In his presentation at TED, psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, shares what creativity, fulfillment, and flow are as well as their relationship to each other. He starts off with a brief personal history and transitions that to what is known of flow experiences and their importance to both creativity and fulfillment.
Speech summary:
Csikszentmihalyi starts off by sharing his personal memories of the grave impact World War 2 had on Europeans and how that experience has lead him to pursue the answer to “What makes live worth living?” A talk by Jung first introduced him to psychology, the field he has ever since devoted his professional career to.
He then points out that the happiness levels in the U.S. since 1956 have been relatively unchanged while material affluence, in particular income, has doubled (inflation adjusted).
So he asked himself “When in everyday life do we feel happy?” His studies have looked at creative artists such as artists and scientists to understand what made their pursuit to them meaningful and worthwhile.
The findings revealed that these individuals experienced moments of ecstasy during their work as if they were stepping into an alternative reality. Much of what we know about great civilizations is about their organized ways of achieving out of the ordinary mental states (ecstasy). These states do not leave enough resources to the nervous system to allocate attention to the monitoring of one’s own body. In other words one is consumed temporarily by an activity where one moment flows to the next without an awareness of the actual process as if we are one with the activity. This state Csikszentmihalyi refers to as flow.
How Does It Feel to be in Flow
Seven characteristics of flow that all people share, regardless of their differences such as culture or education. The list is reproduced from one of Csikszentmihalyi’s slides.
- Completely involved in what we are doing -- focused, concentrated.
- A sense of ecstasy -- of being outside everyday reality.
- Great inner clarity -- knowing what needs to be done, and how well we are doing.
- Knowing that the activity is doable -- that our skills are adequate to the task.
- A sense of serenity -- no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego.
- Timelessness -- thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes.
- Intrinsic motivation -- whatever produces flow becomes its own reward.
The slide below display the balance between seven states that make the state or more accurately the process of flow possible.
References:
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (Speaker). (2004, February). Creativity, fulfillment and flow [Video]. Ted Conferences. Retrieved November 18, 2008, from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow.html
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