Calendar Book #6 June. Your words hold a miracle by John Osteen.

Finding flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Quotes X

 -If the only effects of our actions were the ones we could observe in this life, common sense would dictate that we get as much pleasure and material advantage as we can, even if we must ruthless in the process.
-Each one of us is responsible for one particular point in space and time in which our body and mind forms a link within the total network of existence.
-We can focus consciousness on the tasks of everyday life in the knowledge that when we act in the fullness of the flow experience, we are also building a bridge to the future of our universe.

Finding flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Quotes IX

-Our lives will live a mark on the universe.
-One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself.
-Individualism and materialism have almost completely prevailed over allegiance to the community and to spiritual values.
-More and more, we seem to bury our heads in the sand to avoid hearing bad news, withdrawing into gated communities protected by armed response. But a good personal life is impossible without staying aloof of a corrupt society, as Socrates knew and those who have lived under recent dictatorships have found out. It would be so much easier if we were responsible only for ourselves. Unfortunately, things don't work that way. An active responsibility for the rest of humankind and for the world of which we are a part, is a necessary ingredient of a good life.
-Act always as if the future of the Universe depended on what you did, while laughing at yourself for thinking that whatever you do makes any difference.
-It is this serious playfulness, this combination of concern and humility that makes it possible to be both engaged and carefree at the same time.
-If a man develops a self-image based on power, or wealth, there are no limits to his exertions. He will pursue the goal set by the self relentlessly, even if he has to ruin his health in the process, even if he has to destroy other people along the way.
-It is possible then to separate those needs that really help us to navigate through life, from those malignant growths that sprout from them and make our lives miserable.
-Once we realize what our demons are, we need not fear them any longer. Instead of taking them seriously, we can smile with compassion at the arrogance of these fruits of our imagination. We don't have to feed their ravenous hunger except on our own terms, when to do so helps us achieve something worthwhile.
-A simple way of improving the quality of life is to take ownership of one's actions.
-Many people spend their entire lives feeling like puppets who move only because their strings are pulled. Under these conditions we are likely to feel that our psychic is wasted. So the question is why don't we want to do more things? The sheer act of wanting focuses attention, establishes priority in consciousness, and thus creates a sense of inner harmony.
-Nor merely bear what is necessary, but love it.
-The quality of life is much improved if we learn to love what we have to do.
-In creating a good life, it is not enough to strive for enjoyable goals, but also to choose goals that will reduce the sum total of entropy in the world.

Finding flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Quotes VIII

-When we are able to confront life with such involvement and enthusiasm, we can be said to have achieved an autotelic personality.
-There is a gradation, ranging from individuals who almost never feel that what they do is worth doing for its own sake, to others who feel that most anything they do is important and valuable in its own right. It is to this latter individuals that the term autotelic applies.
-An autotelic person needs few material possessions and little entertainment, comfort, power, or fame because so much of what he or she does is already rewarding.  Because such persons experience flow in work, in family life, when interacting with people, when eating, and even when alone with nothing to do, they are less dependent on the external rewards that keep others motivated to go on a life composed of dull and meaningless routines. They are more autonomous and independent, because they cannot be as easily manipulated with threats or rewards from the outside. At the same time, they are more involved with everything around them because they are fully immersed in the current of life.
-An important dimension of it means to be autotelic is what one does with one's time.
-An autotelic person is often in challenging situations.
-Self-reported happiness is not a very good indicator of the quality of a person's life.
-It is not enough to be happy to have an excellent life. The point is to be happy while doing things that stretch our skills, that help us grow and fulfill our potential.
-If there is one quality that distinguishes autotelic individuals, it is that their psychic energy seems inexhaustible.
-Autotelic persons are less concerned with themselves, and therefore have more free psychic energy to experience life with.
-Creative individuals are usually autotelic as well, and they often achieve their breakthroughs because they have surplus psychic energy to invest in apparently trivial objects.
-I don't care what kind of problem it is. If I can solve it, it is fun. It is really a lot of fun to solve problems, isn't it? Isn't it that what's interesting in life?
-PAULING. What starting him on a long and productive life was a determination to participate as fully as possible in the life around him.
-Every morning you wake up and it's like the dawn of creation.
-Without disinterested interest life is uninteresting.
-Time is what one must find in order to develop interest and curiosity to enjoy life for its own sake.
-As one focuses on any segment of reality, a potentially infinite range of opportunities for action is revealed for our skills to engage with. There is never a good excuse for being bored.
-Those who survive are able to ignore selectively the external conditions, and to redirect their attention to an inner life that is real only to themselves.
-One needs to learn to control attention.

Finding flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Quotes VII

-How many people never realize that they can shape their psychic energy so as to get the most out of experience?
-There are so many examples of individuals who overcame obstacles that the belief that the quality of life is determined from the outside is hardly tenable.
-Even at ninety years of age, Linus Pauling kept the enthusiasm and curiosity of a young child. Everything he did or said was bubbling with energy.
-Pauling and others who share this type of attitude like to do almost everything. The only thing they definitely don't like is wasting time.
-Because for most of us a job is such a central part of life, it is essential that this activity be as enjoyable and rewarding as possible.
-They are three reasons why jobs are resented:
1. The job is pointless.
2. The job is boring and routine.
3. Jobs are often stressful.
-It is always a better deal to do something one feels good about than something that may make us materially comfortable but emotionally miserable.
-A trivial job can turn into a memorable performance that leaves the world in a better shape than it was before.
-Small adjustments can turn a routine job one dreads into a professional performance one can look forward to with anticipation each morning.
-Stress is detrimental to achieving flow.
-Only by exercising control can stress be avoided.
-Besides work, the other major area that impacts on the quality of life is the kind of relationships we have.
-Conversation is more important to marriage than sex.
-When people pay attention to each other, or to the same activity together, the chances of flow binding the family increases.
-Only when there is harmony between the goals of the participants, when everyone is investing energy into a joint goal, does being together become enjoyable.
-It is sad to see how often people ruin a relationship because they refuse to recognize that they could serve their own interests best by helping others achieve theirs.
-If top management is filled with greedy egotists the company will eventually suffer for it.

Finding flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Quotes VI

-What matters is the dosage.
-As the patterns turn into habits, they begin to have definite effects on the quality of life as a whole.
-The phrase "bread and circuses" to keep the populace contended during the long centuries of Roman Empire's decline.
-A society begins to rely heavily on leisure only when it has become incapable of offering meaningful productive occupation to its members.
-There are individuals who, confronted with the sterility of their jobs, escape productive responsibilities altogether to pursue a life of flow in leisure.
-If a society becomes too dependent on entertainment, it is likely that there will be less psychic energy left to cope creatively with the technological and economic challenges that will inevitably arise.
-If one's job is beyond redemption, the other solution is to make sure that free time at least will be a real opportunity for flow, for exploring the potential of the self and the environment. Luckily, the world is absolutely full of interesting things to do. Only lack of imagination, or lack of energy, stand in the way. Otherwise each of us could be a poet, or a musician, an inventor, or explorer, an amateur scholar, scientist, artist, or collector.
-A relationship that leads to order in consciousness instead of psychic entropy, has to meet at least two conditions: to find some compatibility between our goals and those of the other person; and being willing to invest attention in the other person's goals.
-Lack of true friends is often the main complaint of people confronting an emotional crisis in the second half of life.
-What can one do? As with other aspects of life, the important thing is to decide for oneself.
-There are more arguments in families that are emotionally close; when the family is in real trouble, parents and children avoid each other instead of arguing.
-The moods of the father affect the moods of the rest of the family, and the children's moods affect the mother, but the mother's moods have little discernible effect on the rest of the family.
-Rules and discipline are needed to avoid excessive waste of psychic energy in the negotiation of what can or cannot be done.
-It is possible to learn to like solitude, but it doesn't come easily.
-One can learn more about true preferences by listening to what people say others want, rather than to what they claim they want themselves.
-While we are repelled by differences, we are also fascinated by the strange and the exotic.
-Ideal communities, like ideal families, may never have really existed.
-Extroverts who are thought to be born not to be made, get a better deal in life all around.
-It is possible to be both extroverted and introverted at the same time.

Finding flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Quotes V

-I don't think I ever sat down and ask myself, now what am I going to do in life? I just went ahead doing what I liked to do.
-It is not the external conditions that determine how much work will contribute to the excellence of one's life. It is how one works and what experiences one is able to derive from confronting its challenges.
-What accomplishments in life they were most proud of. I suppose it is just to have raised six kids, and brought them up.
-The best investment he ever made was the year he took off from his successful career to spend with his children as they were growing up.
-Having leisure does not improve the quality of life unless one knows how to use it effectively.
-Physical health is better when a person focuses on a goal. On weekends, when alone, and with nothing to do, people report more symptoms of illness.
-Without necessarily being aware of it. one will seek out stimulation that will screen out the sources of anxiety from consciousness.This might be watching TV, or reading redundant narratives, such as romances or mysteries. These are quick ways to reduce chaos in consciousness in the short run, but usually the only residue they leave behind is a feeling of listless dissatisfaction.
-Few people have learned to structure their psychic energy autonomously, from the inside.
-Human beings feel best in flow, when they are fully involved in meeting a challenge, solving a problem, discovering something new.
-Free time with nothing specific to engage one's attention provides the opposite of flow: psychic entropy, where one feels listless and apathetic.
-Why would we spend four times more time doing something that has less than half the chance of making us feel good? To get organized for a basketball game takes time: one has to change clothes, make arrangements. Each of the flow-producing activities requires an initial investment of attention before it begins to be enjoyable. One needs such disposable activation energy.
-If a person lacks the discipline to overcome that initial obstacle, he will have to settle for something that, although less enjoyable, is more accessible. This is where passive leisure activities come in.

Finding flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Quotes IV

-Work generally takes up a third of the time available for living.
-Those who like their work lead richer lives.
-Children from an early age participated in their parents' work, and gradually found themselves performing as productive adults without missing a beat along the way.
-Exposure to productive tasks in the home, the neighborhood, and the community is much greater for children who grow up in wealthy and stable environments.
-In the US, almost nine out of ten teenagers are employed sometime during high school, a much higher proportion than in other technologically advanced countries, where parents prefer their children to spend as much time as possible studying, rather than being distracted by jobs irrelevant to their future careers.
-A person who grows up experiencing most of the day as neither important nor enjoyable is unlikely to find much meaning in the future.
-The attitudes set in the early years continue to color how we experience work during the rest of our lives.
-Without the goal and the challenges usually provided by a job, only a rare self-discipline can keep the mind focused intensely enough to insure a meaningful life.
-The quality of experience at work is generally more positive than one would expect. Nevertheless, if we had the chance, we would like to work less. Two major reasons seem to be involved: the objective conditions of work since those who pay another person's wages, are not particularly concerned with the well-being of their employees; and the subjective attitudes towards work.
-The intrinsic rewards of work are easiest to see in the highly individualized professions, where a person is free to choose his or her goals and set the difficulty of the task.
-"You could say that I worked every minute of my life, or that I never work a day"

Finding flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Quotes III

-It is the full involvement of flow, rather than happiness, that makes for excellence in life.
-When we are in flow, we are not happy, because to experience happiness we must focus on our inner states, and that would take away attention from the task at hand.
-Only after the task is completed do we have the leisure to look back on what has happened, and the we are flooded with gratitude for the excellence of that experience. Then, in retrospect, we are happy.
-The flow experience acts as a magnet for learning.
-Do you ever get involved in something so deeply that nothing else seems to matter, and you lose track of time?
-Flow is generally reported when a person is doing his or her favorite activity.
-Because almost any activity can produce flow provided the relevant elements are present, it is possible to improve the quality of life by making sure that clear goals, immediate feedback, skills balanced to action opportunities, and the remaining conditions of flow are as much as possible a constant part of everyday life.
-The quality of life depends on what we do in the seventy or so years we are allotted, and on what passes in consciousness during that time.
-Good things in small doses, tend to improve the quality of daily life considerably, but the effects are not additive; a point of diminishing returns is quickly reached.
-When the job presents clear goals, unambiguous feedback, a sense of control, challenges that match the worker's skills, and few distractions, the feelings it provides are not that different from what one experiences in a sport or an artistic performance.
-The first step in improving the quality of life consists in engineering daily activities so that one gets the most rewarding experiences from them.
-Being alone affects most those individuals who have the fewest resources.
-The interactions have many of the characteristics of flow activities, and they certainly require the orderly investment of psychic energy. By contrast, when we are alone with nothing to do there is no reason to concentrate, and what happens then is that the mind begins to unravel, and soon finds something to worry about.
-A more difficult, but in the long run even more useful, skill to acquire is the ability to tolerate solitude, and to even enjoy it.
-Locations also have an effect on the quality of experience.
-For many families, the car has also become the location for togetherness. At home parents and children are often dispersed in different rooms, doing different things, when on an outing in the car, they talk, sing, or play games together.
-The environment in which one lives affects one's mind.
-It is not the external conditions that count, but what we make of them.
-The excellence of daily life finally depends not on what we do, but on how we do it.
-It is important to reflect on the effects that the daily environment, the places, people, activities, and times of the day, has on us.
-There is no law that says we have to experience life in the same way. What is vital is to find out what works out best in your case.

Finding flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Quotes II

-Experience takes place in time, so time is the ultimate scarce resource we have.
-Over the years, the content of experience will determine the quality of life.
-One of the most essential decisions any of us can make is about how one's time is allocated or invested.
-What our life is consists in experiences related to work, to keeping things we already have from falling apart, and to whatever else we do in our free time.
-Everyday life is defined not only by what we do, but also by who we are with.
-While what we do day in and day out has a lot to do with what kind of life we have, how we experience what we do is even more important.
-Beyond the threshold of poverty, additional resources do not appreciably improve the chances of being happy.
-When we feel active and strong we are also more likely to feel happy.
-The choice of what we do will also affect our happiness.
-Without dreams, without risks, only a trivial semblance of living can be achieved.
-Goals that we pursue will shape and determine the kind of self that we are to become.
-Without a consistent set of goals, it is difficult to develop a coherent self.
-To make sure that we survive in a dangerous world dominated by scarcity, our genes have been programmed us to be greedy, to want power, to dominate over others.
-Most of our goals will be shaped by genetic or by cultural inheritance.
-When a person likes what he does and is motivated to do it, focusing the mind becomes effortless even when the objective difficulties are great.
-Innate talents cannot develop into mature intelligence unless a person learns to control attention.
-Flow experiences to describe the sense of effortless action we feel in moments that stand out as the best in our lives. Moments in which what we feel, what we wish, and what we think are in harmony.
-When high challenges are matched with high skills, then the deep involvement that sets flow apart from ordinary life is likely to occur.
-Flow occurs when challenges and skills are high.
-When goals are clear, feedback relevant, and challenges and skills are in balance, attention becomes ordered and fully invested. Because of the total demand on psychic energy, a person in flow is completely focused. There is no space in consciousness for distracting thoughts, irrelevant feelings.
-When a person's entire being is stretched in the full functioning of body and mind, whatever one does becomes worth doing for its own sake.

Finding flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Quotes

-Between  now and the inevitable end of our lives we can choose either to live or to die.
-To live is by no means something that will happen by itself.
-What does to live mean? It must mean to live in fullness, without waste of time and potential, expressing one's uniqueness, yet participating intimately in the complexity of the cosmos.
-The only path to finding out what life is about is a patient, slow, attempt to make sense of the realities of the past, and the possibilities of the future as they can be understood in the present.
-The best strategy is to assume that these seventy or so years, are our only chance to experience the cosmos, and we should make the fullest use of it.
-The actual quality of life will be determined by our thoughts and emotions, by the interpretations we give to chemical, biological, and social processes.
-To achieve excellence, we must first understand the reality of the everyday, with all its demands and potential frustrations.
-The accident of birth, puts a person in a slot that greatly determines what sorts of experiences his or her life will consist of.
-There is enough room for personal initiative and choice to make a real difference. And those who believe this are the ones with the best chance to break free from the grip of fate.
-To live means to experience.