Internalized challenges produce the energy we call motivation.

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• Mihaly Cziksentmihalyi points out that controlling one’s internal experience is the key to happiness. He defines happiness as a condition one should prepare for, cultivate and defend privately. Cziksentmihalyi lays out the following points as associated with internalizing challenge, or stretching one’s body and mind to the limit in a voluntary challenge to achieve a worthwhile or difficult task:
  • Focusing on realistic goals which match one’s skills with opportunities for action cultivates order in one’s consciousness.
  • Pursuing such goals leads to intrinsically rewarding activities that can be characterized as optimal experiences embodying exhilaration and deep enjoyment.
  • Concentrating one’s attention on the immediate task, in pursuing such goals, can allow one to temporarily forget other things.
  • Striving to become less sensitive to the punishment and the rewards of the social environment, by learning to find purpose and joy regardless of surrounding circumstances, produces more happiness.

Contributors

Ayesh Perera