Authentic Happiness

I am going to quote a paragraph of this book by Martin Seligman and also show it to B2 tomorrow. B1 has seen it. It is on "flow".

"Flow is a frequent experience for some people, but this state visits many others only rarely if at all. In one of Mike Czikszentmihalyi's studies, he tracked 250 high-flow and 250 low-flow teenagers. The low-flow teenagers are "mall" kids: they hang out at malls and they watch television a lot. The high-flow kids have hobbies, they engage in sports, they spend a lot of time on homework. On every measure of psychological well-being (including self-esteem and engagement) save one, the high-flow teenagers did better. The exception is important: the high-flow kids think their low-flow peers are having more fun, and say they would rather be at the mall doing all those "fun" things or watching television. But while all the engagement they have is not perceived as enjoyable, it pays off later in life. The high-flow kids are the ones who make it to college, who have deeper social ties, and whose later lives are more successful. This all fit Mike's theory that flow is the state that builds psychological capital that cna be drawn on in years to come."

Doing work gives high flow state and pay offs in success in life.