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Therefore, he asks, what does this apparent enjoyment in the optimal experience of Flow involve? Without these people, he says, there is no evolution of culture or progress in thought, feeling or human experience. But before we examine these personality traits, let's first take a look at the conditions.Ĭsikszentmihalyi suggests that consistent high performers, the ones who stand out against the backdrop of everyday life, are motivated by the enjoyment that comes from confronting challenges. Optimal conditions are more likely to exist where the individual has developed creative, or autotelic personality traits. However, although conditions for Flow are different for everyone, Csikszentmihalyi says that there are certain patterns to its occurrence. Therefore, if we are to ask the question how can we produce consistently high-level results? the answer is it depends.Īn infinite number of factors influence performance results. This dynamic contributes to our fundamental understanding of the psychology of human behaviour.

The environment evokes a response from the organism, and the organism, in turn, acts on the environment. The company we keep and their expectations of us, how we perceive ourselves, and the environment combine to produce the environment-self dynamic interplay. The self we experience is an ever-moving target. The Autotelic Personality & Conditions For Flow Why is it that on any given day we may perform exceptionally or not? What gets in our way? Why, given all our hard work, practice and preparation do the sales presentation, stage or field performance flop? Perhaps Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's account of the Autotelic Personality may offer us an explanation. Negative thoughts overtake us and we spiral downwards into poor performance. We remember prior failures and dread that it will come again to ruin our preparation, and indeed, our sense of self. Emotions take over nerves and concern for how we might be perceived kick in. If we could only bottle that sensation, capture it and release it at will, then every situation in which we find ourselves, every challenge we encounter, we may triumph. Before him, Abraham Maslow termed it Peak Experience. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, after thirty years of creativity research, has come to call this phenomenon Flow.

There seems to be little separating us from everything else, and all self-consciousness seems to melt away. Goosebumps rise up all over our skin, our senses are heightened, and the environment seems to take on an almost other-worldly appearance. At some point in our lives, many of us have had the experience of being in the zone, on fire, like we were on another level.