https://flowleadership.org/book-review-flow-the-psychology-of-happiness/

“Flow” Commentary & Summary

The Psychology of Optimal Experience

The concept of flow has always fascinated me since first hearing about it in the book “The Art of Happiness: At Work”. The psychological phenomena can quite simply be summarized as the state of mind that causes you to focus all of your conscious capacity towards a singular task.

Author

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (born 29 September 1934) is a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.[1][2] He is the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He is the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College[1].

Summary

A fantastic book that brings together research on “flow” states to craft a story (and actionable suggestions) on how we can all become happier with work and life.

I continue referring back to this book, and it blends well with many other books, like Deep Work, or Mastery. Heavily cited by other authors, it will force you to think about how you structure your life and the activities you pursue. Flow explains why we seek happiness in externals and what’s wrong with it, where you can really find enjoyment in life, and how you can truly become happy by creating your own meaning of life.

Analysis

Introduction

If you recall my last article on the Dalai Lama’s “The Art of Happiness: At Work” you will remember this topic heavily talked about near the end of the book. The same principles are reiterated here and extrapolated in greater detail. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author, talked about the importance of understanding happiness. The state is a state of the mind and your own efforts and cultivation. External stimuli may bring transient fulfillment and satisfaction but happiness is a state of mind and can only be determined by you the thinker.

“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.” — Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

He ends with the importance of flow being an integral component of you inducing a happy mental state. Just as the Dalai Lama was pried by the author of the book, Csikszentmihalyi too talks about Flow is a state of voluntary effort that is focused on completing a specific set of tasks in the crosshairs of your skill level and challenge level.

Chapter 2: The Anatomy of Consciousness

Here Csikszentmihalyi talks about the importance of fortifying your mind to be able to endure and withstand the abundant misfortune found in our chaotic universe. The trait is revered by many as it rightfully should be. The trait to overcome obstacles in a triumph is essential for success and simply enjoying life, even in moments of misfortune.

Attention as Psychic Energy

An individual who can control their mental space i.e. their ability to focus on a singular task without the proportion of external or internal distractions in the mind of a disciplined man. This ability to remain focused can be conditioned with meditation and mindfulness but is important to induce a flow-like state.

Complexity and the Growth of the Self

Thinking back to the neurological feedback loop, the conscious decision to choose a goal and devout all of your conscious efforts towards completing that goal is addicting as you are continually receiving feedback. Soon, you crave the task that induces such a neurochemical response. Progress is meaning according to Peterson and this meaning is rather addicting, according to Csikszentmihalyi.

Chapter 3: Enjoyment and the Quality of Life

Csikszentmihalyi talks about the methods we can integrate into our daily work life to achieve our preset goals. One is to make external conditions match out goals, while the second is to experience external conditions so that they fit our goals. One is based on manipulating the external world (quite challenging I may add) while the second option suggests that we change our perception of external conditions (much more manageable).

The Elements of Enjoyment

Here the constituent elements used to construct the phenomenology of flow is broken into 8 components. His research and supplement research suggests that one or more of these elements are always active when an individual is experiencing flow.

1. First, the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing.
2. Second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing.
3. Third and fourth, the concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback.
4. Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life.
5. Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions.
6. Seventh, concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.
7. Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours.

A Challenging Activity That Requires Skills

If you remember I lightly touched on the activity’s difficulty to mirror the individual's capabilities. This is Peterson's moment of “novelty”.

He appends his statement by affirming that competition as a means for perfecting a skill versus being the man is the determining factor of the task being enjoyable, according to the people participating in his study.

Clear Goals and Feedback

I recently recorded a video on creating effective goals. One component of that process was creating milestones that could be accomplished and tracked on a weekly basis such as losing 1–2 lbs a week, reading 10–50 pages a day, or making $300 extra a week. The goal and its sub-goals are clearly defined and the feedback is immediate so you can be “rewarded” in a sense and respond to the feedback accordingly, doing more or less of what is good or bad, respectively.

The feedback can be anything, as long as it contains the message: I have succeeded in my goal.

Concentration on the Task at Hand

He ends this chapter by quickly highlighting a fascinating aspect of flow: When one is an induced flow state they tend to forget everything outside of their clear objective and task at hand, even the unpleasant aspects of life.

Chapter 4: The Conditions of Flow

The Effects of the Family on the Autotelic Personality

The nurture component of early childhood development is a major determining factor in the personality of the child as they reach maturation. This is backed by Swiss psychologist Piaget

Here, Csikszentmihalyi lists five characteristics that describe the family context to promote healthy child development during the inoculation process of parenting.

1. The first one is clarity: the teenagers feel that they know what their parents expect from them — goals and feedback in the family interaction are unambiguous.
2. The second is centering, or the children’s perception that their parents are interested in what they are doing in the present, in their concrete feelings and experiences, rather than being preoccupied with whether they will be getting into a good college or obtaining a well-paying job.
3. Next is the issue of choice: children feel that they have a variety of possibilities from which to choose, including that of breaking parental rules — as long as they are prepared to face the consequences.
4. The fourth differentiating characteristic is a commitment, or the trust that allows the child to feel comfortable enough to set aside the shield of his defenses and become unselfconsciously involved in whatever he is interested in.
5. And finally, there is a challenge, or the parents’ dedication to providing increasingly complex opportunities for action to their children.

The presence of these five conditions made possible what was called the “autotelic family context,” because they provide an ideal training for enjoying life.

Chapter 5: The Body in Flow

Higher, Faster, Stronger

Reading this backed my claims on my SMARTER goals video. There are steps to produce flow and make physical actions induce a flow-like state.

(a) to set an overall goal, and as many subgoals as are realistically feasible;

(b) to find ways of measuring progress in terms of the goals chosen;

© to keep concentrating on what one is doing, and to keep making finer and finer distinctions in the challenges involved in the activity;

(d) to develop the skills necessary to interact with the opportunities available; and

(e) to keep raising the stakes if the activity becomes boring.

(ADD LINK)

They also came to the conclusion that activities that require “expensive” equipment were less satisfied overall compared to participating in “inexpensive” activities such as gardening, talking or any other hobby like art. He talked heavily about sports and its natural flow state. You are hyper-focused on a singular task, treat your activities like that, with one main goal and constant feedback.

Sex as Flow

Ahhhh SEX. finally a topic that I care about… hahaha jokes aside this subtopic is important for those who are practicing monogamy (which seems to be ~97% of the population). Sex naturally induces a flow-like state yet having sexual encounters with the same partner of a period of years is a challenging task.

Is there a method to make the act of sex with your partner more enjoyable? He proposes that like anything else you make it more complicated. To achieve this you must first investigate the mind of your partner. Truly discover their desires, interests, feelings, dreams, etc. Once you accomplish (or start to accomplish) that task you can now embark on joint adventures in such projects. He stresses the importance of not needing to worry about the minutia of the details but to instead focus on the bigger picture. Create a goal with your partner that is enjoyable in the flow like state and re-spark that flame.

Chapter 6: The Flow of Thought

Navigating from the physical, Csikszentmihalyi talks about how to induce a flow-like state in thought. Similar to the physical tasks the mental ones should have to be “rules, a goal, and a way of obtaining feedback.” remember you want to work on tasks that commensurate with your skills, hitting that novelty zone — challenging enough to be interesting and engaging.

I liked this section because he talks about the process of learning is a flow-like state in itself. When you are introduced to a topic that is interesting to you (the way psychology is to me) you can dive into the endless sea of knowledge that is the internet and learn at a rate that suits your abilities, slowly growing them over time.

He also mentioned that like many other scientists of our history books you too can become an expert in the sciences even if you do not possess a formal degree.

Chapter 7: Work as Flow

Autotelic Jobs

Consider of orienting your job into a game. Why are games so addicting (and why do they induce flow)? They possess clear goals, rules, and provide immediate feedback. The more your job can resemble a game the easier it will become to induce a flow-like state.

He provides two strategies for you to implement if you wish to induce this flow like a state:

1. On the one hand, jobs should be redesigned so that they resemble as closely as possible flow activities — as do the hunting, cottage weaving, and surgery.
2. But it will also be necessary to help people develop autotelic personalities by training them to recognize opportunities for action, to hone their skills, to set reachable goals.

Alone the strategies will fail to make the work more exciting to you. The strategies are meant to complement each other and work in conjunction. The combination of the two can greatly optimize your working experience.

Chapter 8: Enjoying Solitude and Other People

He infers that the quality of life is largely determined by the individual’s perception of their work and their relationships with other people.

The Conflict Between Being Alone and Being With Others

There is an inherent dichotomy associated with people and relationships. They are both the source of immense happiness and satisfaction while simultaneously the cause for much suffering and heartache. He just wants you to be aware of the two in juxtaposition and their potential effects on you.

The Pain of Loneliness

He wants to clearly differentiate the difference between being alone to hone a skill that will improve yourself from being alone to mindlessly watch TV or do recreational drugs as your vehicle of escapism. Both are seen as obvious coping mechanisms while the former is revered as a much more healthy and sustainable alternative.

A person who rarely gets bored, who does not constantly need a favorable external environment to enjoy the moment, has passed the test for having achieved a creative life.

Taming Solitude

Doldrum is the crux of flow. The hyperfocus created while working towards an achievable goal (with constant feedback) is what makes the tasks so enjoyable.

Once again your perception of reality is your reality. An individual can see loneliness as an opportunity to attack particular tasks that otherwise would not be possible in the presence of a crowd. They will actually enjoy the moments of solitude. However, if an individual is not capable of coping with the solitude and perceives it as a state of chaos or boredom then they are likely to avoid it at all costs.

Flow and the Family

Many successful men and women would second Lee Iacocca’s statement: “I’ve had a wonderful and successful career. But next to my family, it really hasn’t mattered at all.”

This is more a meditation on raising children, particularly in the stages of puberty. Often the children will mirror the parents’ hobbies, or after hearing about their dreams and failed aspirations they may be inspired to move beyond the complacency of their parents. He recommends that at the minimum the parents should talk to them like rational adults and treat them as such. Teach them the intricacies of socialization and this is paying homage to Peterson’s “Do not raise your children to be hated by you”. Your job is to prepare them for maturation, so do it well and be mindful of your actions.

Chapter 9: Creating Chaos

This chapter talks about the necessity of healthy coping mechanisms, especially if you are to work in a flow-like state.

The Power of Dissipative Structures

This section of the book discussing the importance of proper coping mechanisms for individuals and he explains the various methods to achieve this flow state of coping. Some individuals derive their coping from internal fortification, others receive theirs from external stimuli such as religion, country pride, or family, while others depend on the mastery of symbolism such as art, music, or even the sciences.

He emphasizes the importance of being able to transform negative situations into a flow state to truly be able to enjoy yourself, and “emerge stronger from the ordeal” Similar concept to finding the opportunity in the obstacle. He offers three steps for you to implement if you desire to transform the situation into something positive:

1. Unselfconscious self-assurance. These people believe their destiny is in their hands. They don’t doubt their own resources would be sufficient to allow them to determine their own fate. They also recognize they are part of an environment and must do their best within that system. Basically, to arrive at this level of self-assurance one must trust oneself, one’s environment, and one’s place in it.
2. Focusing attention on the world. Avoid focusing on your own ego, and instead be aware of alternative possibilities, open to the surrounding world.
3. The discovery of new solutions. Focus on the entire situation, including oneself, and discover whether alternative goals might be more appropriate and whether other solutions exist.

The Autotelic Self: A Summary

Here, he distinguishes those who triumph in moments of misfortune versus those who become overwhelmed. The differentiation factor between the two is their perception of the external stimuli

If you recall, the “autotelic self” is an individual who has the cognitive capacity to objectively perceive the world. Thus being able to separate the positive or negative valence from the outcome and focus on optimizing it (What’s better for you). They hardly have anxious emotions and does not suffer from the existential vacuum. They are basically people who master the flow state.

He prescribed a model to follow to achieve an autotelic self-state. This is the ability to turn obstacles into opportunities:

1. Setting goals. This is a fundamental element to achieving Flow if you remember from the previous chapters. Your goals must be hyper-specific so that you can optimize the desired outcome, or focus on that.
2. Becoming immersed in the activity. Then you must take action. Rome wasn’t built on fictitiously fabricated fantasies alone. It took THOUSANDS of hours of hard manual labor. To achieve greatness you must become fully immersed in action by satisfying your neurochemical receptors. Set goals and get after them!
3. Paying attention to what is happening. Being attentive is a mandatory virtue to practice mindfulness. You must be cognizant of your environment and more specifically implement hyper concentration on one particular task. He uses an athlete participating in a hundred-meter dash, as an analogy.
4. Learning to enjoy immediate experience. Determine your attitude on the world, regardless of the outcome. Becoming an autotelic self is to learn how to set goals, to develop skills, to be sensitive to feedback, to know how to concentrate and get involved. You are objective scientists but you are also a stoic and you find the opportunity within the obstacle.

I loved this section wrap up the chapter, as it had a very Peterson’s tone to it (I think I'm too obsessed). He basically said that you must “pick up your [proverbial] cross and suffer forward.” You should focus on being better than before rather than being complacent.

Chapter 10: The Making of Meaning

This chapter is extremely important as the transient nature of life will leave you void of fulfillment. You need to compile LIFE into a continuous flow experience. Everything in this world is temporary so you must be prepared by not placing all your happiness on external things like career, family, materialism, etc all dissipate with time. I love how moments are like sands of the duns. They are there but blown away scattered and lost in the abyss of moments.

Here he recommends a solution to translating life into a continuous flow experience. You must have a goal in life, an ultimate one that provides “eternal” satisfaction as your progress and tends towards that goal. This is the creation of meaning for life. I admit that I practice this concept often and slowly I’m getting closer to actualizing the goal, but I still need practice with remember the meaning I create.

What Meaning Means

Here the symbolically represented definitions of meaning are demystified and given objective definitions. Meaning of life is merely something that is derived from the purpose used to create meaning for life’s existence, even in moments of hardships.

Meaning is intent translated into action. Desires manifested with effort. You cant imagine your goal into reality, you must put in the work.

Once you have successfully covered and understood both paragraphs above then you are able to reach basically his version of enlightenment. You are in a flow state for life, and that newly transfixed state is ever rewarding and fulfilling. This will finally quench your hunger for purpose and meaning. Here you are creating Peterson’s Heaven On Earth.

Forging Resolve

It is common to experience internal strife when you have too many objectives, specifically ones that do not align. He talked about ancient solutions called: “vita activa, a life of action, and the vita contemplativa, or the path of reflection.”

Once again experience your challenges through a flow experience lense. This is necessary to optimize the solution of problems and make them enjoyable.

Reflection is necessary to supplement action. Without each other, the two alone are extremely ineffective. Action without planning from previous anecdotal experience is like charging into war blind without a proper strategy for success OR failure.

He prescribes you to answer these questions:

1. Is this something I really want to do?
2. Is it something I enjoy doing?
3. Am I likely to enjoy it in the foreseeable future?
4. Is the price that I — and others — will have to pay worth it?
5. Will I be able to live with myself if I accomplish it?

Conclusion

Lesson 1: Pleasure and enjoyment are not the same things.

He makes the necessary distinction between the two. Pleasure is happiness engendered by external stimuli. Eating pizza, doing drugs, having sex, those all create a temporary (highly addictive) flow state. Your attention is dampened to only be aware of that particular thing, while everything is muted.

Enjoyment is derived from the ability to consciously concentrate on one task, taking control of your attention.

Peterson proposes that you usually follow the path of least resistance. You should assume you do what’s easiest and expedited over what is better for you. Therefore, many spend their energy on being temporarily satisfied with pleasure and usually avoid enjoyment, as a result.

Lesson 2: Flow is the state where challenges and skills match, so that time flies by.

I was thinking of a way to correlate this state with something outside of athletics or immersion into a life or death scenario. Video games were my best option. You are constantly hit with instant feedback and rewarded positively or negatively depending on your performance. Therefore good games are great at inducing flow (Clear goal, constant feedback, and immediate rewards).

Here are two ways to trigger the flow state:

1. Pick an activity you find rewarding, something that’s meaningful to you, without any external incentive (like money or fame).
2. Make sure the challenge of the activity matches your skill level.

The first one is a relatively more simplistic answer. You can easily determine the activities that you enjoy by analyzing where your time is spent and which activities you do one your free time or for free (is presumed that you enjoy these activities too, ofc). The goal to pursue that singular task is solely derived from your intrinsic motivation, not fame, family, honor, religions or wealth.

Number 2 is imperative to induce a flow state (once again think of an addicting video game or a closely equally matched football game). You must balance the line between new and difficult-to-impossible skills required and challenges just in your capacity of ability but hard enough to make you progress (and learn/grow). This ensures that you are not bored with your activities.

Basically, flow is where your life feels like the perfect game: you just want to keep on going and going and going.

So, find a passion project to pursue. Remember, life is a game comprised of many sub-games. Find the games with the rule you’re good at based on your skillset or learn a new skill that’s in your capacity of learning and one that you intrinsically enjoy (like coding or trading forex or learning about the sciences).

Lesson 3: Life goals are irrelevant, so set a life goal.

The meaning of life is progress and that’s done by continually bordering the line of the known with the unknown, shaping your abilities and improving them over time.

Lesson 4: What are the constituent elements of Flow

The Elements of Enjoyment

Here the constituent elements used to construct the phenomenology of flow is broken into 8 components. His research and supplement research suggests that one or more of these elements are always active when an individual is experiencing flow.

1. First, the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing.
2. Second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing.
3. Third and fourth, the concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback.
4. Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life.
5. Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions.
6. Seventh, concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.
7. Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours.

Lesson 5: How to Induce Flow

1. Setting goals. This is a fundamental element to achieving Flow if you remember from the previous chapters. Your goals must be hyper-specific so that you can optimize the desired outcome, or focus on that.
2. Becoming immersed in the activity. Then you must take action. Rome wasn’t built on fictitiously fabricated fantasies alone. It took THOUSANDS of hours of hard manual labor. To achieve greatness you must become fully immersed into action by satisfying your neurochemical receptors. Set goals and get after them!
3. Paying attention to what is happening. Being attentive is a mandatory virtue to practice mindfulness. You must be cognizant of your environment and more specifically implement hyper concentration on one particular task. He uses an athlete participating in a hundred meter dash, as an analogy.
4. Learning to enjoy immediate experience. Determine your attitude on the world, regardless of the outcome. Becoming an autotelic self is to learn how to set goals, develop skills, to be sensitive to feedback, to know how to concentrate and get involved. You are objective scientists but you are also a stoic and you find the opportunity within the obstacle.

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Written by: Angel Mondragon.