WATCH: Are You ‘In’ On The Secret Of Happiness?
Today, I got to talk about ‘The Secret of Happiness’. There was a really interesting researcher called Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Who did some phenomenal research on the Psychology of Optimal Experience. He wrote about his studies and you can read about it in a book called ‘Flow’.
“Skill”
I’m going to talk to you about how he developed the research and what he discovered. So, he put together an axis that said, the people who are happy in life and who have sustainable happiness throughout their lives are able to balance ‘Skill’. And, the amount of skill that they have, in the amount of skill that they develop with ‘Challenge’. And, the amount of challenge they seek in life and the amount of challenge they have in their work. And, what he discovered was, that people who have a ‘High Level of Challenge’ and ‘Not Much Skill’, well you can imagine they begin to burnout. So, they’re not very happy bunnies.
“Challenge”
But, also he found that there are a lot of people who have ‘A Lot of Skill’ but ‘Not Much Challenge’. And, they then tend to get bored or even get depressed. Because they’re not utilising their skills. And, the people who are genuinely happy, are able to find a very fine balance between ensuring that they have enough skill. But when they feel they have enough skill, they seek out more challenge to utilise those skills and really develop them. And, then they seek out more skill, more challenge, more skill, more challenge. Until they live a fulfilling life where they have this balance between the two.
So, I’d like you to think about where you are, how much skill and challenge you have. Whether it’s too much or too little. And, also how you can then live within a band of seeking out just the right amount of challenge and just the right amount of skill. So, you’re always developing yourself and staying within that band. Because what he said was, he called that, the people who were genuinely happy. He called that ‘Being in the Flow’.
And, that’s where that term comes from. The research that he did and he published his book back in 1990. And, it’s now become a common term to be in the flow. So, when are you in the flow? When are you not in the flow? And, when are your people in the flow and when are they not in the flow? And what do you need to do to either increase the amount of skill that they have or increase the amount of challenge that they have? So, they can be happy in their work. And then you can be happy too.
So, when it comes to The Secret of Happiness,
Stay Curious!
I would be interested to hear your thoughts and opinions about any of the above so drop me a line at david@Talent4Performance.co.uk.
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Remember . . . Stay Curious!
With best regards,
David Klaasen
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©David Klaasen – 2014
