 |
As long as we feel capable of meeting the challenge, we report being highly motivated, extremely interested, and positively engaged by stressful situations.
|
32 |
 |
A major flow experience can improve our mood for hours, or even days… But because it’s such a state of extreme engagement, it eventually uses up our physical and mental resources.
|
38 |
 |
…when we set out to make our own happiness, we’re focused on activity that generates intrinsic rewards – the positive emotions, personal strengths, and social connections that we build…
|
45 |
 |
We do autotelic work because it engages us completely, and because intense engagement is the most pleasurable, satisfying, and meaningful emotional state we can experience.
|
46 |
 |
If we let our desire for more and more extrinsic rewards monopolize our time and attention, it prevent sus from engaging in autotelic activities that would actually increase our happiness.
|
46 |
 |
…the right kind of failure feedback is a reward. It makes us more engaged and more optimistic about our odds of success.
|
67 |
 |
By design, every computer and video game puzzle is meant to be solvable, every mission accomplishable, and every level passable by a gamer with enough time and motivation.
|
67 |
 |
…hope of success is more exciting than success itself. Success is pleasurable, but it leaves us at a loss for something interesting to do. If we fail, and if we can try again, then we still have a mission.
|
68 |
 |
The happiness we get from cheering on friends and family ensures our personal investment in other people’s growth and achievements.
|
87 |
 |
…when we see success or failure as an entirely individual affair, we can’t bother to invest time or resources in someone else’s achievements.
|
88 |
