Mihai Chiksentmihayli: Stream. Psychology of Optimal Experience

• Stream - a state of optimal human experience, a complete merger with their work. Brings a sense of inspiration and special joy.
• Despite the difference in cultural levels, all people describe the state of joy in approximately the same way.
• People who have learned to control their experiences can themselves influence the quality of their lives.

Three decades ago, in psychology, a term was born and quickly gained popularity, which causes associations with anything but academic science — flow. This is a state of optimal human experience - complete merging with one’s own business, absorption by it, when you do not feel the time, yourself, when instead of fatigue there is a constant surge of energy ...

Psychologist Mihai Chiksentmihayli discovered him, exploring the life of creative individuals, but the "stream" is not the exclusive possession of some special people. The “stream” does not descend on us as grace, but is generated by our meaningful efforts, it is in our hands. And the state of the “flow” is one of the most beautiful things in our life.

Dominance over fate

We all had to experience moments when we feel not the blows of anonymous forces, but control over our actions, domination over our own destiny. In these rare moments, we feel enthusiastic, special joy. These feelings remain in our hearts for a long time and serve as a guideline for our lives.

When the sailor, holding the right course, feels the wind whistle in his ears, the sailboat glides over the waves, sails, sides, wind and waves merge into a harmony that vibrates in the veins of the sailor. When the artist feels that the colors on the canvas, come to life, are attracted to each other and a new living form is suddenly born in front of the astonished master. When a father sees how his child answers his smile for the first time.

This, however, occurs not only when external circumstances are favorable. Those who survived concentration camps or were faced with mortal danger say that often, despite the severity of the situation, they somehow especially fully and vividly perceived ordinary events, such as bird singing in the forest, completion of hard work, or the taste of bread shared with a friend .

Happiness

Happiness is not at all what happens to us. This is not the result of luck or luck. It cannot be bought for money or achieved by force. It does not depend on what is happening around the events, but on how we interpret them.

Happiness is a condition for which everyone should prepare, grow it and keep it within themselves. People who have learned to control their experiences can themselves influence the quality of their lives. Only in this way can each of us come closer to being happy.

Optimal experience

Contrary to popular belief, the best moments of our lives come to us not in a state of relaxation or passive perception. Of course, relaxation can also be a pleasure, for example, after hard work. But the best moments usually happen when the body and mind are strained to the limit in the effort to achieve something difficult and valuable.

Both the optimal experience itself and the conditions for its occurrence are the same for all cultures and peoples

We ourselves generate the optimal experience: when a child with trembling fingers puts the last cube on top of the highest tower that he has ever built, when the swimmer makes the last effort to break his record, when the violinist copes with a difficult musical passage.

For each of us there are thousands of opportunities, tasks through which we can reveal ourselves. The immediate sensations experienced at these moments do not have to be pleasant. During the decisive swim, the athlete’s muscles may ache from tension, and the lungs may burst due to lack of air, he may lose consciousness from fatigue - and nevertheless, these will be the best moments of his life.

Favourite buisness

The first surprise was the high similarity of sensations experienced by people during the time when they were doing their favorite thing and they did it well. So, a swimmer crossing the English Channel experienced feelings very similar to those experienced by a chess player during an intense tournament, or those that a climber had to overcome a difficult section of rock on the way to the top.

The musician working on a difficult musical passage, a black teenager from poor neighborhoods of New York, participating in the final of the basketball championship, and many, many others told about such impressions.

Despite the difference in cultural levels, the degree of economic well-being, people described the state of joy in the same way

The second surprise was that, despite the difference in cultural levels, degree of economic well-being, social affiliation, gender, age of these people, they all described the state of joy in approximately the same way. Their activities were very different: an elderly Korean meditated, a young Japanese worn a motorcycle with a gang of rockers, a resident of an alpine village looked after animals, but the description of the experiences almost coincided.

Moreover, explaining why this activity brings them joy, people pointed to similar reasons. We can say with confidence: both the optimal experience itself and the conditions for its occurrence are the same for all cultures and peoples.

Joy in everyday life

In the course of the development of mankind, each culture developed certain protective mechanisms that make it easier for a person to exist. This includes religion, art, and philosophy. One of their tasks was to help a person cope with the destructive effects of universal chaos, to help believe that a person can control what is happening to him, to help him feel satisfied with life and destiny.

However, such mechanisms provide only temporary protection. Over time, established religious beliefs "wear out", losing the ability to provide the peace of mind we need.

The key to happiness lies in the ability to control yourself, your feelings and impressions

Deprived of spiritual support, people often find a solution to the problem of satisfaction with life in collecting all kinds of pleasures and entertainments based on genetic programs or determined by society. Many today go through life, guided by a thirst for wealth, power or sex.

However, the quality of life cannot be improved in this way. The key to happiness lies in the ability to control yourself, your feelings and impressions, thus finding joy in the everyday life around us.

Make sense

In order to turn your whole life into one bright and exciting "streaming" experience, it is not enough just to learn to control the content of your consciousness at any given moment. It is also necessary to have a global system of interconnected life goals, which is able to give meaning to each specific business that a person is engaged in.

If you simply switch from one type of streaming activity to another without any connection between them and without any global perspectives, it is very likely that looking back at your life you will not find any meaning in it. The task of the theory of “flow” is to teach a person to achieve harmony in all his endeavors.

Goals are in themselves

An “auto personality” we call a person who can turn real or potential threats into tasks that bring joy. This is a man who never gets bored, rarely worries, pays attention to what is happening around him, and taking up a business, he is easily carried away by him, entering the flow state at the same time.

The term “autotelic personality” itself means “a person whose goals are within herself”, it reflects the self-sufficiency, autonomy of the person, her ability to set goals on her own. For most people, goals are usually set by biological instincts or formed by society, that is, the sources of goals are "outside."

For an autotelic person, most of the goals follow from a conscious assessment of one’s experiences and reflects their true needs. An autothelial personality is able to transform the chaos of the environment into the experience of “flow”.

Living “contrary”

Examples of how people find a “stream” in life, despite their misfortunes, were collected and processed by the University of Milan professor Fausto Massimini. One of the groups he studied included young people who, as a result of injuries or accidents, received limb paralysis. One of the most unexpected results of his research was that even years after the misfortune that happened to them, these people ambiguously evaluated the tragic incident that changed their life.

On the one hand, it was a tragedy. But on the other, it was she who opened for them an unknown, much more perfect world - the world of "limited choice." Those patients who were able to cope with new tasks and problems that arose as a result of their mutilation spoke about the appearance of clear and distinct goals in life that they did not have before. At the same time, young people felt real pride in the fact that they had learned to live not “thanks”, but “contrary”.

The eight components of the flow

When people describe their experiences in moments of joy, they mention at least one of the following components (and often all eight):

• Feasibility, achievability of goals, solvability of the task
• The ability to concentrate on what a person is doing.
• Clear goals.
• Clear and immediate feedback to adjust movement toward the goal.
• Complete preoccupation with the problem, the release of consciousness from the worries and anxieties of everyday life.
• The feeling of complete control over what is happening.
• The person’s lack of thoughts about himself in the stream (however, after a person has been in the stream, his personality becomes stronger, more vivid).
• The feeling of the passage of time in the process of “flow” can vary within wide limits: seconds stretch like a clock, hours fly by like a second.

The combination of all these conditions causes that feeling of deep joy for which the people who have experienced it are ready to spend an incredible amount of time and effort again and again.

About the expert

The author of the term and theory of "flow", one of the most respected and respected psychologists in the world. Professor at Clermont College, author of a dozen books, including the famous Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience, Harper and Row, 1990.

Mihai Chiksentmihayli - American psychologist of Hungarian descent. His work, entitled Stream: Psychology of Optimal Experience, provides an explanation for the concept of happiness. This state is achieved due to the effort of the will and the work of man on his inner filling. A professor of psychology proved that in the process of activity that brings the individual pleasure, inspiration and joy, a certain flow is born. This state is intertwined with the energy of the universe. It seems to a man as if he could influence not only his life, but also the events around him. Truly happy is the person who learned to control their own experiences, found a favorite thing and fell into a state of flow.

In the 90s of the last century, psychologist Mihai Chiksentmihayli discovered a new term - flow. This energy state is born during an optimal experience, when the individual merges completely with his business and is so absorbed in him that he sees nothing around. Surrendering to your favorite pastime, a person instead of fatigue feels a surge of strength. Such a state is inherent not only to creative personalities, but also to ordinary workers. The flow is generated by the effort of the will and the meaningful actions of man.

What could be better than a situation where it is not fate that rules over the individual, but he over her. This condition is accompanied by enthusiasm and special joy. A sense of dominance over fate gives a person strength and serves as a positive guide in life.

Optimal experience is a state where the sailor who controls the sailboat is on the right track and identifies himself with the sea element. Or when an artist feels how the colors in his painting come to life and are attracted to each other. A person begins to appreciate life at the moment of strong emotional excitement and emotional stress.

There are a huge number of books that teach how to become rich, slim or attractive. However, having solved a single problem, a person does not experience happiness. The individual again finds himself at the starting position in the search for new solutions to satisfy the next wish list. If you do not change your attitude to life, no resolved problems will help to become happy.

No book can give a person a recipe for happiness. An individual living in harmony with the outside world is constantly busy with something. Happiness comes at a time when a person controls his thoughts, emotions and experiences.

Before controlling life, it is recommended that you learn to control your own consciousness. All the feelings an individual experiences are information. It is important to learn how to organize it and use it for its intended purpose. You can set goals and seek to translate them into reality. However, to solve the set tasks you need to have the appropriate skills. When a person moves toward a goal, he ceases to pay attention to secondary things. However, he has to constantly overcome some difficulties. In the process of combating difficulties, experiences are born that give the individual the greatest joy.

By controlling his energy and spending it on a chosen goal, a person becomes a more complex person. In the process of improving his own skills and solving more difficult problems, the individual is constantly developing.

There are many activities that give a person maximum pleasure. If an individual is engaged in creativity, sports or just a favorite thing, he experiences enthusiasm and a certain flow of energy. An interesting lesson gives a person a sense of elation, regardless of the end result.

True, constantly devoting himself to his beloved hobby, one cannot hope for a quality improvement in life. The sensation of flow gives a person in other areas. This skill should be used in professional activities.

No one is immune from the blows of fate. If a person knows how to properly respond to troubles, to control his state of mind, he will be able to become happy, despite the vicissitudes of life. You can find a way out of any situation, because the main thing is not a problem, but an attitude to it.

You can become the master of your life if you learn to control your consciousness, organize your own thoughts and fill your existence with some meaning. True, to realize this venture is not so simple. For the sake of gaining a stream, one must be prepared to overcome many difficulties.

It can be difficult for a person to determine his desires and how to achieve them. The norms, laws, traditions, religion existing in society come to his aid. Living by the rules, a person gains spiritual support and is content with his lot. True, often an individual wants more. However, neither wealth nor power can make a person happy if he is not able to value life and experience satisfaction from its slightest manifestations.

Dissatisfaction with life is rooted in fear of the problems that people face on planet Earth. Fear of dangers and diseases knocks the soil from under the feet. It seems to people that the planet is indifferent to them. Humanity does not have the strength to overcome social injustice, to eliminate hunger or disease.

However, regardless of what is happening around the person can be happy. If you learn to control consciousness, life on the planet will not seem so terrible. In addition, each individual knows what he wants to achieve in life. If at least some steps are taken towards the cherished goal, a person already feels happy.

Each individual must understand that he himself needs to fill his life with meaning and joy. True, this is not so simple. A person often acts irrationally due to improper attitudes or experiences. Even with complexes and problems, the individual is able to improve his life.

The individual is able to turn his own existence into an exciting stream, if he gives meaning to the business in which he is engaged. Switching from one activity to another is necessary so that all actions serve one purpose.

To find a solution to any problem can only be strong, wise experience and knowledge of the individual. They are able to transform the surrounding disorder for their own good and achieve a state of flow. The rest of the people live according to the laws of society and if something is wrong, they get lost and cannot find a way out of a difficult situation. And if it is difficult to get out of a difficult psychological situation on your own, feel free to contact a specialist, for example, a hypnologist psychologist

Flow: Psychology of Optimal Experience Mihai Chiksentmihayli

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Title: Stream: Psychology of Optimal Experience

About the book “Stream Psychology of Optimal Experience” Mihai Chiksentmihayi

Human psychology is a very fascinating science. We act in one way or another for a reason, because very complex processes occur in our body and subconscious that affect our actions and decisions.

Mihai Chiksentmihayli noticed a very interesting detail: when a person is keen on business, he does not feel tired or lack of imagination. At this moment, a second wind opens, we stop noticing time and the world around us as a whole. We are completely absorbed in what we do. The author of The Stream: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, called this phenomenon a stream.

Mihai Chiksentmihayli began to study such human behavior and came to very unusual results, which he describes in his work “Stream: Psychology of optimal experience”. There are people who own this flow almost from their very birth, but there are those who cannot “catch the wave”, but at the same time, each of us has the opportunity to learn not only to give 100% to the work, but also to love it, to do it better, improve yourself and improve everything around. And it is not surprising that after such work on yourself you will feel that you are truly happy.

Happiness does not come just like that, you need to work a lot to get to know it. We decide what to do and how, so we can only blame ourselves for our failures. But if you want to change and become much better, you will really like the book Stream: Psychology of Optimal Experience Mihai Chiksentmihaii. You will find here a lot of useful and exciting things for yourself, you can understand your psychology, understand what you are doing wrong and how to change it.

We all love to do something, but something is not, but at the same time we never think about what is in the first case that we enjoy. But what if this “something” is added to a work that we don’t like? Then we will begin to enjoy any business that we begin, therefore, we will get the result faster, and neither our emotional state nor our physical condition will suffer.

Mihai Chiksentmihaii gives a lot of life examples in his book “Stream: Psychology of optimal experience” and very clearly analyzes and explains everything. You do not have to puzzle over the understanding of complex definitions or incomprehensible thoughts of the author. Everything here is clear and simple, and very simple. After all, we ourselves are used to complicating things by ceasing to notice simple things that could make our life much easier.

The book “Stream: Psychology of optimal experience” will certainly appeal to everyone who wants to change and develop, and wants to achieve maximum success. Mihai Chiksentmihayli makes you think about how we live and why we do these or other things. After reading, you will look at yourself in a completely different way and begin to act differently and relate to things that previously only caused you longing and disgust.

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Mihai Chiksentmihayli

Flow. Psychology of Optimal Experience

Translated from English by Elena Perova

Scientific Editing and Foreword by Dmitry Leontyev

Moscow 2011

Dedicated to Isabella, Mark and Christopher

How to forge happiness: the secrets of craftsmanship (foreword by the editor of the Russian edition)

He is a truly wise man. Slow, although sometimes decisive. Immersed in himself, although periodically blossoming with a radiant smile. Weighing words and avoiding categorical judgments, however, speaking out and writing is surprisingly clear and transparent. He is more interested in others than himself, but loving life in its most diverse manifestations.

Today he is one of the most respected and respected psychologists. He is known and appreciated all over the world, and not only his colleagues. A few years ago, the popular anthology How to Make Life came out in the USA, offering wisdom lessons on the example of the lives of prominent thinkers and writers of the past and present, beginning with Plato and Aristotle. Chiksentmihayli was among the heroes of this book, located between Salinger and Disney. the business community treats him with great attention and respect; his main place of work now is the Peter Drucker School of Management at Clermont University, California. At the turn of the century, Chiksentmihaii, together with his colleague Martin Seligman, became the founder of positive psychology - a new trend in psychology, which aims to study the laws of a good, meaningful and dignified life.

Mihai Chiksentmihayli was born in 1934 on the shores of the Adriatic, in the territory that then belonged to Italy, and now it is part of Croatia. His father was a Hungarian consul, after the collapse of fascism he became ambassador to Italy, and when the communists seized power in Hungary in 1948, he was dismissed, he decided to stay with his family in Italy, where Mihai spent his childhood and school years. Interested in psychology and not finding a suitable university in Italy, he flew over the ocean to get a psychological education in the USA, and after graduating from the University of Chicago he stayed to live and work in this country, where his entire professional career passed. He is the author of dozens of books, including: “The meaning of things: home symbols of our Self,” “Creative vision: the psychology of aesthetic relationships”, “Personality in evolution”, “Being a teenager”, “Becoming an adult”, “Creativity”, etc. .

However, the most important book that brought him worldwide fame is precisely The Stream. Some time after her release in 1990, she was brilliantly advertised by such impressed readers as US President Bill Clinton, Congress Speaker Newt Gingrich and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It is included in lists like “The 100 Best Business Books of All Time”. It belongs to the rare category of "long-playing" bestsellers. Having gained popularity among the mass audience immediately after its release, it continues to be reprinted almost every year and has already been translated into 30 languages.

This is an amazing book. Before I undertook to edit her translation, I read it at least twice, used it in lectures and publications, I certainly appreciated it, which was facilitated by a personal acquaintance with the author and joint work with him. But only now, slowly and painstakingly fingering word by word, did I experience a genuine, not much comparable pleasure in the way it is written - there are no gaps between thought and word, each word is aligned with the neighboring one, each phrase is in place , and in this text there is not a single crack where you could stick a knife blade. This is a sign of that rare book, the words of which do not play their game, leading a funny dance or, on the contrary, folding into a reinforced concrete structure, but directly and accurately express a clear and well-thought out picture of the world. Each word is no coincidence, it beats the pulse of a living thought, and therefore this whole book is like a living organism: it has structure, order, unpredictability, tension, tone and life.

What is she talking about? About much. If you approach formally - about happiness, about the quality of life, about optimal experiences. The category of experience really stands out for Chiksentmihaiya as one of the central ones (influenced by the famous American philosopher of the beginning of the last century John Dewey), and he convincingly shows the emptiness and meaninglessness, on the one hand, the splendor of fame and material prosperity, on the other hand, noble slogans and goals, if they do not give rise to sensations of inner uplift, inspiration and fullness of life in a person. And vice versa, the presence of such experiences can very well make a person happy, deprived of many material wealth and pleasures familiar to us.

Happiness and pleasure are two different things, and in this Chiksentmihaii repeats the revelations of many outstanding philosophers, from Aristotle to Nikolai Berdyaev and Victor Frankl. But it doesn’t just repeat, but builds a detailed, harmonious and experimentally confirmed theory, in the center of which is the idea of \u200b\u200b“autotelic experiences” or, quite simply, experiences of the flow. This is a state of complete merging with his work, absorption by him when you don’t feel the time, yourself, when instead of fatigue there is a constant surge of energy ... Chiksentmihayli found him in his studies of creative personalities, but the flow is not the exclusive possession of some special people. Research and discussions around this phenomenon have been going on for three decades, more and more books are being published, but one thing is clear: the state of the flow is one of the most beautiful things in our life. And most importantly - unlike other similar states that from time to time have fallen into the focus of psychologists (for example, peak experiences, happiness, subjective well-being), the flow does not condescend to us as grace, but is generated by our meaningful efforts, it is in our hands. In it pleasure merges with efforts and meaning, generating an energetic active state of joy.

Therefore, the flow is directly related to the characteristics of the personality, the level of its development and maturity. Chiksentmihayli recalls that when he was a child, he ended up in exile, while everything in his native Hungary collapsed, one system and way of life was replaced by another. In his own words, he observed the collapse of that world in which he was rather comfortably rooted at the beginning of his life. And he was amazed at how many adults whom he had previously known as successful and self-confident people suddenly became helpless and lost their spirit, having lost the social support that they had in the old stable world. Deprived of work, money, status, they literally turned into some kind of empty shells. But there were people who maintained their integrity, purposefulness, despite all the chaos surrounding them, and they largely served as an example for others, a pillar that helped others not to lose hope. And the most interesting thing is that these were not the men and women from whom this could be expected. It was impossible to predict which people would save themselves in this difficult situation. These were neither the most respected, nor the most educated, nor the most experienced members of society. Since then, he pondered what the sources of power of those people who are stable in this chaos. He considers his whole future life a search for an answer to these questions, which he could not find either in overly subjective and faith-dependent philosophical and religious books, or in psychological studies that are too simplistic and limited in their approach. These were people who maintained their stability and dignity in the storms of World War II, who did something impossible, and in this one could find the key to what a person is capable of at his best.

The book "Stream" is a very non-trivial approach to many problems of general psychology, primarily to the problems of the emotional life of a person and regulation of behavior. There is no need to retell the contents of the book, which is in your hands, but I will note the main thing, in my opinion. Chiksentmihaii with convincing historical and experimental psychological material in his hands methodically, step by step refutes the myths of mass consumer culture and its branches in a higher price category - glamor. These myths are known: no need to load, no need to bathe, all the main answers to life's tasks are simple, to be happy, you don’t have to think about difficulties and troubles and have more money so that you don’t deny yourself anything.

Chiksentmihayli's book, like his other works, does not leave a stone unturned by this sweet lie. He claims: humanity is evolving. The world we live in is becoming more complex, and the human response to this challenge of complexity is not to hide our heads in the sand, but to become more and more complex, more unique and at the same time more and more connected with other people, ideas, values \u200b\u200band social groups. The joy of flow is the highest reward that nature can bestow upon us for the desire to solve more and more complex meaningful tasks, and which cannot be obtained in another way. Unlike the standard of living, the quality of experiences can be improved by paying only one currency - an investment of attention and organized effort; another currency in the realm of flow has no price. “The key to happiness lies in the ability to control yourself, your feelings and impressions, thus finding joy in the everyday life around us.”

Each week, H&F reads one business book and selects interesting passages from it. This time we read a book by the famous psychologist Mihai Chiksentmihaii dedicated to the idea of \u200b\u200bflow - optimal working condition and how to achieve it.

Mihai CHIKSENTMIHAYI

What is a stream?

Our perception of life is the result of various forces that give shape to our experiences, affecting whether we are good or bad. Most of these forces are beyond our control. But we all had to experience moments when we did not feel the blows of anonymous forces, but control over our actions, domination over our own destiny. Contrary to popular belief, the best moments of our life come to us not in a state of relaxation or passive contemplation, but when the body and mind are tense to the limit in the desire to achieve something difficult and valuable.

The immediate sensations experienced at these moments do not have to be pleasant. Gaining control of one’s own life is not an easy task, sometimes associated with pain. Ultimately, however, such experiences are closest to what we usually call happiness. This theory is based on the concept of flow -a state of complete preoccupation with activity, when everything else recedes into the background, and the pleasure of the process is so great that people will be willing to pay only to do it.

The main enemies of the stream

In fact, achieving such an ordered state of mind is more difficult than it might seem. Contrary to the usual stereotypes, chaos is a normal state of consciousness. Without proper training and in the absence of attention from an external object, people cannot remain focused for more than a few minutes in a row. Alone, without the need to concentrate, we find that consciousness begins to sink into chaos. Left to its own devices, it usually switches attention randomly, lingering on unpleasant and disturbing thoughts.

If a person does not know how to randomly organize consciousness, attention will inevitably stop at some problem that torments him, at real or imagined pain. There is nothing joyful or useful in entropy, but it is a natural state of consciousness.

When it comes to work,
people are guided by the cultural stereotype that work should be unpleasant

The optimal state of consciousness is internal ordering. Such a state occurs when our psychic energy (attention) is aimed at solving a specific realistic task and when our skills meet the requirements for this task. The process of achieving the goal streamlines consciousness, since concentration on the implementation of the current task cuts off everything that is not relevant.

The state of flow is the opposite of mental entropy. In fact, one does not have to fight with oneself, but with entropy, which brings chaos into consciousness. In essence, this is a battle for oneself, a struggle to establish control over attention.

Work paradox

Studies show that during work people feel happier, stronger and more creative than in their free time, when they often get bored and do not know what to do. But at the same time, people tend to work less and relax more. How to explain this contradiction?

When it comes to work, people stop trusting their own feelings. They do not pay attention to their current experiences, but instead focus on an ingrained cultural stereotype, according to which work should be unpleasant. They think of it as coercion, a restriction of their freedom, from which it is necessary to strive to get rid of it by all means.

But if a person pays attention to any task against his will, he feels that his psychic energy is wasted in vain. He perceives the time spent on this as being deleted from life. Many people regard their work as a forced occupation, and this prevents them from enjoying life, even if the work at the moment gives them pleasure.

Stream creation conditions

As a result of our research, eight main components of experiencing the flow state were identified. First, the task that a person sets himself must be feasible for him. Whatever the subject does, his abilities must correspond to the complexity of the task before him. Joy arises on the border between boredom and fear of not coping. Secondly, he should be able to concentrate. Thirdly and fourthly, concentration, as a rule, becomes possible because the task allows you to clearly formulate goals and immediately receive feedback. Fifthly, in the process of activity, the subject's enthusiasm is so high that he forgets about everyday worries and problems.

The joy of work arises
on the border between boredom and fear can not cope

Sixth, classes in a state of flow allow a person to feel control over their actions. The seventh peculiarity of this state is that the awareness of one's Self at the time of the action seems to disappear, but after the end of the streaming episode it becomes stronger than before. Finally, the perception of the passage of time changes: hours turn into minutes, and minutes can stretch into hours. All streaming sensations, as it were, transfer a person to a new reality that has not yet been explored, filling him with the spirit of discovery, expanding the horizons of his abilities. In other words, they change personality, making it more complex.

Difficulty increase tasks
as activities get boring

Having a goal streamlines a person’s efforts, but doesn’t necessarily make his life easier. Working on the implementation of goals, an individual may encounter a variety of troubles. But abandoning the goal, he will have to pay for a more pleasant and convenient life with an empty existence devoid of any meaning.