Flow

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View books by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

An important book for sports people - Rated
Csikszentmihalyi IS the authority on this subject and as a keen rower I have always had an interest in The Flow or Zone as its known in sport. This book is also a vital resource for anyone with an interest in their sport and how to achieve a peak performance. I have always found it curious as to why when I'm in The Flow whilst rowing I feel euphoric and so complete. This book goes along way to explaining why. Roy Palmer's Zone Mind, Zone Body is an excellent companion to this book with its practical techniques to get into The Flow.

Solid, fascinating, work - Rated
I read Flow partically as a self-improvement book, and partially because several people involved in game design (particularly "Theory of Fun") recommended it.

It's really interesting. Solidly researched stuff by a proper psychologist looking into what makes people happier. And it's the same thing as makes a big difference to me at the end of a day by myself - if I've set myself clear goals of what to do, and I know whether or not I've met them, I feel a lot happier with myself than if I just potter around, even if I accomplish exactly the same thing.

Csikszentmihalyi (Chick-sent-mi-hal-yi)'s theory is that what makes people happy isn't simple pleasure, but the "flow" state they attain if:

• You're doing something they might succeed at
  
• You can concentrate on it
  
• You've got clear goals
  
• You know immediately whether you've won or lost
  

Important book - Rated
This book points out something which should be obvious - that in order tohave a happy, fulfilling life you must live your life to have as many"flow" experiences as possible. That is, you must do things that havegoals that you are fully committed to achieving, and that you are highlymotivated to achieve. The human brain has evolved to solve challenges suchas hunting, finding new territory and surviving in inhospitable climates.Having motivating challenges results in a happy and fulfilling life, whilea lack of such factors can lead to depression, fatigue and ill health.
A number of years ago after suffering from suicidal depression, anxietyand chronic illness (CFS/ME), I eventually came to a point where I wasforced to change my lifestyle. Partly by sheer luck, and partly thoughobserving how my lifestyle affected my mental and physical health, Ieventually came to the realisation that having positive goals andmotivation were crucial to maintaining my health, and that a lack of thesefactors lead back down the path of physical and mental deterioration.
In the past few years I have lived my entire life as one long "flow"experience - everything I do is now part of an overall plan for my life,and every day I am working towards short- and long-term goals that I amhighly motivated in. Over the last few years I have completely recoveredfrom CFS/ME and have not suffered from depression, and this is purely downto my change in lifestyle and mental attitude - what Csikszentmihalyidescribes as "flow".
After coming across Csikszentmihalyi's work a few weeks ago, I realisedthat his "flow" concept is exactly the same as the mental attitude andlifestyle factors that have helped me go from chronic ill health anddepression to perfect physical and mental health and living a happy andfulfilling life. If I had read this book 5 years ago, it would have savedme a lot of trouble!
The only minor criticism of the book is it doesn't have any index, butthis doesn't detract much from a very important book that deserves a lotmore recognition.

Explains the mechanics, not the spirit. - Rated
According to the author, flow is a state of mind when it is totally engrossed in an activity that it looses track of itself and becomes one with the activity being performed. The author supports this with excerpts from interviews with people (rock climbers, artists, musicians etc) who are involved in flow-producing activities.

However, the author never addresses why a person would choose one flow producing activity over another or should people cram as many flow producing activities in their lives as possible. Instead the author attempts to apply the conditions that create flow to turn even the most mundane activities into flow producing activities! In effect, he is saying, "Stop whining you lot, use these techniques known to produce flow to make your job more interesting". The author contends that people are dissatisfied because of lack of flow in their activities which gets them bored sooner or later. Cant people be bored of always being in flow too? How is it different from being temporarily entertained by a good film?

The work is good in that it documents the mechanics of flow but disappoints by not discussing the role of passion/liking of the performer for his chosen activity - which is probably why he repeatedly engages in it; flow being a pleasant by-product but not an end in itself.

Worth reading - Rated
i've been through a period of about 10 years of feeling and believing that life is meaningless. the process of coming out of that rut has been helped by becoming intensely interested in the writings of csikszentmihalyi. his books are much better than the average popular and simplistic self-help books. start with 'Flow'.