congruent with goals, psychic energy flows effortlessly.”
“But Rico has been at this job for over five years, and he still enjoys it. The reason is that he approaches his task in the same way an Olympic athlete approaches his event: How can I beat my record?”
“Even though we recognize that material success may not bring happiness, we engage in an endless struggle to reach external goals, expecting that they will improve life.”
“Given these observations, instead of worrying about how to make a million dollars or how to win friends and influence people, it seems more beneficial to find out how everyday life can be made more harmonious and more satisfying, and thus achieve by a direct route what cannot be reached through the pursuit of symbolic goals.”
“None of these experiences may be particularly pleasurable at the time they are taking place, but afterward we think back on them and say, “That really was fun” and wish they would happen again.”
“Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours.”
“Most enjoyable activities are not natural; they demand an effort that initially one is reluctant to make.”
“it is inadmissible to apply one set of values to evaluate another.”
“They followed the blueprint of flow activities. First, they paid close attention to the most minute details of their environment, discovering in it hidden opportunities for action that matched what little they were capable of doing, given the circumstances. Then they set goals appropriate to their precarious situation, and closely monitored progress through the feedback they received.”
“wonder—which is the seed of knowledge—is the reflection of the purest form of pleasure.”
“Athletes know well that to improve performance beyond a certain point they must learn to discipline their minds.”
“Life without memory is no life at all…. our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing.”
“As far back as there are records of human intelligence, the most prized mental gift has been a well-cultivated memory.”
“A person who can remember stories, poems, lyrics of songs, baseball statistics, chemical formulas, mathematical operations, historical dates, biblical passages, and wise quotations has many advantages over one who has not cultivated such a skill.”
“We all know people who cannot resist flaunting their memory. But this usually occurs when someone memorizes only in order to impress others.”
“Great thinkers have always been motivated by the enjoyment of thinking rather than by the material rewards that could be gained by it.”
“It is godlike ever to think on something beautiful and on something new”; “Happiness does not reside in strength or money; it lies in rightness and many-sidedness”; “I would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia.”
“in observing and recording laws of natural phenomena. It is important to realize that for centuries great scientists did their work as a hobby, because they were fascinated with the methods they had invented, rather than because they had jobs to do and fat government grants to spend.”
“It is important to realize that for centuries great scientists did their work as a hobby, because they were fascinated with the methods they had invented, rather than because they had jobs to do and fat government grants to spend.”
“None of them drew a sharp distinction between work and free time, all mentioned work as the major source of optimal experiences, and none would want to work less if given a chance.”
“This vicarious participation is able to mask, at least temporarily, the underlying emptiness of wasted time. But it is a very pale substitute for attention invested in real challenges. The flow experience that results from the use of skills leads to growth; passive entertainment leads nowhere.”
“The future,” wrote C. K. Brightbill, “will belong not only to the educated man, but to the man who is educated to use his leisure wisely.”
“Setting goals. To be able to experience flow, one must have clear goals to strive for. A person with an autotelic self learns to make choices—ranging”