Book Review: Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Hello everyone,

Welcome to a new book review from my blog. I will be sharing my knowledge from the book using a quote that stood out to me. The quote from the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is:

“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times. The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”

First, I have to get it out of the way that the author's name is quite a long one, and it can be very hard to pronounce. Aside from this which grabbed my attention, the book is one of those books like The Richest Man in Babylon, where its knowledge can still be used in the present day, despite how long ago it has been since it was published. Although I would not call Flow a classic since it was published in 1990, compared to George Clason's The Richest Man in Babylon, published in 1926. So there are books, and there are classics.

Back to the review, the standout quote in this book is a long one and is one that is quite self-explanatory. Just from reading the quote, one can get that the author is sharing his knowledge in the understanding that the true moments in our lives come from the period of long suffering we have experienced while chasing the unimaginable or something worth our time. The quote kind of reminds me of something- an epiphany I had some time in the past, where I realized that it is not about the point we have gotten to, but it is about the process we have passed through to get there. When you think about it, you will come to see that some stories or moments relived are the ones where there was a great deal of suffering just to achieve a certain task or goal. For me, today I tend to remember the great losses I have endured during the course of playing competitive chess or the times when I was challenged to show what I know or how strong I am. These moments are the ones that make up the memories that stick with us.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi shares that people long for a life that is free from stress, challenges, or difficulties. One where things are running smoothly with little to no problems. But then his research reveals that the moments that are remembered by people are the times when things were tough. You tend to remember the challenge more than the outcome, but this is when your true strength is tested. You claim to be strong when times are fine, but your real strength comes to play when you are faced with a challenge. It could be a new skill, a new quest, or a new task that has got you hooked to the teeth because of how challenging it is. Well, fast forward to a couple of days, weeks, months, or even years later, you tend to remember the challenge you faced while trying to achieve what it is you wanted to achieve. The author shares that the challenges are what make it worthwhile, and the difficulty makes us appreciate what we have accomplished through a remembrance of what we went through.

_{I am Hive account@samostically, a chess player and writer. I love to share the experience I have gained from different battles over the 64 squares and the knowledgeable insights from books I have read. But most importantly, I am a Midnight Owl and I founded the community Midnight Letters.}

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