The germ of an idea doesn't make the sculpture that stands up... so the next stage is hard work
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
Contrary to what most of us believe, happiness does not simply happen to us. It's something that we make happen, and it results from doing our best. Feeling fulfilled when we live up to our potentialities is what motivates differentiation and leads to evolution.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Happiness is an active pursuit rather than a passive experience, resulting from realizing our potential.
This quote emphasizes that happiness is not a mere coincidence but a conscious effort we must undertake. It highlights the importance of striving towards our best selves and recognizing that fulfillment comes from realizing our potential and actively distinguishing ourselves in life.
Themes
HappinessPotentialFulfillmentEffortMotivation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to emphasize the importance of personal responsibility in achieving happiness.
More from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
All quotes →It is not the skills we actually have that determine how we feel but the ones we think we have.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
To know oneself is the first step toward making flow a part of one's entire life. But just as there is no free lunch in the material economy, nothing comes free in the psychic one. If one is not willing to invest psychic energy in the internal reality of consciousness, and instead squanders it in chasing external rewards, one loses mastery of one's life, and ends up becoming a puppet of circumstances.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
To live means to experience-through doing, feeling, thinking. Experience takes place in time, so time is the ultimate scarce resource we have. Over the years, the content of experience will determine the quality of life. Therefore one of the most essential decisions any of us can make is about how one's time is allocated or invested.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
It is as if evolution has built a safety device in our nervous system that allows us to experience full happiness only when we are living at 100%-when we are fully using the physical and mental equipment we have been given.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
Our jobs determine to a large extent what our lives are like. Is what you do for a living making you ill? Does it keep you from becoming a more fully realized person? Do you feel ashamed of what you have to do at work? All too often, the answer to such questions is yes. Yet it does not have to be like that. Work can be one of the most joyful, most fulfilling aspects of life. Whether it will be or not depends on the actions we collectively take.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
Similar quotes
Happiness implied a choice, and within that choice a concerted will, a lucid desire.
Albert CamusRead
You're always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.
Diane Von FurstenbergRead
Happiness is something that multiplies when it is divided.
Paulo CoelhoRead
Happiness is the death of the ego. If you want to remain a separate entity from existence as almost everybody is trying to do, you will be afraid of being blissful, cheerful. You will feel guilty in being blissful. You will feel suicidal because you are committing suicide on the psychological level, on the level of the ego.
RajneeshRead
I know not if this earth on which I stand is the core of the universe or if it is but a speck of dust lost in eternity. I know not and I care not. For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.
Ayn RandRead
Surely joy is the condition of life.
Henry David ThoreauRead