Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life

by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Paperback, 1998

Status

Available

Call number

158

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Basic Books (1998), Paperback, 192 pages

Description

Part psychological study, part self-help book, Finding Flow is a prescriptive guide that helps us reclaim ownership of our lives. Based on a far-reaching study of thousands of individuals, Finding Flow contends that we often walk through our days unaware and out of touch with our emotional lives. Our inattention makes us constantly bounce between two extremes: during much of the day we live filled with the anxiety and pressures of our work and obligations, while during our leisure moments, we tend to live in passive boredom. The key, according to CSIkszentmihalyi, is to challenge ourselves with tasks requiring a high degree of skill and commitment. Instead of watching television, play the piano. Transform a routine task by taking a different approach. In short, learn the joy of complete engagement. Thought they appear simple, the lessons in Finding Flow are life-altering.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member tyroeternal

I found this book to be an enjoyable introduction to the concept of flow. The combination of self-help meets science, along with it's small size made the topic enjoyable and interesting. Despite the author's tendency to stray a bit far into humanistic realms than I choose to follow, I moved on to

read this book's prequel: 'Flow'.

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LibraryThing member timbrown5

Concept that our leisure can be active and passive; we can involve ourselves in short-term rewarding relaxation t-v watching with diminishing returns, or more fulfilling active study, learning an instrument, experimentation, or hobby where there is high-difficulty and high-skill.. In these

situations it may require and initial investment of time before a sense of getting somewhere; the author refers to the sense of time-flying, as 'flow.' An 'Autotelic' person is one who has purpose on the inside, and isn't as much motivated by outside rewards, or is self-motivated; a self-starter. He suggests that a person learning music, to be a scientist, doing prayer/meditation, or working out, focus on building attention rather than the rewards that may follow from the discipline. Building attention and concentration will improve flow in said person's life. Highly interesting book with better core ideas than most, but with some filler and repetition.

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LibraryThing member Razinha

The more I read about psychology, the more I wonder how people can't smell the snake oil. I'm in a management development program and Csikszentmihalyi's work was recommended. Perhaps I got the wrong one. This was certainly a load of rubbish.

Opinions as fact, conclusions tailored to support the

thesis, odd references to ESP and spirituality, the only thing I can recommend is he has a really cool name.

I pulled the thread on a few of the topics and felt my skin crawl reading up on "psychic entropy." I studied thermodynamics and can only feel sadness if these guys have to borrow terms from real science to legitimize the flimsiness of theirs.

Habitual readers of self-help tripe might like this book. Nuff said.

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