I am totally immersed in a book jiechao lent me last year; FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. This book changes the way you think about what makes an experience enjoyable, and underlying it all, what makes a good life.
This state of optimal experience involves a feeling of deep enjoyment, concentration, and generally satisfying. Most people have experience the state of flow in their life. When faced with a complex and daunting task, we feel challenged, energised and while conquering the challenge, we feel powerful and in control.
To me, it weird that i think i've only experience flow in choir and in a few exams i've taken in SMU. When we sing a challenging song beautifully, you feel totally immersed in it and you crave for that experience again. Maybe that's why challenging songs are a thrill to perform and people can get 'high' from music. The optimal mix of complexity and skill would produce this 'flow' effect.
In exams such as AFA, i didn't even know how much time has passed. I just know that it felt good during exam, i was focused and calm, and i felt refreshed after the exam, a sense of exhilaration. This contrast sharply to a recent mid term that i've taken, where the exam paper feels exactly like a 'ten year series' paper. Despite getting great results, i was not satisfied at all and feel vaguely insulted.
Mmmm....given that what most of us wants is a 'good experience', we should learn to create this pleasurable state by setting appropriate challenges for ourselves; goals which are attainable yet not too easy. Haha, maybe that's why i get high reading annual reports...which shows that they are a great read, and yet not too easy for me to comprehend.
Enjoying the process and learning during the process is what makes a journey so interesting. It was like when i was in the jungles of Palenque in Mexico...without the 3 hours hike across the jungle, there is no way the ruins of Palenque could be as breathtaking as it was. Without the hardwork, the results are simply less rewarding. No shortcuts.
This state of optimal experience involves a feeling of deep enjoyment, concentration, and generally satisfying. Most people have experience the state of flow in their life. When faced with a complex and daunting task, we feel challenged, energised and while conquering the challenge, we feel powerful and in control.
To me, it weird that i think i've only experience flow in choir and in a few exams i've taken in SMU. When we sing a challenging song beautifully, you feel totally immersed in it and you crave for that experience again. Maybe that's why challenging songs are a thrill to perform and people can get 'high' from music. The optimal mix of complexity and skill would produce this 'flow' effect.
In exams such as AFA, i didn't even know how much time has passed. I just know that it felt good during exam, i was focused and calm, and i felt refreshed after the exam, a sense of exhilaration. This contrast sharply to a recent mid term that i've taken, where the exam paper feels exactly like a 'ten year series' paper. Despite getting great results, i was not satisfied at all and feel vaguely insulted.
Mmmm....given that what most of us wants is a 'good experience', we should learn to create this pleasurable state by setting appropriate challenges for ourselves; goals which are attainable yet not too easy. Haha, maybe that's why i get high reading annual reports...which shows that they are a great read, and yet not too easy for me to comprehend.
Enjoying the process and learning during the process is what makes a journey so interesting. It was like when i was in the jungles of Palenque in Mexico...without the 3 hours hike across the jungle, there is no way the ruins of Palenque could be as breathtaking as it was. Without the hardwork, the results are simply less rewarding. No shortcuts.
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