A Hungarian psychologist who relocated to the United States in 1956 at there age of 22, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced “me-high CHEEK-sent-me-high”) is one of the most influential contemporary thinkers in recent years. He is probably best-known for his concept of “flow,” a state he characterizes as “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. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” There are several different descriptions such as “in a zone,” “on a roll,” etc. At least for a limited period of time, Michael Jordan makes every three-point shot, Tiger Woods sinks every putt…you get the idea.

Csikszentmihalyi has identified nine component states of achieving flow: “challenge-skill balance, merging of action and awareness, clarity of goals, immediate and unambiguous feedback, concentration on the task at hand, paradox of control, transformation of time, loss of self-consciousness, and autotelic experience.” To achieve a flow state, there must be a balance between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur. Both skill level and challenge level must be matched and very high; if skill and challenge are low and about the same, apathy results.

Here is a link to a YouTube video during which Csikszentmihalyi shares a remarkably personal account of his life and work.