On Flow

Taken from Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:

While we are thinking about a problem we cannot truly experience either happiness or sadness.

But whatever the dictates of fashion, it seems that those who take the trouble to gain mastery over what happens in consciousness do live a happier life.

[E]njoyment, as we have seen, does not depend on what you do, but rather on how you do it.

One can survive solitude, but only if one finds ways of ordering attention that will prevent entropy from destructuring the mind.

From the point of view of an individual, it does not matter what the ultimate goal is—provided it is compelling enough to order a lifetime’s worth of psychic energy.

Self-knowledge—an ancient remedy so old that its value is easily forgotten—is the process through which one may organize conflicting options.

The consequence of forging life by purpose and resolution is a sense of inner harmony, a dynamic order in the contents of consciousness.

Is there any possibility that a new system of goals and means will arise to help give meaning to the lives of our children in che next century?