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.