MOC : [[PSYCHOLOGIE]] - [[DÉVELOPPEMENT PERSONNEL]] Date : 2021-05-09 Auteur : [[Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi]] *** ## Un invidu autotélique The “autotelic self” is one that easily translates potential threats into enjoyable challenges, and therefore maintains its inner harmony. A person who is never bored, seldom anxious, involved with what goes on, and in flow most of the time may be said to have an autotelic self. The term literally means “a self that has self-contained goals,” and it reflects the idea that such an individual has relatively few goals that do not originate from within the self. outside forces do not determine whether adversity will be able to be turned into enjoyment. A person who is healthy, rich, strong, and powerful has no greater odds of being in control of his consciousness than one who is sickly, poor, weak, and oppressed. The difference between someone who enjoys life and someone who is overwhelmed by it is a product of a combination of such external factors and the way a person has come to interpret them—that is, whether he sees challenges as threats or as opportunities for action. To be able to experience flow, one must have clear goals to strive for. As soon as the goals and challenges define a system of action, they in turn suggest the skills necessary to operate within it. After choosing a system of action, a person with an autotelic personality grows deeply involved with whatever he is doing. To do so successfully one must learn to balance the opportunities for action with the skills one possesses. Concentration leads to involvement, which can only be maintained by constant inputs of attention. Having an autotelic self implies the ability to sustain involvement. Self-consciousness, which is the most common source of distraction, is not a problem for such a person. Instead of worrying about how he is doing, how he looks from the outside, he is wholeheartedly committed to his goals. The outcome of having an autotelic self—of learning to set goals, to develop skills, to be sensitive to feedback, to know how to concentrate and get involved—is that one can enjoy life even when objective circumstances are brutish and nasty. **Being in control of the mind means that literally anything that happens can be a source of joy.**