Autothelic Personality: Results

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

A healthy, rich and powerful person has no advantage over the sick, the poor and the weak when it comes to gaining control over their minds. The difference between the one who enjoys life and the one whom it carries like a sliver arises as a result of the combination of these external factors and the way of their interpretation chosen by the subject - whether he sees in the challenge thrown down to him by life, a threat or an opportunity for action.

The “autothelic personality” is distinguished by the ability to easily turn potential threats into tasks, the solution of which brings joy and maintains inner harmony. This is a person who never experiences boredom, rarely worries, is involved in what is happening and most of the time experiences a state of flow. Literally translated, this concept means "a person whose goals are in herself" - we are talking about the fact that the goals of such a person are generated mainly by his inner world, and not set by genetic programs and social stereotypes, like most people.

The main goals of an autothetic personality are formed in her consciousness in the process of evaluating experiences, that is, they are created by herself

The autothelic personality transforms experiences fraught with entropy into a state of flux. The rules by which you can develop the qualities of such a personality are simple and directly related to the flow model. In a nutshell, they look like this:

1. Set goals. The state of flow occurs when the subject has clear goals. The autothelic personality learns to make choices without fuss and panic in any situation, whether it is deciding to get married or how to spend a vacation, thinking about how to spend a weekend or how to spend time waiting in line to see a doctor.

Choosing a goal involves recognizing the tasks associated with it. If I want to be able to play tennis, then I have to learn how to serve the ball, kick left and right, train endurance and reaction. the causal relationship can also be directed in the opposite direction: I liked to throw the ball over the net, and because of this I decided to learn to play tennis. In both cases, goals and objectives generate each other.

Since the system of actions is determined by goals and objectives, they, in turn, presuppose the presence of the skills necessary to operate within this system. If I decide to change jobs and open a hotel, I will have to acquire knowledge of hospitality, finance, etc. Of course, it may be the other way around: the skills I have will motivate me to set a goal in which they will be useful. For example, I may decide to open a hotel because I see the qualities necessary for this.

In order to develop skills, you need to pay attention to the results of your actions, that is, to monitor the feedback. To become a good hotel manager, I must correctly understand what impression my business proposal made on the bank from which I want to get a loan. I need to know which features of the service customers like and which ones do not. Without feedback, I will quickly lose my bearings in the system of actions, I will not be able to develop the necessary skills and become less effective.

One of the main differences of an autotelian personality is that she always knows: it was she who chose the goal to which she is now striving. What she does is neither accidental, nor the result of external forces. This consciousness further enhances the motivation of a person. At the same time, your own goals can be changed if circumstances make them meaningless. Therefore, the behavior of an autothetic personality is at the same time more purposeful and flexible.

2. Completely immerse yourself in the activity. Having chosen a system of actions, the autotelian personality indulges in his occupation with full involvement. Regardless of the type of activity, be it a flight around the world or washing dishes in the afternoon, she directs attention to the task at hand.

To succeed in this, you need to learn to balance between opportunities for action and existing skills. Some start out with impossible tasks like saving the world or becoming a millionaire at 20. Having experienced the collapse of hopes, the majority sinks into despondency, and their I suffers from a decrease in psychic energy spent on fruitless efforts. Others go to the opposite extreme and do not develop because they do not believe in their potential. They prefer to set banal goals for themselves so that failure does not undermine their self-esteem, and stop their personal growth at the lowest level of difficulty. In order to truly get involved in the activity, you need to find a correspondence between the requirements of the surrounding world and your own capabilities.

The ability to concentrate greatly contributes to inclusiveness. People with attention disorders and unable to keep their minds focused on one subject often feel thrown out of the stream of life. They fall into the grip of any random stimulus. Involuntary distractions are a sure sign that the subject is out of control. At the same time, it is striking how little effort people make in order to learn how to manage attention. If reading a book seems too difficult, then instead of concentrating, we will most likely put it aside and turn on the TV, which not only does not require the slightest tension of attention, but in fact even dissipates it due to "chopped" plots, commercial breaks and the whole of meaningless content.

3. Pay attention to what is happening around. Concentration creates a sense of inclusion that can only be sustained through constant investment of attention.

Athletes know that the slightest decrease in concentration during competition can lead to defeat. A boxing champion runs the risk of being knocked out if he misses an opponent's kick. A basketball player can miss if he allows himself to be distracted by the screams of the fans. The same threat hangs over everyone who participates in complex activity: in order not to fall out of it, it is necessary to constantly invest psychic energy into it. A parent who listens to the child half-heartedly undermines interaction with him; a lawyer who missed the slightest detail at the hearing may lose the case; a surgeon who allows his mind to be distracted runs the risk of losing the patient.

If you stop worrying about the impression you make and focus your attention on interaction, you can achieve a paradoxical result. The subject no longer feels isolated, but his self becomes stronger. The autothelic personality outgrows the boundaries of individuality due to the investment of psychic energy in the system in which it is included. Through such a union with the system, the personality rises to a higher level of complexity. That is why “it is better to love and lose than to never know love at all” (A. Tennyson).

The sense of I of a person who views everything from an egocentric position can be better protected, but his personality is incomparably poorer than the personality of someone who strives for involvement, responsibility, who is ready to invest the resources of his attention in what is happening for the sake of the process itself, and not for the sake of profit.

During the unveiling of a huge Picasso sculpture in the plaza across from the City Hall in Chicago, I found myself next to a personal injury lawyer I knew. Listening to the speeches from the podium, I noticed the concentrated expression on his face and the movement of his lips. In response to my question, he said that he was trying to estimate the scale of compensation that would have to be paid to the city for claims from parents whose children would climb this statue and fall from it.

Can we say that this lawyer is constantly experiencing a state of flux due to the ability to transform everything he sees into a professional problem, for which he has the necessary skills to solve? Or would it be more correct to believe that he is depriving himself of the possibility of growth, paying attention only to what he understands, and ignoring the aesthetic, civil and social significance of the event? Perhaps both interpretations are correct. In the long term, however, to look at the world through the small window that our Self opens to us means to severely limit ourselves. Even the most respected scientist, artist or politician will turn into an empty bore and stop enjoying life if he is only interested in his own role in this world.

4. Learn to enjoy momentary experiences. Having formed an autothelial personality in oneself - having learned to set goals, develop skills, track feedback, concentrate and be involved in what is happening - a person will be able to enjoy life even when objective circumstances do not dispose to this. The ability to control your mind implies the ability to turn almost everything that happens into a source of joy. A light breeze on a hot afternoon, a cloud reflected in the mirrored facade of a skyscraper, work on a business project, the sight of a child playing with a puppy, the taste of water - all this can bring the deepest satisfaction and enrich life.

However, it takes perseverance and discipline to develop the ability to control. A hedonistic approach to life is unlikely to lead to optimal experiences. A relaxed, carefree attitude cannot protect against chaos. Since the beginning of this book, we have had many opportunities to make sure that in order to transform random events into a stream, it is necessary to develop our abilities, to transcend ourselves.

The flow awakens in us creativity, helps to achieve outstanding results. It is the need to constantly hone skills in order to continue to experience joy that lies at the heart of cultural evolution. This need prompts both individuals and entire sociocultural entities to develop into more complex systems. The resulting order gives rise to the energy that drives evolution - thus paving the way for our descendants, wiser and more complex than us, who will soon replace us.

But in order to turn the whole existence into a continuous stream, it is not enough to learn to control only momentary states of consciousness. It is necessary to have a global system of interconnected life goals, capable of giving meaning to each specific case that a person is engaged in. If you just switch from one kind of streaming activity to another without any connection between them and without a global perspective, then, most likely, looking back at your lived life, you will not find any meaning in it. The task of flow theory is to teach a person to achieve harmony in all their endeavors. Achieving this goal involves the complete transformation of life into a single, internally ordered and meaningful streaming activity.