Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says that happiness is all about flow. Happiness results when Brand U’s are totally absorbed in what we are doing. Brand U’s don’t achieve happiness directly by pursuing it. Happiness results when we forget time and are one with what we are doing. In athletics, this is called a peak experience or being in the zone. In this state, we feel extraordinarily powerful, relaxed, and potent.
Csikszentmihalyi interviewed thousands of people and discovered the more time we spent in our flow, the happier we are. Flow experience consists of three components:
- Clear and doable goals or challenges along with instant feedback on how we are doing
- Total immersion or involvement in the activity that takes us away from daily worries and frustrations
- Total concentration or what gives us pleasure without making us self-conscious.[i]
[i] Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, Flow – The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Harper Perennial, 1990.