20100611

Is your life "a formless blur" or "a work of art"?

Just started to read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's (a name that's about as difficult to spell and to pronounce as Eyjafjallajoekull, the area in Iceland where the volcano erupted recently) book Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. I find the following sentences extracted from Chapter 1 very meaningful:

"...what our life is consists in experiences related to work, to keeping things we already from falling apart, and to whatever else we do in our free time. It is within these parameters that life unfolds, and it is how we choose what we do, and how we approach it, that will determine whether the sum of our days adds up to a formless blur, or to something resembling a work of art."

"A formless blur" or "a work of art". These are pretty good analogies about how our life could be shaping up. And I believe that is where the theme of the book, "flow", comes in nicely. The more we maximise our chances of having flow experiences, where flow is defined as "the sense of effortless action [people] feel in moments that stand out as the best in their lives", the closer our life will be to a work of art.

One thing I'll find out is the extent to which reading this book resembles a "flow experience".

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