Flow

Living at the Peak of Your Abilities

By: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Ph.D.

Narrated by: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Ph.D.

Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

In flow, everyday experience becomes a moment by moment opportunity for joy and self-fulfillment. Flow is the brain-child of a fascinating psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a renowned social scientist who has devoted his life's work to the study of what makes people truly happy, satisfied and fulfilled. While much of the study of psychology investigates disorders of the human mind, Dr. Csikszentmihalyi takes a different route. He focuses on the noble side of human nature, our capacity for living a life of integrity, courage, and perseverance. With his landmark research on flow, he reveals what he considers beautiful in life, ways of being and behaving that make people happy, satisfied and delighted to be alive. His insights into the "flow experience" show ways to lessen stress, fear and anxiety while increasing feelings of challenge, joy and excitement. The revolutionary findings of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Experience Sampling Method offer unprecedented information about the specific ways we can turn life into a continuous high quality experience. You'll discover how anyone can enrich his or her quality of life simply by learning how flow occurs and what it feels like. You'll learn about the key elements of the flow experience including:

• why it is important to know what you want to do in any given moment
• specific activities you can do that produce flow easily and naturally
• how to improve your experience of work so you feel in control and rewarded by it
• keys to harnessing the power of concentration
• the difference between pleasure and enjoyment (only one leads to personal growth)
• how to match challenges with skills to avoid boredom and frustration and maximize enjoyment

Once you experience the exhilaration of the "flow" state of being, you'll want to return again and again.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©1994 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D. (P)1994 Nightingale Conant

The story of FLOW by the Master himself.

This wasn't a book as much as it was a series of quiet, thoughtful talks. I enjoyed it very much.

Couldn't Finish This Book

Would you try another book from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and/or Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi?

Only if it were read by someone else.

What could Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

If Mr. Csikszentmihalyi had allowed an actor to read this book for him I may know if it were any good but he has a voice for droning one to sleep. Sorry but I just couldn't listen beyond the first 2 chapters. Now if there's a version by a voice actor I'll try it again!

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The only thing missing from the Author's voice was a warm room with dim lights and an uncomfortable chair after lunch.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment.

Any additional comments?

Hire someone else to read the book. Mr. Csikszentmihalyi's book is referenced by other authors that I've enjoyed so I really wanted to listen... just can't get past the voice.

the ideas presented are great but it's a dry read

The state of flow is something we have all experienced but didn't realize was a goal we should be working towards in our everyday lives

If you like non native narrators, long pauses, and harpsichord interludes this is the book for you.

The content is good ....presentation is frustrating and laborious.

If you like non native narrators, long pauses, and harpsichord interludes this is the book for you.

That music and those voice actors though...

It's very dated. I used to listen to really old self help tips about 10 years ago and that is with the sounds like. The style was just a obnoxious, but the content is really good. Definitely a good preliminary glance at the concept of flow, and thanks to the voice actor I can now pronounce the authors name.

Simple concept, hard to achieve...

An excellent book. I love the rational concepts and I've tried to apply them on a day-to-day basis. It's not as easy as it sounds but the effort and the journey are a welcome new perspective.

Good content, but dated format.

Good original content. Produced as audio tapes, later converted to MP3, so format and audio quality seem a bit dated.

Not much more than the TED talk

The foundational idea of flow is very powerful and well researched. I hoped that this book would deepen my understanding beyond what I had already read online. However, this audiobook becomes less interesting as it progresses. The author seems intent to apply flow to every aspect of life (family, religion) without providing the scientific backing that make the earliest chapters so powerful.

Strong content, sub-par production values

I found the content to be inspired and clearly communicated. The structure and extemporaneous delivery could have been easier to follow.

Dissappointed!

I was looking forward to learn the art of FLOW. However, I found repetitive content and a boring tone of narrating.

I couldn't really come up with a real grasp on it. Maybe it's me! Maybe I need to hear it again, but towards the end of the book, I was really getting annoyed with the book

This written book is excellent, this is not

I have read the text version of this book a couple of times and it is very good. However this is not, as claimed an unabridged version of the book. It is a talk by the author that covers the same subject matter and ideas but, in my opinion not as well or as comprehensively as the written text.

The narration by the author is a prime example of why authors aren't always the best people to narrate an audio version of their book. Maybe his slightly unclear diction would have been more understandable and enjoyable to listen to if the recording and production values were good. But they are not, it is a noisy 'dirty', echoing recording.

If you are unable to read a text version of the book then go ahead with this because the underlying ideas are worth hearing. if it is at all possible for you to actually read the 'real' book then do that because it's a whole lot better than this.

Good information in a soup of chintz

Some of the information in this book is useful and the ideas have informed a lot of other peoples work so for that reason I would try another book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi but I would research its audio quality better first.

This book actually seems to be a collected series of talks and the talks would appear to be fairly old with relatively poor quality audio recording. Think going back to VHS if you're used to DVD and it's about there.

The element that really does this book a disservice though is not so much the narration, as regardless of their voice I tend to enjoy the original author reading their own work, but that the audio quality has been accepted and that the production is flooded with awful chinzy music that wouldn't be amiss in a 1970's school video aimed at educating you about oxbow lake formation or something similar.

Personally I'd recommend checking out some more recent work that is formed off of some of the points raised in this work or getting the physical book to read unless you have a high tolerance to cut through some pretty awful audio production for some information that is in the modern context not overly unique.

Mixed feelings

The concept is brilliant
The narrative is confused
One long monologue
Not enough on how!

This book should be taught at school

'Flow' should be the subject for a class held once a week at secondary schools across the world.

Fantastically allows you to identify passions

Very interesting to clearly be able to see all the potential for flow in the interwoven complexities of our lives

Great book well told

Enjoyed the content and the presentation. The reader is very believable.
It makes Flow easy to understand. It is illustrated in various ways with examples from other peoples lives. I used it to identify the flow in my life so that I can further build and enhance my enjoyment.
It explains what you need to do to get flow in a simplified way that appears easy to follow and is easy to relate to your own situation to develop goals, skills and focus.
I enjoyed it so much that I have spent all of my Saturday listening to it.

I don't normally do bad reviews but this was bad!

I have dyslexia so I consume hundreds of books in audio form. I can safely say this is by far the worst narration I have ever experienced. Many of the words were mispronounced to the point where it wasn't even clear what was being said. On top of that it felt extremely boring, the narrator was rambling rather than reading in a concise and to the point way. Considering the content being discussed, the fact that it is so poorly structured and delivered made me lose faith in anything being said. I don't normally do bad reviews but this was actually terrible.

If the author ever reads this review:
Please, pay a professional narrator to read the book properly so that the information can be understood. I can forgive a bad book, but not a bad delivery.

Life changing

One of the most life changing books I've ever read. Really makes you think about your life and what you can do to make the most of the everyday. You can't change everything but you can live with more 'flow'.

I loved it!

This book should be listened to everyone. Mihaly shares such powerful insights in his speech. I am happy that I found it.

A good philosophy but nothing new

The is a good book to remind yourself on how to do things from ground up than jump right in.
Abit like the way from Taoism. But this book doesn't go deep into the the explanation of flow.

I would say you'll get more and complete out of reading Confucianism books on this subject.

The 1st chapter or the 1st two chapters is all you need to read and then it gets repetitive.

But Dr. Mihaly has done a good job in re-branding Taoist philosophy for the western reader.