Flow, the secret to happiness

The link of the presentation:

After watching this video, I made a summarization and wrote down my reflection and thoughts. I hope this material can help you explore deeper into this topic. And, if you have any ideas, please feel free to contact me or give me some comments. :)

In all of our life, what are we pursuing? We all know it. We spend our time pursuing wealth, success, and respect. We want them to be successful because we want happiness. But is this right? Does it make sense? The fact is, in most cases, YES.

A study out of Princeton University found that there is a positive correlation between happiness and wealth, to a point of about $75,000 per year. When people make less than $75,000 a year, they face trouble caused by a lack of money, and shortage of money could potentially lower their life satisfaction and happiness. For people who make at least $75,000 a year, they have sufficient room to do what they intrinsically want, without considering money on everything. But in the meantime, earning more money cannot make them happier.

So, money is important for most people, isn’t it? It is self-evident and we all need to confess it. However, humans are intricate, so happiness is. We can also comprehend that, by our past experiences or by the study above, money is also not everything.. Therefore, being happier does not only mean having more money. Whether we love what we are doing and feel meaning from it are also critical.

The psychological concept “flow”, which was proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is another essential element in a fulfilling and happy life. Flow is a mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, enjoyment, and lost a sense of time. In a flow state, we can contribute more, accomplish more, and feel happier at the same time.

Then, how can we reach a flow state? All of us might have tasted “flow” already, but we just did not notice or did not know it. Do you remember the last time you fully focused on studying, chatting with friends, or even playing video games, and you did not notice several hours have gone at all? Then, that is flow. Can you recall the feeling at that moment? It is happiness and contentment. Flow is one of the most wonderful things in our life.

But we cannot reach flow while doing everything. If we want to enter a flow state, we need to engage in activities that are challenging. So we are interested in it. And we also have enough ability to implement, so that we will not get frustrated all the time.

I heard the concept of “flow” about a year ago when I was taking a Stanford micro-course “ What matters most to you, and why? “. So, I had a basic understanding of this concept, I thought that flow is a nice-to-have in our life. But I did not try to dig deeper or explore more about the relationships between happiness and flow.

Fortunately, I still got the chance to learn more about this important concept. After watching this ted talk video and browsing some relevant articles, I have a better comprehension of “flow”. And when I look back to that Stanford micro-course now, I come to understand why they taught this concept in the class. Flow is essential in our life.

As the speaker said, flow can bring happiness to our lives and help us accomplish more. Moreover, figuring out what things could trigger you into entering flow states is critical. Therefore, combining these two experiences — that Stanford micro-course and this TED talk, I realize the importance of flow and I start trying to find out what kind of activities can trigger me reaching flow states.

There are some activities I have noticed after exploring. The first activity is writing. I found that writing can facilitate me entering a flow state because I am always concentrated while writing diaries, which is a habit I developed for the sake of recording my life a year ago. I particularly love organizing my thoughts, pondering what to say, and sharing my ideas with others. From this exploration, I not only grasp what I love but also realize what factors (organizing my thoughts, pondering what to say, and sharing my ideas with others) make me love this activity.

Exercising and chatting with friends can help me enter flow states frequently, too. I have not found any reasons for that. I think that these are just innately human states of flow.

Other activities, which can also trigger me reaching flow states, are reading, studying, programming, and applying my knowledge. I love reading and studying because I can gain more knowledge and become a better and more successful person. Programming and applying my knowledge are almost the same thing for me. These two are delightful. I think the reason why I love programming and applying my knowledge is similar to reading and studying — becoming a better and more successful person.

It sounds excellent. I find what I love and the reasons why. I can be happy by reaching flow states everyday and every time if I want! But if I try to dig deeper and ask myself: why do I have the motivation to be a better and more successful person? The answer turns out to be very realistic: I want to make money.

Money can definitely help me achieve more therefore be happier to some degree, no matter what I want to do. If I want to make my life good, I need money. ( and when I say “make money”, most people will link what I actually want to these things anyway), like traveling around the world, having good houses, or living a luxurious life. However, if I have higher goals (most people believe that money is not important for these things), including contributing to society, helping others, or making this world better, I also need money.

Yeah, you can argue that if my goals are helping others and this world. Then, without money, I can still help others and this world. Agree, but money just makes all of these easier and more efficient and gives me larger influences on those things. In other words, compared to a poor me, a rich me has much more ability to help the world. It is the truth.

So, what do I want to convey? What I am trying to say is that once “flow” gets involved in happiness, the whole thing will be very complex.

If our goal is to be happy, learning flow is important. But there are many more matters, including money and achievements, which are relevant to happiness, too. All people who read this article should not think that if we can reach a flow state, we can be certain to have ONLY happiness or that it is permanent. It is not true. (LACK of money and achievements are more directly related to unhappiness)

I do not appreciate people who claim that money is not important, and only claim money is not important. I agree that money is not everything. But only claiming money is not important is far from accurate. For people who have other life goals instead of a “normal life” — having children, owning houses, and traveling around, money may not be important for them. It makes sense. But let’s put it realistically. For most people, who want to have a “normal life”, money is necessary and important.

Therefore, my understanding is — Flow is an essential part of a happy life. But flow is still far from enough to form a happy life.