Mihaly Csikszentmihaly was a psychology researcher with a belief that creative work gave fulfillment to human lives, a belief that he intended to bolster by interviewing an array of highly creative individuals. Some, were indeed lauded for the quality as they were Nobel prize winners. He did so, culling data by interviewing close to 100 of the most successful individuals he could hope to find, worldwide. The successes were from a wide array of lifestyles and life-callings. Yet, once Mihaly and his team had gathered the results of hours of interviews some truths became apparent. There were some underlying commonalities among all of the disparate successes. All of them cited their work as cornerstone of their life’s happiness. They each had developed a personal systemic way of maintaining their physical equilibrium. Mihaly found that creativity for these individuals went far beyond what each person put out in terms of visible output, it was about a rich and complicated inner being that was able to hold two opposite qualities in balance. Many of the brilliant minds he interviewed were at once compliant and rebellious, thinkers and doers, patient and impatient. These dichotomies made them unwilling to be categorized and it let them create unique work.
Key Takeaways:
- In the 1990s Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi researched the process of creativity by interviewing 91 successful individuals.
- Although the subjects varied considerably and were from disparate fields, all of them felt a strong passion for their work.
- All of the successes had also learned over the course of many years a way to systemically keep their physical reserves in check by caring for their personal environment and health.
“In Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi?s mind, it?s the process of creativity that makes one?s life fulfilling.”