Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934-now) is a Hungarian-American psychologist best known for his analysis of flow. Wikipedia says,
"In his seminal work, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csikszentmihalyi outlines his theory that people are happiest when they are in a state of flow - a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation." (Wikipedia: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 8.4.23 UTC 05:45)
The rest of this post is some quotes from Csikszentmihalyi.
Flow
"Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz." (AZQuotes.com)
"Contrary to what most of us believe, happiness does not simply happen to us. Its something that we make happen, and it results from doing our best." (Good Business, 2004)
"The best moments in our lives are not the passive receptive, relaxing times... the best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limited in voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." (AZQuotes.com)
"Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives... most of the things that are interesting, important and human are the results of creativity... when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life." (AZQuotes.com)
"If you are interested in something, you will focus on it, and if you focus attention on anything, it is likely that you will become interested in it. Many of the things we find interesting are not so by nature, but because we took the trouble of paying attention to them." (Finding Flow, 1997)
