The Secret to Happiness Lies in Having Passion for What You Do

Your quality of life doesn’t depend only on happiness. It also depends on what you do in order to be happy. If you don’t develop goals to give meaning to your own existence, if you don’t use your mind to its full capacity, then the good feelings will only fill a small fraction of the potential we possess.

After dedicating decades to studying the states in which people reached their maximum potential, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s studies indicate that people are happier when the reach a state of high concentration. A state which this author called “flow”.

This state can be reached when we experience positive emotions such as happiness, strength or a positive attitude. All states known as “psychic negentropy”. By not wasting attention on ruminating and feeling sorry for ourselves, the psychic energy can flow freely towards any thought or task in which we decide to invest it.

On the contrary, negative emotions, such as sadness, fear, anxiety or boredom produce “psychic entropy”. That is to say, a state in which we can’t efficiently use our attention to face external tasks, because we need it to restore an inner subjective order.

“Happiness depends on ourselves.”

-Aristotle-

The state of “flow” plays a major role in people’s ability to be happy

In order to better understand a state of “flow”, it might be convenient to first analyze the complete opposite state. That would be a state in which there is no order in the consciousness, one in which thoughts appear and disappear by whim. We are unable to control them. It is a very unpleasant state that tends to be linked to other problems, such as insecurity, depression or anxiety. And if it repeats itself often, it can make people very unhappy.

The opposite of this would be a state of flowing, where the mind flows, one feels completely alert and in control of oneself. You feel worry-free and with a pleasant sensation of doing the right thing. Everything makes sense, and the problems we encounter seem like exciting challenges which we face with pleasure. We don’t see them as threats to our well-being or personal security.

Diverse studies seem to indicate that some factors such as money actually have a relative role in our happiness. Money, for example, is important when we have a small amount. The same goes for food. It is very important when you are starving to death. But, the more money you have, the less it influences our happiness.

In regards to the levels of purchasing power we enjoy in developed countries, there are other factors that determine our happiness which are much more important than money. Instead, enjoying the states of flow makes an individual feel more confident about themselves, less anxious and happier.

“Art and sports are cultural forms whose sole purpose is to provide the state of flow.”

-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi-

Happiness can be found in Mondays

Mondays tend to be the worst days of the week. It is almost a curse word for many people, because it means going back to work. But Csikszentmihalyi, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Stanford, has detected a paradox. Work is more conductive than leisure towards what he calls “the state of flow”. And this state is comparable to happiness.

The key is in that, for many people, leisure is wasted time, and work is the complete opposite. Having clear objectives, being able to manage them and receiving feedback is the key to achieving “flow”. The state of flow is essentially that. The ability to concentrate your mental energy and attention on the plans and goals of your choice. And additionally, for you to feel like it’s worth it to perform them, because you have chosen this type of life, and you enjoy every second of what you do.