You strive for leisure, but then are unhappy wh…

You strive for leisure, but then are unhappy when you live it. . Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi conducted research to understand what activities create a state of flow. Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as an exalted state of consciousness where you’re so completely absorbed by the task at hand that you experience the pure bliss of doing something for its own sake.

The results were shocking. People were on average much more likely to be in a state of flow during work than they were in their leisure time.

Why was this? Did he find dedicated employees who love their jobs? On the contrary, study participants tended to state dissatisfaction with work and to declare they much more prefer leisure.

Yet work created flow, which created happiness. Because work is structured time. While leisure is unstructured. Unstructured time is something we think we want, but that makes us miserable . Your unconscious value activities which promote survival. Hunting, procreating, enhancing social relationships, proving value to the tribe, leveraging opportunities. You unconsciously want to sit around and do nothing because it conserves energy. But in the long-term, this unstructured time is unnatural to the unconscious. You become disengaged, time becomes vague and you focus inward on your worries, insecurities and regrets.

The Telman Longevity Study also shows that people without a clear goal and work tend to live shorter lives than people hard at work. . Is the solution to become a workaholic? On the contrary, it is to disassociate work from the employer. Work is not just what you have to do to get a paycheck from someone else. Work is what you do attain your goals, you passions and dreams.

If you structure your free time, you reduce anxiety and increase flow. And it allows you to include work for your future in it. Which is the most important activity of all. . #personaltransformation #selftransformation #personalchange #personaldevelopment #avantgardesavage #changeme #positivepsychology #changeguide #coaching #lifecoach #betterme #gogetter #bettereveryday #personalgrowth #self #selfimprovement #selfchange #growth #entrepreneur #betterlife #flow #Csikszentmihalyi