A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe

Every health, beauty, money, or power goal is valued only because we expect that it will make us happy

More than anything else, mean and women seek happiness

Happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person

People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy

"Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so"

It is by being fully involved with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly

'Don't aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. 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

The circuitous path begins with achieving control over the contents of our consciousness

Our perceptions about our lives are the outcome of many forces that shape experience, each having an impact on whether we feel good or bad. Most of these forces are outside our control

The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile

Optimal experiences add up to a sense of mastery, a sense of participation in determining the content of life

Optimal experience is the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it

What would really satisfy people is feeling good about their lives

Because optimal experience depends on the ability to control what happens in consciousness moment by moment, each person has to achieve it on the basis of his own individual efforts and creativity

Everything we experience—joy or pain, interest or boredom—is represented in the mind as information. If we are able to control this information, we can decide what our lives will be like

The optimal state of inner experience is one in which there is order in consciousness. This happens when psychic energy—or attention— is invested in realistic goals, and when skills match the opportunities for action. The pursuit of a goal brings order in awareness because a person must concentrate attention on the task at hand and momentarily forget everything else

These periods of struggling to overcome challenges are what people find to be the most enjoyable times in their lives

A person who has achieved control over psychic energy and has invested it in consciously chosen goals cannot help but grow into a more complex being

By stretching skills, by reaching toward higher challenges, such a person becomes an increasingly extraordinary individual

"Flow" is the way people describe their state of mind when consciousness is harmoniously ordered, and they want to pursue whatever they are doing for its own sake

It is how people respond to stress that determines whether they will profit from misfortune or be miserable

When all experience is joined into a meaningful pattern, a person feels in control of life and feels that it makes sense so there is nothing left to desire

The universe was not created to answer our needs. Frustration is deeply woven into the fabric of life

Only direct control of experience, the ability to derive moment-by-moment enjoyment from everything we do, can overcome the obstacles to fulfillment

The foremost reason that happiness is so hard to achieve is that the universe was not designed with the comfort of human beings in mind

The universe is ont hostile, not yet is it friendly. It is simply indifferent

There is not much that we as individuals can do to change the way the universe runs. In our lifetime we exert little influence over the forces that interfere with our well-being. It is prudent not to expect that efforts to change externnal connditions will immediately improve the quality of our lives

No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamenntal consitutionn of their modes of thought

How we feel about ourselves, the joy we get from living, ultimately depend directly on how the mind filters and interprets everyday experiences

Whether we are happy depends on inner harmony, not on the controls we are able to exert over the great forces of the universe

We must learn to achieve mastery over consciousness itself

Religions are only temporary successful attempts to cope with the lack of meaning in life; they are not permanent answers

To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself. She has to develop the ability to find enjoyment and purpose regardless of external cicumstances

Achievign control over experience requires a drastic change in attitude abbout what is important and what is not

Seeking pleasure is a reflex response built into our genes for the preservation of the species, not for the purpose of our own personal advantage

There is nothinng wrong with following the genetic programminng and relishing the resulting pleasures it provides, as lonng as we recognize them for what they are, and as long as we retainn some control over them when it is necessary to pursue other goals, to which we might decide to assign priority

One must particularly achieve control over instinctual drives to achieve a healthy indpendence of society, for as long as we respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad, it is easy for others to exploit our preferennces for their ownn ends

It is necessary to work for external goals annd to postpone immediate gratifications, but a person ndoes ont have to be turned into a puppet jerked about by social controls

We must become independennt from the dictates of the body, annd learnn to take charge of what heppens in the mind

Sincne what we experience is reality, we can transform reality to the extent that we influennce what happens in consciousness and thus free ourselves from the threats and blanndishmennts of the outside world

Men are not afraid of things, but of how they view them

If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now

The way is through control over consciousness, which in turn leads to control over the quality of experience

Those who take the trouble to gain mastery over what happens in consciousness do live a happier life

The function of consciousness is to represent information about what is happeninng outside and inside the organism in such a way that it can be evaluated and acted upon by the body

With consiousness, we can delibberately weight what the senses tell us, and respond accordingly

A person can make himself happy, or miserable, regardless of what is actually happening "outside," just by changing the contents of consciousness

Transform hopeless situations into challenges to be overcome. Persevere despite the obstacles and setbacks

Being conscious means specific conscious events (sensations, feelings, thoughts, intentions) are occurring, and we are able to direct their course

Consciousness corresponds to subjectively experienced reality

Consciousness relfects what our senses tell us about what happens inside and outside our bodies, it reflects those changes selectively, actively shaping events, imposing on them a reality of its own, which we call our life: the sum of all we have heard, seen, felt, hoped, and suffered from birth to dealth

When we are thinking about a problem we cannot truly experience happiness or sadness

The mark of a person who is in control of consciousness is the ability to focus attention at will, to be oblivious to distractions, to concentrate for as long as it takes to achieve a goal, and not longer

The shape and content of life depend on how attention has been used

Attention is like energy in that without it no work can be done, and in doing work it is dissipated

We create ourselves by how we use our attention

Attention is an energy under our control, to do with as we please

Attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience

Psychic disorder (pain, fear, rage, anxiety, jealousy) distracts us and force attentionn to bbe diverted to undesirabble objects, leaving us no lonnger free to use it according to our preferences

When the information that keeps coming into awareness is congruent with goals, psychic energy flows effortlessly. There is no need to worry, no reason to question one's adequacy

Optimal experience is a situation in which attention can be freely invested to achieve a person's goals, because there is no disorder to straighten out, no threat for the self to defend against

It's exhilarating to come closer and closeer to self-discipline. You make your body go, and eerything hurts; then you look back in awe at the self, at what you've done, it just blows your mind. It leads to ecstacy, to self-fulfillment. If you win these battles enough, that battle against yourself, at least for a moment, it becomes easier to win the bbattles in the world

Only when a person invests equal amounts of psychic energy in differentiation and integration and avoids both selfishnness and conformity is the self likely to reflect complexity

It is when we act freely, for the sake of the action itself rather than for ulterior motives, that we learn to become more than what we were. When we choose a goal and invest ourselves in it to the limits of our concentration, whatever we do will be enjoyable. Once we taste this joy, we double our efforts to taste it again and the self grows

Flow is importannt beceause it makes the present instant more ennjoyable, and because it builds the self-connfidence that allows us to develop skills and make significant contributions to humankind

Make external conditions match our goals

Change how we experience external conditions to make them fit our goals better

Feeling secure is an important component of happiness

The quality of life does not depend directly on what others think of us or on what we own. The quality of life depends on how we feel about ourselves and about what happens to us

To improve life one must improve the quality of experience

Pleasure is a feeling of contentment that one achieves whenever information in consciousness says that expectations set by biological programs or by social conditioning have been met

Pleasure helps to maintain order, but by itself cannot create new order in consciousness

Enjoyment events occur when a person has only only met some prior expectation or satisfied a need or a desire but also gone beyond what he or she has been programmed to do and achieved something unexpected, perhaps something even unimagined before

It is impossible to enjoy unless attention is fully concentrated on the activity

Without enjoyment life can be endured, and it can even be pleasant. But it can be so only precariously, depending on luck and the cooperation of the external environment. To gain personal control over the quality of experience, however, one needs to learn how to build enjoyment into what happens day in, day out

The phenomenology of enjoyment has eight major components

The experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing

We must be able to concentrate on what we are doing

The concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals

The concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken provides immediate feedback

One acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life

Enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions

Concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over

The sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours

He who wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper

When beating the opponent takes precedence in the mind over performing as well as possible, enjoyment tends to disappear. Competition is enjoyable only when it is a means to perfect one's skills; when it becomes an end in itself, it ceases to be fun

How enjoyable an activity is depends ultimately on its complexity

When all a person's relevant skills are needed to cope with the challenges of a situation, that person's attention is completely absorbed by the activity. There is no excess psychic energy left over to process any information but what the activity offers. All the attention is concentrated on the relevant stimuli

People become so involved in what they are doing that the activity becomes spontaneous, almost automatic; they stop being aware of themselves as separate from the actions they are performing

Your concentration is very complete. Your mind isn't wandering, you are not thinking of something else; you are totally involved in what you are doing.... Your energy is flowing very smoothly. You feel relaxed, comfortable, and energetic

Flow: seemingly effortless movement

In normal life, we keep interrupting what we do with doubts and questions. 'Why am I doing this? Should I perhaps be doing something else?' Repeatedly we question the necessity of our actions, and evaluate critically the reasons for carrying them out. But in flow there is no need to reflect, because the action carries us forward as if by magic

Unless a person learns to set goals and to recognize and gauge feedback in such activities, she will not enjoy them

Some people have fragile selves that need constant reassurance, and for them the only information that counts is winning in a competitive situation. Others have invested so much in being liked that the only feedback they take into account is approval and admiration

When you experience flow, you are able to forget all the unpleasant aspects of life

Enjoyable activities require a complete focusing of attention on the task at hand

In normal everyday existence, we are the prey of thoughts and worries intruding unwanted in consciousness

In normal life we spend so much time thinking about our own self

'It's a Zen feeling, like meditation or concentration. One thing you're after is the one-pointedness of mind. You can get your ego mixed up with climbing in all sorts of ways and it isn't necessarily enlightening. But when things become automatic, it's like an egoless thing, in a way. Somehow the right thing is done without you ever thinking about it or doing anything at all.... It just happens. And yet you're more concentrated.'

Preoccupation with the self consumes psychic energy because in everyday life we often feel threatened. Whenever we are threatened we need to bring the image we have of ourselves back into awareness, so we can find out whether or not the threat is serious, and how we should meet it

So loss of self-consciousness does not involve a loss of self, and certainly not a loss of consciousness, but rather, only a loss of consciousness of the self. What slips below the threshold of awareness is the concept of self, the information we use to represent to ourselves who we are. And being able to forget temporarily who we are seems to be very enjoyable. When not preoccupied with our selves, we actually have a chance to expand the concept of who we are. Loss of self-consciousness can lead to self-transcendence, to a feeling that the boundaries of our being have been pushed forward

When a person invests all her psychic energy into an interaction she in effect becomes part of a system of action greater than what the individual self had been before. This system takes its form from the rules of the activity; its energy comes from the person's attention. But it is a real system—subjectively as real as being part of a family, a corporation, or a team—and the self that is part of it expands its boundaries and becomes more complex than what it had been

This growth of the self occurs only if the interaction is an enjoyable one, that is, if it offers nontrivial opportunities for action and requires a constant perfection of skills

In flow a person is challenged to do her best, and must constantly improve her skills. At the time, she doesn't have the opportunity to reflect on what this means in terms of the self—if she did allow herself to become self-conscious, the experience could not have been very deep. But afterward, when the activity is over and selfconsciousness has a chance to resume, the self that the person reflects upon is not the same self that existed before the flow experience: it is now enriched by new skills and fresh achievements

Although it seems likely that losing track of the clock is not one of the major elements of enjoyment, freedom from the tyranny of time does add to the exhilaration we feel during a state of complete involvement

The key element of an optimal experience is that it is an end in itself. The activity that consumes us becomes intrinsically rewarding

'It is so enjoyable that I would do it even if I didn't have to.'

The term 'autotelic' derives from two Greek words, auto meaning self, and telos meaning goal. It refers to a self-contained activity, one that is done not with the expectation of some future benefit, but simply because the doing itself is the reward. Playing the stock market in order to make money is not an autotelic experience; but playing it in order to prove one's skill at foretelling future trends is—even though the outcome in terms of dollars and cents is exactly the same

Often children—and adults—need external incentives to take the first steps in an activity that requires a difficult restructuring of attention. Most enjoyable activities are not natural; they demand an effort that initially one is reluctant to make. But once the interaction starts to provide feedback to the person's skills, it usually begins to be intrinsically rewarding

The autotelic experience, or flow, lifts the course of life to a different level. Alienation gives way to involvement, enjoyment replaces boredom, helplessness turns into a feeling of control, and psychic energy works to reinforce the sense of self, instead of being lost in the service of external goals

When experience is intrinsically rewarding life is justified in the present, instead of being held hostage to a hypothetical future gain

Nothing in the world is entirely positive; every power can be misused

Energy is power, but power is only a means. The goals to which it is applied can make life either richer or more painful

The flow experience, like everything else, is not 'good' in an absolute sense. It is good only in that it has the potential to make life more rich, intense, and meaningful; it is good because it increases the strength and complexity of the self. But whether the consequence of any particular instance of flow is good in a larger sense needs to be discussed and evaluated in terms of more inclusive social criteria

It is an illusion to believe that any solution is beneficial for all people and all times; no human achievement can be taken as the final word

We must constantly reevaluate what we do, lest habits and past wisdom blind us to new possibilities

Water can be both good and bad, useful and dangerous. To the danger, however, a remedy has been found: learning to swim

Learn how to enjoy everyday life without diminishing other people's chances to enjoy theirs

Common characteristics of optimal experience: a sense that one's skills are adequate to cope with the challenges at hand, in a goal-directed, rule-bound action system that provides clear clues as to how well one is performing. Concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over to think about anything irrelevant, or to worry about problems. Self-consciousness disappears, and the sense of time becomes distorted. An activity that produces such experiences is so gratifying that people are willing to do it for its own sake, with little concern for what they will get out of it, even when it is difficult, or dangerous

Each person seeks is to actualize her potential, and this task is made easier when others force us to do our best. Of course, competition improves experience only as long as attention is focused primarily on the activity itself. If extrinsic goals—such as beating the opponent, wanting to impress an audience, or obtaining a big professional contract—are what one is concerned about, then competition is likely to become a distraction, rather than an incentive to focus consciousness on what is happening

Consciousness cannot be expanded; all we can do is shuffle its content, which gives us the impression of having broadened it somehow. The price of most artificially induced alterations, however, is that we lose control over that very consciousness we were supposed to expand

Cultures are defensive constructions against chaos, designed to reduce the impact of randomness on experience

When a person cannot control psychic energy, neither learning nor true enjoyment is possible

A self-centered individual is usually not self-conscious, but instead evaluates every bit of information only in terms of how it relates to her desires

Anomie: When it is no longer clear what is permitted and what is not, when it is uncertain what public opinion values, behavior becomes erratic and meaningless

Alienation: a condition in which people are constrained by the social system to act in ways that go against their goals

For people who have learned to control consciousness focusing attention is relatively effortless, because they can shut off all mental processes but the relevant ones

The family context promoting optimal experience could be described as having five characteristics

Clarity: the teenagers feel that they know what their parents expect from them—goals and feedback in the family interaction are unambiguous

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

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

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

Challenge, or the parents' dedication to provide increasingly complex opportunities for action to their children

When adversity threatens to paralyze us, we need to reassert control by finding a new direction in which to invest psychic energy, a direction that lies outside the reach of external forces. When every aspiration is frustrated, a person still must seek a meaningful goal around which to organize the self. Then, even though that person is objectively a slave, subjectively he is free

The most important trait of survivors is a 'nonself-conscious individualism,' or a strongly directed purpose that is not self-seeking. People who have that quality are bent on doing their best in all circumstances, yet they are not concerned primarily with advancing their own interests. Because they are intrinsically motivated in their actions, they are not easily disturbed by external threats. With enough psychic energy free to observe and analyze their surroundings objectively, they have a better chance of discovering in them new opportunities for action

Without interest in the world, a desire to be actively related to it, a person becomes isolated into himself

'Gradually I learned to be indifferent to myself and my deficiencies; I came to center my attention increasingly upon external objects: the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals for whom I felt affection.'

When we are unhappy, depressed, or bored we have an easy remedy at hand: to use the body for all it is worth

Few learn to move with the grace of an acrobat, see with the fresh eye of an artist, feel the joy of an athlete who breaks his own record, taste with the subtlety of a connoisseur, or love with a skill that lifts sex into a form of art. Because these opportunities are easily within reach, the easiest step toward improving the quality of life consists in simply learning to control the body and its senses

If the functions of the body are left to atrophy, the quality of life becomes merely adequate, and for some even dismal. But if one takes control of what the body can do, and learns to impose order on physical sensations, entropy yields to a sense of enjoyable harmony in consciousness

The purest form of athletics, and sports in general, is to break through the limitations of what the body can accomplish

The Latin motto of the modern Olympic games—Altius, citius, fortius—is a good, if incomplete summary of how the body can experience flow

Altius—higher

Icarus, who had wings fashioned so he could reach the sun

Every person, no matter how unfit he or she is, can rise a little higher, go a little faster, and grow to be a little stronger. The joy of surpassing the limits of the body is open to all

The essential steps in this process are: to set an overall goal, and as many subgoals as are realistically feasible, 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, to develop the skills necessary to interact with the opportunities available, to keep raising the stakes if the activity becomes boring

On the other hand, the hundreds of sophisticated forms of sport and body culture currently available may not be enjoyable at all if one approaches them with the attitude that one must take part in them because they are fashionable, or simply because they are good for one's health. Many people get caught up in a treadmill of physical activity over which they end up having little control, feeling duty bound to exercise but not having any fun doing it

Enjoyment does not depend on what you do, but rather on how you do it

People were happiest when they were just talking to one another, when they gardened, knitted, or were involved in a hobby; all of these activities require few material resources, but they demand a relatively high investment of psychic energy. Leisure that uses up external resources, however, often requires less attention, and as a consequence it generally provides less memorable rewards

'You move about and try to express yourself in terms of those motions. That's where it's at. It's a body language kind of communicative medium, in a way.... When it's going good, I'm really expressing myself well in terms of the music and in terms of the people that are out there.'

The popularity of charades as a parlor game is due to the fact that it allows people to shed for a time their customary identity, and act out different roles

To be enjoyable, a relationship must become more complex. To become more complex, the partners must discover new potentialities in themselves and in each other

Yama, requires that one achieve 'restraint' from acts and thoughts that might harm others—falsehood, theft, lust, and avarice

Niyama, involves 'obedience,' or the following of ordered routines in cleanliness, study, and obedience to God, all of which help to channel attention into predictable patterns, and hence make attention easier to control

Asana, ways of 'sitting' or holding postures for long periods without succumbing to strain or fatigue

Pranayama, or breath control, which aims to relax the body, and stabilizes the rhythm of breathing

Pratyahara ('withdrawal'). It involves learning to withdraw attention from outward objects by directing the input of the senses—thus becoming able to see, hear, and feel only what one wishes to admit into awareness

Dharana, or 'holding on,' is the ability to concentrate for long periods on a single stimulus, and thus is the mirror image of the earlier stage of pratyahara; first one learns to keep things out of the mind, then one learns to keep them in

Dhyana, is the next step. Here one learns to forget the self in uninterrupted concentration that no longer needs the external stimuli of the preceding phase

Samadhi, the last stage of 'self-collectedness,' when the meditator and the object of meditation become as one

Giving up the self with its instincts, habits, and desires is so unnatural an act that only someone supremely in control can accomplish it

Instead of focusing exclusively on physical performance, as Western martial arts do, the Eastern variety is directed toward improving the mental and spiritual state of the practitioner

without cultivating the necessary skills, one cannot expect to take true enjoyment in a pursuit

Music, which is organized auditory information, helps organize the mind that attends to it, and therefore reduces psychic entropy, or the disorder we experience when random information interferes with goals. Listening to music wards off boredom and anxiety, and when seriously attended to, it can induce flow experiences

Any sound can be be a source of enjoyment if attended to properly

To transform the biological necessity of feeding into a flow experience, one must begin by paying attention to what one eats

Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. They become rigid and defensive, and their self stops growing. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed, and still kept within the bounds of reason. If a person learns to control his instinctual desires, not because he has to, but because he wants to, he can enjoy himself without becoming addicted

Wonder—which is the seed of knowledge—is the reflection of the purest form of pleasure

'Life without memory is no life at all.... our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing.'

A person is also a much more cherished companion, because she can share the information in her mind, and thus help bring order into the consciousness of those with whom she interacts

If you decide what you would like to have in memory, the information will be under your control, and the whole process of learning by heart will become a pleasant task, instead of a chore imposed from outside

The simplest ordering system is to give names to things; the words we invent transform discrete events into universal categories

Philosophy and science were invented and flourished because thinking is pleasurable

Every creative step is interpreted as the product of extrinsic forces, whether they be wars, demographic pressures, territorial ambitions, market conditions, technological necessity, or the struggle for class supremacy

Great thinkers have always been motivated by the enjoyment of thinking rather than by the material rewards that could be gained by it

'It is godlike ever to think on something beautiful and on something new'; 'Happiness does not reside in strength or money; it lies in rightness and many-sidedness'

Not surprisingly, some of his more enlightened contemporaries concluded that Democritus had a cheerful disposition, and said that he 'called Cheerfulness, and often Confidence, that is a mind devoid of fear, the highest good.' In other words, he enjoyed life because he had learned to control his consciousness

Playing with ideas is extremely exhilarating. Not only philosophy but the emergence of new scientific ideas is fueled by the enjoyment one obtains from creating a new way to describe reality. The tools that make the flow of thought possible are common property, and consist of the knowledge recorded in books available in schools and libraries. A person who becomes familiar with the conventions of poetry, or the rules of calculus, can subsequently grow independent of external stimulation. She can generate ordered trains of thought regardless of what is happening in external reality. When a person has learned a symbolic system well enough to use it, she has established a portable, self-contained world within the mind

People without an internalized symbolic system can all too easily become captives of the media

If we have become dependent on television, on drugs, and on facile calls to political or religious salvation, it is because we have so little to fall back on, so few internal rules to keep our mind from being taken over by those who claim to have the answers. Without the capacity to provide its own information, the mind drifts into randomness. It is within each person's power to decide whether its order will be restored from the outside, in ways over which we have no control, or whether the order will be the result of an internal pattern that grows organically from our skills and knowledge

It could be argued that the main function of conversation is not to get things accomplished, but to improve the quality of experience

Talking well enriches every interaction, and it is a skill that can be learned by everyone

The point of writing is to create information, not simply to pass it along

Writing becomes a therapy for shaping some order among the confusion of feelings

Knowledge that is seen to be controlled from the outside is acquired with reluctance, and it brings no joy. But as soon as a person decides which aspects of the past are compelling, and decides to pursue them, focusing on the sources and the details that are personally meaningful, and recording findings in a personal style, then learning history can become a full-fledged flow experience

Breakthroughs in science still depend primarily on the resources of a single mind

For centuries great scientists did their work as a hobby, because they were fascinated with the methods they had invented, rather than because they had jobs to do and fat government grants to spend

They simply did what they enjoyed doing

There is no better reason for doing science than the sense of order it brings to the mind of the seeker

'Philosophy' used to mean 'love of wisdom,' and people devoted their lives to it for that reason

As in all other branches of learning, the first step after deciding what area one wants to pursue is to learn what others have thought about the matter. By reading, talking, and listening selectively one can form an idea of what the 'state of the art' in the field is. Again, the importance of personally taking control of the direction of learning from the very first steps cannot be stressed enough. If a person feels coerced to read a certain book, to follow a given course because that is supposed to be the way to do it, learning will go against the grain. But if the decision is to take that same route because of an inner feeling of rightness, the learning will be relatively effortless and enjoyable

Someone interested in the basic characteristics of reality may drift toward ontology and read Wolff, Kant, Husserl, and Heidegger

Another person more puzzled by questions of right and wrong would take up ethics and learn about the moral philosophy of Aristotle, Aquinas, Spinoza, and Nietzsche

An interest in what is beautiful may lead to reviewing the ideas of aesthetic philosophers like Baumgarten, Croce, Santayana, and Collingwood

To write down one's insights expecting that someday they will be read with awe by posterity would be in most cases an act of hubris, that 'overweening presumption' that has caused so much mischief in human affairs. But if one records ideas in response to an inner challenge to express clearly the major questions by which one feels confronted, and tries to sketch out answers that will help make sense of one's experiences, then the amateur philosopher will have learned to derive enjoyment from one of the most difficult and rewarding tasks of life

Ideally, the end of extrinsically applied education should be the start of an education that is motivated intrinsically

'Work gives man nobility, and turns him into an animal.'

The more psychic energy we invest in material goals, and the more improbable the goals grow to be, the more difficult it becomes to make them come true. Then we need increasingly high inputs of labor, mental and physical, as well as inputs of natural resources, to satisfy escalating expectations

'It gives me a great satisfaction. To be outdoors, to talk with people, to be with my animals...I talk to everybody—plants, birds, flowers, and animals. Everything in nature keeps you company; you see nature progress every day. You feel clean and happy: too bad that you get tired and have to go home.... even when you have to work a lot it is very beautiful.'

She is perfectly content and serene with the role she plays in the universe

Young people are usually less contented with their lot, more eager for change, and more intolerant of the constraints of routine. But in this case the divergence also reflects the erosion of a traditional way of life, in which work was meaningfully related to people's identities and to their ultimate goals

'I am free, free in my work, because I do whatever I want. If I don't do something today I will do it tomorrow. I don't have a boss, I am the boss of my own life. I have kept my freedom and I have fought for my freedom.'

To perfect a life-style capable of balancing harmoniously human goals with the resources of the environment is as rare a feat as building one of the great cathedrals that fill visitors with awe

'If I were that toaster and I didn't work, what would be wrong with me?'

He has used this method of empathic identification to learn about and restore increasingly complex mechanical systems

The quality of experience of people who play with and transform the opportunities in their surroundings, as Joe did, is clearly more developed as well as more enjoyable than that of people who resign themselves to live within the constraints of the barren reality they feel they cannot alter

Work not only transforms the environment by building bridges across rivers and cultivating barren plains; it also transforms the worker from an animal guided by instincts into a conscious, goal-directed, skillful person

Yu is a synonym for the right way of following the path, or Tao: it has been translated into English as 'wandering'; as 'walking without touching the ground'; or as 'swimming,' 'flying,' and 'flowing.' Chuang Tzu believed that to Yu was the proper way to live—without concern for external rewards, spontaneously, with total commitment—in short, as a total autotelic experience

While flow is the result of a conscious attempt to master challenges, Yu occurs when the individual gives up conscious mastery. In this sense they see flow as an example of the 'Western' search for optimal experience, which according to them is based on changing objective conditions (e.g., by confronting challenges with skills), whereas Yu is an example of the 'Eastern' approach, which disregards objective conditions entirely in favor of spiritual playfulness and the transcendence of actuality

In other words, the mystical heights of the Yu are not attained by some superhuman quantum jump, but simply by the gradual focusing of attention on the opportunities for action in one's environment, which results in a perfection of skills that with time becomes so thoroughly automatic as to seem spontaneous and otherworldly

Recognizing opportunities for action where others did not, by developing skills, by focusing on the activity at hand, and allowing themselves to be lost in the interaction so that their selves could emerge stronger afterward

Thus transformed, work becomes enjoyable, and as the result of a personal investment of psychic energy, it feels as if it were freely chosen, as well

The more a job inherently resembles a game—with variety, appropriate and flexible challenges, clear goals, and immediate feedback—the more enjoyable it will be regardless of the worker's level of development

Conflict at work is often due to a person's feeling defensive out of a fear of losing face

'It is in the improvident use of our leisure, I suspect, that the greatest wastes of American life occur.'

People who learn to enjoy their work, who do not waste their free time, end up feeling that their lives as a whole have become much more worthwhile

'The future,' wrote C. K. Brightbill, 'will belong not only to the educated man, but to the man who is educated to use his leisure wisely.'

The quality of life depends on two factors: how we experience work, and our relations with other people

The most detailed information about who we are as individuals comes from those we communicate with, and from the way we accomplish our jobs

Keeping order in the mind from within is very difficult. We need external goals, external stimulation, external feedback to keep attention directed. And when external input is lacking, attention begins to wander, and thoughts become chaotic

More drastic ways of coping with the dread of solitude include the regular use of drugs, or the recourse to obsessive practices, which may range from cleaning the house incessantly to compulsive sexual behavior

The ultimate test for the ability to control the quality of experience is what a person does in solitude, with no external demands to give structure to attention

Taking each new challenge not as something to be repressed or avoided, but as an opportunity for learning and for improving skills

One can survive solitude, but only if one finds ways of ordering attention that will prevent entropy from destructuring the mind

If a person is unwilling to adjust personal goals when starting a relationship, then a lot of what subsequently happens in that relationship will produce disorder in the person's consciousness, because novel patterns of interaction will conflict with old patterns of expectation

Accepting limitations is liberating. For example, by making up one's mind to invest psychic energy exclusively in a monogamous marriage, regardless of any problems, obstacles, or more attractive options that may come along later, one is freed of the constant pressure of trying to maximize emotional returns

If the child feels that his parents are unconditionally committed to his welfare, he can then relax and explore the world without fear; otherwise he has to allocate psychic energy to his own protection, thereby reducing the amount he can freely dispose of

A community should be judged good not because it is technologically advanced, or swimming in material riches; it is good if it offers people a chance to enjoy as many aspects of their lives as possible, while allowing them to develop their potential in the pursuit of ever greater challenges

The value of a school does not depend on its prestige, or its ability to train students to face up to the necessities of life, but rather on the degree of the enjoyment of lifelong learning it can transmit

Reform yourself. That way there will be one less rascal in the world.

Those who try to make life better for everyone without having learned to control their own lives first usually end up making things worse all around

Subjective experience is not just one of the dimensions of life, it is life itself

'The fact that the mind rules the body is, in spite of its neglect by biology and medicine, the most fundamental fact which we know about the process of life.'

What does it benefit to man if he gains the entire world, but loses himself?

A major catastrophe that frustrates a central goal of life will either destroy the self, forcing a person to use all his psychic energy to erect a barrier around remaining goals, defending them against further onslaughts of fate; or it will provide a new, more clear, and more urgent goal: to overcome the challenges created by the defeat

Transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge

The peak in the development of coping skills is reached when a young man or woman has achieved a strong enough sense of self, based on personally selected goals, that no external disappointment can entirely undermine who he or she is

Those who know how to transform a hopeless situation into a new flow activity that can be controlled will be able to enjoy themselves, and emerge stronger from the ordeal

Unselfconscious self-assurance: the implicit belief that their destiny was in their hands. They did not doubt their own resources would be sufficient to allow them to determine their fate. In that sense one would call them self-assured, yet at the same time, their egos seem curiously absent: they are not self-centered; their energy is typically not bent on dominating their environment as much as on finding a way to function within it harmoniously

This attitude occurs when a person no longer sees himself in opposition to the environment, as an individual who insists that his goals, his intentions take precedence over everything else. Instead, he feels a part of whatever goes on around him, and tries to do his best within the system in which he must operate

To arrive at this level of self-assurance one must trust oneself, one's environment, and one's place in it

Focusing attention on the world: attention is alert, constantly processing information from their surroundings. The focus is still set by the person's goal, but it is open enough to notice and adapt to external events even if they are not directly relevant to what he wants to accomplish

When attention is focused away from the self, frustrations of one's desires have less of a chance to disrupt consciousness. To experience psychic entropy one must concentrate on the internal disorder; but by paying attention to what is happening around oneself instead, the destructive effects of stress are lessened

The person whose attention is immersed in the environment becomes part of it—she participates in the system by linking herself to it through psychic energy. This, in turn, makes it possible for her to understand the properties of the system, so that she can find a better way to adapt to a problematic situation

In a threatening situation it is natural to mobilize psychic energy, draw it inward, and use it as a defense against the threat. But this innate reaction more often than not compromises the ability to cope. It exacerbates the experience of inner turmoil, reduces the flexibility of response, and, perhaps worse than anything else, it isolates a person from the rest of the world, leaving him alone with his frustrations. On the other hand, if one continues to stay in touch with what is going on, new possibilities are likely to emerge, which in turn might suggest new responses, and one is less likely to be entirely cut off from the stream of life

The discovery of new solutions: focus on the entire situation, including oneself, to discover whether alternative goals may not be more appropriate, and thus different solutions possible

We all start with preconceived notions of what we want from life. These include the basic needs programmed by our genes to ensure survival—the need for food, comfort, sex, dominance over other beings. They also include the desires that our specific culture has inculcated in us—to be slim, rich, educated, and well liked. If we embrace these goals and are lucky, we may replicate the ideal physical and social image for our historical time and place. But is this the best use of our psychic energy? And what if we cannot realize these ends? We will never become aware of other possibilities unless, like the painter who watches with care what is happening on the canvas, we pay attention to what is happening around us, and evaluate events on the basis of their direct impact on how we feel, rather than evaluating them exclusively in terms of preconceived notions. If we do so we may discover that, contrary to what we were led to believe, it is more satisfying to help another person than to beat him down, or that it is more enjoyable to talk with one's two-year-old than to play golf with the company president

The difference between someone who enjoys life and someone who is overwhelmed by it is a product of a combination of such external factors and the way a person has come to interpret them—that is, whether he sees challenges as threats or as opportunities for action

The 'autotelic self' is one that easily translates potential threats into enjoyable challenges, and therefore maintains its inner harmony

'A self that has self-contained goals'

For most people, goals are shaped directly by biological needs and social conventions, and therefore their origin is outside the self. For an autotelic person, the primary goals emerge from experience evaluated in consciousness, and therefore from the self proper

Setting goals: To be able to experience flow, one must have clear goals to strive for. A person with an autotelic self learns to make choices without much fuss and the minimum of panic

Selecting a goal is related to the recognition of challenges

As soon as the goals and challenges define a system of action, they in turn suggest the skills necessary to operate within it

To develop skills, one needs to pay attention to the results of one's actions—to monitor the feedback

It is she who has chosen whatever goal she is pursuing. What she does is not random, nor is it the result of outside determining forces. This fact results in two seemingly opposite outcomes. On the one hand, having a feeling of ownership of her decisions, the person is more strongly dedicated to her goals. Her actions are reliable and internally controlled. On the other hand, knowing them to be her own, she can more easily modify her goals whenever the reasons for preserving them no longer make sense. In that respect, an autotelic person's behavior is both more consistent and more flexible

Becoming immersed in the activity: After choosing a system of action, a person with an autotelic personality grows deeply involved with whatever he is doing

One must learn to balance the opportunities for action with the skills one possesses

One must find a relatively close mesh between the demands of the environment and one's capacity to act

Involvement is greatly facilitated by the ability to concentrate. People who suffer from attentional disorders, who cannot keep their minds from wandering, always feel left out of the flow of life. They are at the mercy of whatever stray stimulus happens to flash by. To be distracted against one's will is the surest sign that one is not in control. Yet it is amazing how little effort most people make to improve control of their attention. If reading a book seems too difficult, instead of sharpening concentration we tend to set it aside and instead turn on the television, which not only requires minimal attention, but in fact tends to diffuse what little it commands with choppy editing, commercial interruptions, and generally inane content

Paying attention to what is happening: Concentration leads to involvement, which can only be maintained by constant inputs of attention

Selfconsciousness, which is the most common source of distraction, is not a problem for such a person. Instead of worrying about how he is doing, how he looks from the outside, he is wholeheartedly committed to his goals

It is the very lack of self-consciousness that makes deep involvement possible

A person who pays attention to an interaction instead of worrying about the self obtains a paradoxical result. She no longer feels like a separate individual, yet her self becomes stronger. The autotelic individual grows beyond the limits of individuality by investing psychic energy in a system in which she is included. Because of this union of the person and the system, the self emerges at a higher level of complexity. This is why 'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all

Learning to enjoy immediate experience: Being in control of the mind means that literally anything that happens can be a source of joy

To achieve this control, however, requires determination and discipline

A relaxed, laissez-faire attitude is not a sufficient defense against chaos

One must develop skills that stretch capacities, that make one become more than what one is

Flow drives individuals to creativity and outstanding achievement. The necessity to develop increasingly refined skills to sustain enjoyment is what lies behind the evolution of culture. It motivates both individuals and cultures to change into more complex entities. The rewards of creating order in experience provide the energy that propels evolution—they pave the way for those dimly imagined descendants of ours, more complex and wise than we are, who will soon take our place

It is also necessary to have an overall context of goals for the events of everyday life to make sense. If a person moves from one flow activity to another without a connecting order, it will be difficult at the end of one's life to look back on the years past and find meaning in what has happened. To create harmony in whatever one does is the last task that the flow theory presents to those who wish to attain optimal experience; it is a task that involves transforming the entirety of life into a single flow activity, with unified goals that provide constant purpose

Having achieved flow in one activity does not necessarily guarantee that it will be carried over to the rest of life

If we enjoyed work and friendships, and faced every challenge as an opportunity to develop new skills, we would be getting rewards out of living that are outside the realm of ordinary life

Even this would not be enough to assure us of optimal experience. As long as enjoyment follows piecemeal from activities not linked to one another in a meaningful way, one is still vulnerable to the vagaries of chaos

Turn all life into a unified flow experience

If a person sets out to achieve a difficult enough goal, from which all other goals logically follow, and if he or she invests all energy in developing skills to reach that goal, then actions and feelings will be in harmony, and the separate parts of life will fit together—and each activity will 'make sense' in the present, as well as in view of the past and of the future. In such a way, it is possible to give meaning to one's entire life

It is true that life has no meaning, if by that we mean a supreme goal built into the fabric of nature and human experience, a goal that is valid for every individual. But it does not follow that life cannot be given meaning. Much of what we call culture and civilization consists in efforts people have made, generally against overwhelming odds, to create a sense of purpose for themselves and their descendants. It is one thing to recognize that life is, by itself, meaningless. It is another thing entirely to accept this with resignation. The first fact does not entail the second any more than the fact that we lack wings prevents us from flying

From the point of view of an individual, it does not matter what the ultimate goal is—provided it is compelling enough to order a lifetime's worth of psychic energy. As long as it provides clear objectives, clear rules for action, and a way to concentrate and become involved, any goal can serve to give meaning to a person's life

'There is nothing to it. We don't get upset because we believe that our life is in God's hands, and whatever He decides will be fine with us.'

Meaning

Its first usage points toward the end, purpose, significance of something, as in: What is the meaning of life? This sense of the word reflects the assumption that events are linked to each other in terms of an ultimate goal; that there is a temporal order, a causal connection between them. It assumes that phenomena are not random, but fall into recognizable patterns directed by a final purpose

The second usage of the word refers to a person's intentions: She usually means well. What this sense of meaning implies is that people reveal their purposes in action; that their goals are expressed in predictable, consistent, and orderly ways

The third sense in which the word is used refers to ordering information, as when one says: Otorhinolaryngology means the study of ear, nose, and throat, or: Red sky in the evening means good weather in the morning. This sense of meaning points to the identity of different words, the relationship between events, and thus it helps to clarify, to establish order among unrelated or conflicting information

People who find their lives meaningful usually have a goal that is challenging enough to take up all their energies, a goal that can give significance to their lives. We may refer to this process as achieving purpose

To experience flow one must set goals for one's actions. The goal in itself is usually not important; what matters is that it focuses a person's attention and involves it in an achievable, enjoyable activity

The meaning of life is meaning: whatever it is, wherever it comes from, a unified purpose is what gives meaning to life

It is not enough to find a purpose that unifies one's goals; one must also carry through and meet its challenges. The purpose must result in strivings; intent has to be translated into action

What counts is not so much whether a person actually achieves what she has set out to do; rather, it matters whether effort has been expended to reach the goal, instead of being diffused or wasted

Few things are sadder than encountering a person who knows exactly what he should do, yet cannot muster enough energy to do it

When an important goal is pursued with resolution, and all one's varied activities fit together into a unified flow experience, the result is that harmony is brought to consciousness. Someone who knows his desires and works with purpose to achieve them is a person whose feelings, thoughts, and actions are congruent with one another, and is therefore a person who has achieved inner harmony

Someone who is in harmony no matter what he does, no matter what is happening to him, knows that his psychic energy is not being wasted on doubt, regret, guilt, and fear, but is always usefully employed. Inner congruence ultimately leads to that inner strength and serenity we admire in people who seem to have come to terms with themselves

Purpose, resolution, and harmony unify life and give it meaning by transforming it into a seamless flow experience. Whoever achieves this state will never really lack anything else. A person whose consciousness is so ordered need not fear unexpected events, or even death. Every living moment will make sense, and most of it will be enjoyable

In the lives of many people it is possible to find a unifying purpose that justifies the things they do day in, day out—a goal that like a magnetic field attracts their psychic energy, a goal upon which all lesser goals depend. This goal will define the challenges that a person needs to face in order to transform his or her life into a flow activity. Without such a purpose, even the best-ordered consciousness lacks meaning

Ultimate goals must accommodate the issue of mortality: they must give men and women a purpose that extends beyond the grave

Every human culture, by definition, contains meaning systems that can serve as the encompassing purpose by which individuals can order their goals

People in a sensate culture are not necessarily more materialistic, but they organize their goals and justify their behavior with reference primarily to pleasure and practicality rather than to more abstract principles. The challenges they see are almost exclusively concerned with making life more easy, more comfortable, more pleasant. They tend to identify the good with what feels good and mistrust idealized values

Deational cultures are organized on a principle opposite from the sensate: they look down on the tangible and strive for nonmaterial, supernatural ends. They emphasize abstract principles, asceticism, and transcendence of material concerns. Art, religion, philosophy, and the justification of everyday behavior tend to be subordinated to the realization of this spiritual order. People turn their attention to religion or ideology, and view their challenges not in terms of making life easier, but of reaching inner clarity and conviction

In our sensate culture, the body is cultivated in order to achieve health and pleasure. In an ideational culture, the body is valued primarily as a symbol of some abstract principle of metaphysical perfection associated with the idea of the 'Aryan race,' or 'Roman valor.' In a sensate culture, a poster of a handsome youth might produce a sexual response to be used for commercial ends. In an ideational culture, the same poster would make an ideological statement, and be used for political ends

The idealistic solution seems to be the preferable one, as it avoids the listlessness that is often the keynote of purely materialistic worldviews and the fanatical asceticism that bedevils many ideational systems

The sensate option is always quite popular. It involves responding to concrete challenges, and shaping one's life in terms of a flow activity that tends toward material ends. Among its advantages is the fact that the rules are comprehended by everyone and that feedback tends to be clear—the desirability of health, money, power, and sexual satisfaction is seldom controversial

The ideational option also has its advantages: metaphysical goals may never be achieved, but then failure is almost impossible to prove: the true believer can always distort feedback to use it as a proof that he has been right, that he is among the chosen

Perhaps what matters most is not whether a person is materialist or ideational, but how differentiated and integrated are the goals he or she pursues in those areas

Each man or woman starts with a need to preserve the self, to keep the body and its basic goals from disintegrating. At this point the meaning of life is simple; it is tantamount to survival, comfort, and pleasure. When the safety of the physical self is no longer in doubt, the person may expand the horizon of his or her meaning system to embrace the values of a community—the family, the neighborhood, a religious or ethnic group. This step leads to a greater complexity of the self, even though it usually implies conformity to conventional norms and standards. The next step in development involves reflective individualism. The person again turns inward, finding new grounds for authority and value within the self. He or she is no longer blindly conforming, but develops an autonomous conscience. At this point the main goal in life becomes the desire for growth, improvement, the actualization of potential. The fourth step, which builds on all the previous ones, is a final turning away from the self, back toward an integration with other people and with universal values. In this final stage the extremely individualized person willingly merges his interests with those of a larger whole

Building a complex meaning system seems to involve focusing attention alternately on the self and on the Other. First, psychic energy is invested in the needs of the organism, and psychic order is equivalent to pleasure. When this level is temporarily achieved, and the person can begin to invest attention in the goals of a community, what is meaningful corresponds to group values—religion, patriotism, and the acceptance and respect of other people provide the parameters of inner order. The next movement of the dialectic brings attention back to the self: having achieved a sense of belonging to a larger human system, the person now feels the challenge of discerning the limits of personal potential. This leads to attempts at self-actualization, to experimentation with different skills, different ideas and disciplines. At this stage enjoyment, rather than pleasure, becomes the main source of rewards. But because this phase involves becoming a seeker, the person may also encounter a midlife crisis, a career change, and an increasingly desperate straining against the limitations of individual capability. From this point on the person is ready for the last shift in the redirection of energy: having discovered what one can and, more important, cannot do alone, the ultimate goal merges with a system larger than the person—a cause, an idea, a transcendental entity

When survival demands are so insistent that a person cannot devote much attention to anything else, he or she will not have enough psychic energy left to invest in the goals of the family or of the wider community

Complexity requires that we invest energy in developing whatever skills we were born with, in becoming autonomous, self-reliant, conscious of our uniqueness and of its limitations. At the same time we must invest energy in recognizing, understanding, and finding ways to adapt to the forces beyond the boundaries of our own individuality. Of course we don't have to undertake any of these plans. But if we don't, chances are, sooner or later, we will regret it

Goals can lead into all sorts of trouble, at which point one gets tempted to give them up and find some less demanding script by which to order one's actions. The price one pays for changing goals whenever opposition threatens is that while one may achieve a more pleasant and comfortable life, it is likely that it will end up empty and void of meaning

They followed the logic of their convictions wherever it led, acting as if their values were worth giving up comfort, and even life itself, for. And because they acted thus, their goals in fact became worthwhile regardless of whether they had been originally valuable. Because their goals had become valuable through commitment, they helped give meaning to the Pilgrims' existence

No goal can have much effect unless taken seriously. Each goal prescribes a set of consequences, and if one isn't prepared to reckon with them, the goal becomes meaningless

There is a mutual relationship between goals and the effort they require. Goals justify the effort they demand at the outset, but later it is the effort that justifies the goal. One gets married because the spouse seems worthy of sharing one's life with, but unless one then behaves as if this is true, the partnership will appear to lose value with time

Billions of parents, in every age and in every culture, have sacrificed themselves for their children, and thereby made life more meaningful for themselves

As the complexity of culture evolves, it becomes more difficult to achieve this degree of total resolve. There are simply too many goals competing for prominence, and who is to say which one is worth the dedication of an entire life?

The wealth of options we face today has extended personal freedom to an extent that would have been inconceivable even a hundred years ago. But the inevitable consequence of equally attractive choices is uncertainty of purpose; uncertainty, in turn, saps resolution, and lack of resolve ends up devaluing choice. Therefore freedom does not necessarily help develop meaning in life—on the contrary. If the rules of a game become too flexible, concentration flags, and it is more difficult to attain a flow experience. Commitment to a goal and to the rules it entails is much easier when the choices are few and clear

There is no one out there to tell us, 'Here is a goal worth spending your life on.' Because there is no absolute certainty to which to turn, each person must discover ultimate purpose on his or her own. Through trial and error, through intense cultivation, we can straighten out the tangled skein of conflicting goals, and choose the one that will give purpose to action

Self-knowledge—an ancient remedy so old that its value is easily forgotten—is the process through which one may organize conflicting options

Vita activa, a life of action, and the vita contemplativa, or the path of reflection

Immersed in the vita activa, a person achieves flow through total involvement in concrete external challenges

Successful executives, experienced professionals, and talented craftspeople learn to trust their judgment and competence so that they again begin to act with the unselfconscious spontaneity of children

If the arena for action is challenging enough, a person may experience flow continuously in his or her calling, thus leaving as little room as possible for noticing the entropy of normal life. In this way harmony is restored to consciousness indirectly—not by facing up to contradictions and trying to resolve conflicting goals and desires, but by pursuing chosen goals with such intensity that all potential competition is preempted

Detached reflection upon experience, a realistic weighing of options and their consequences, have long been held to be the best approach to a good life. Whether it is played out on the psychoanalyst's couch, where repressed desires are laboriously reintegrated with the rest of consciousness, or whether it is performed as methodically as the Jesuits' test of conscience, which involves reviewing one's actions one or more times each day to check whether what one has been doing in the past few hours has been consistent with long-term goals, self-knowledge can be pursued in innumerable ways, each leading potentially to greater inner harmony

Action by itself is blind, reflection impotent. Before investing great amounts of energy in a goal, it pays to raise the fundamental questions: Is this something I really want to do? Is it something I enjoy doing? Am I likely to enjoy it in the foreseeable future? Is the price that I—and others—will have to pay worth it? Will I be able to live with myself if I accomplish it?

If a man has not bothered to find out what he wants, if his attention is so wrapped up in external goals that he fails to notice his own feelings, then he cannot plan action meaningfully. On the other hand, if the habit of reflection is well developed, a person need not go through a lot of soul-searching to decide whether a course of action is entropic or not. He will know, almost intuitively, that this promotion will produce more stress than it is worth, or that this particular friendship, attractive as it is, would lead to unacceptable tensions in the context of marriage

It is relatively easy to bring order to the mind for short stretches of time; any realistic goal can accomplish this. A good game, an emergency at work, a happy interlude at home will focus attention and produce the harmonious experience of flow. But it is much more difficult to extend this state of being through the entirety of life. For this it is necessary to invest energy in goals that are so persuasive that they justify effort even when our resources are exhausted and when fate is merciless in refusing us a chance at having a comfortable life. If goals are well chosen, and if we have the courage to abide by them despite opposition, we shall be so focused on the actions and events around us that we won't have the time to be unhappy. And then we shall directly feel a sense of order in the warp and the woof of life that fits every thought and emotion into a harmonious whole

The original condition of human beings, prior to the development of selfreflective consciousness, must have been a state of inner peace disturbed only now and again by tides of hunger, sexuality, pain, and danger. The forms of psychic entropy that currently cause us so much anguish—unfulfilled wants, dashed expectations, loneliness, frustration, anxiety, guilt—are all likely to have been recent invaders of the mind. They are by-products of the tremendous increase in complexity of the cerebral cortex and of the symbolic enrichment of culture. They are the dark side of the emergence of consciousness

Animals' skills are always matched to concrete demands because their minds, such as they are, only contain information about what is actually present in the environment in relation to their bodily states, as determined by instinct. So a hungry lion only perceives what will help it to find a gazelle, while a sated lion concentrates fully on the warmth of the sun. Its mind does not weigh possibilities unavailable at the moment; it neither imagines pleasant alternatives, nor is it disturbed by fears of failure

Ut animals other than man are not in a position to be the cause of their own suffering; they are not evolved enough to be able to feel confusion and despair even after all their needs are satisfied. When free of externally induced conflicts, they are in harmony with themselves and experience the seamless concentration that in people we call flow

The psychic entropy peculiar to the human condition involves seeing more to do than one can actually accomplish and feeling able to accomplish more than what conditions allow. But this becomes possible only if one keeps in mind more than one goal at a time, being aware at the same time of conflicting desires. It can happen only when the mind knows not only what is but also what could be. The more complex any system, the more room it leaves open for alternatives, and the more things can go wrong with it

The inner harmony of technologically less advanced people is the positive side of their limited choices and of their stable repertory of skills, just as the confusion in our soul is the necessary consequence of unlimited opportunities and constant perfectibility

A child is rarely unhappy without good reason. It is understandable that people tend to be so nostalgic about their early years; like Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich, many feel that the wholehearted serenity of childhood, the undivided participation in the here and now, becomes increasingly difficult to recapture as the years go by

Choices are free, and makes a personal decision based on a rational evaluation of his experience. It does not matter what the choice is, as long as it is an expression of what the person genuinely feels and believes. Inauthentic projects are those a person chooses because they are what she feels ought to be done, because they are what everybody else is doing, and therefore there is no alternative. Authentic projects tend to be intrinsically motivated, chosen for what they are worth in themselves; inauthentic ones are motivated by external forces. A similar distinction is that between discovered life themes, when a person writes the script for her actions out of personal experience and awareness of choice; and accepted life themes, when a person simply takes on a predetermined role from a script written long ago by others

The strategy consists in extracting from the order achieved by past generations patterns that will help avoid disorder in one's own mind. There is much knowledge—or well-ordered information—accumulated in culture, ready for this use. Great music, architecture, art, poetry, drama, dance, philosophy, and religion are there for anyone to see as examples of how harmony can be imposed on chaos. Yet so many people ignore them, expecting to create meaning in their lives by their own devices

At its best, literature contains ordered information about behavior, models of purpose, and examples of lives successfully patterned around meaningful goals. Many people confronted with the randomness of existence have drawn hope from the knowledge that others before them had faced similar problems, and had been able to prevail

The most promising faith for the future might be based on the realization that the entire universe is a system related by common laws and that it makes no sense to impose our dreams and desires on nature without taking them into account. Recognizing the limitations of human will, accepting a cooperative rather than a ruling role in the universe, we should feel the relief of the exile who is finally returning home. The problem of meaning will then be resolved as the individual's purpose merges with the universal flow