The autotelic self transforms potentially entropic experience into flow. Therefore the rules for developing such a self are simple, and they derive directly from the flow model.
1. Setting goals. To be able to experience flow, one must have clear goals to strive for. A person with an autotelic self learns to make choices—ranging from lifelong commitments, such as getting married and setting on a vocation, to trivial decisions like what to do on the weekend or how to spend the time waiting in the dentist’s office—without much fuss and the minimum of panic.
2. Becoming immersed in the activity. After choosing a system of action, a person with an autotelic personality grows deeply involved with whatever he is doing. Whether flying a plane nonstop around the world or washing dishes after dinner, he invests attention in the task at hand.
3. Paying attention to what is happening. Concentration leads to involvement, which can only be maintained by constant inputs of attention. The autotelic individual grows beyond the limits of individuality by investing psychic energy in a system in which she is included. Because of this union of the person and the system, the self emerges at a higher level of complexity. This is why its better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
4. Learning to enjoy immediate experience. 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.
To achieve this control requires determination and discipline. Optimal experience is not the result of a hedonistic, lotus-eating approach to life. A relaxed attitude is not a sufficient defense against chaos. To be able to transform random events into flow, one must develop skills that stretch capacities, that make one become more than what one is. Flow drives individuals to creativity and outstanding achievement…But to change all existence into a flow experience, it is not sufficient to learn merely how to control moment-by-moment states of consciousness. It is also necessary to have an overall context of goals for the events of everyday life to make sense. To create harmony in whatever one does is the last task that the flow theory presents to those who wish to attain optimal experience; it is a task that involves transforming the entirety of life into a single flow activity, with unified goals that provide constant purpose.
Here I would like to criticize the book in terms of meaning of life. The author admits the optimal experiences would be nothing without the bigger picture of life, that is, the meaning of life. But he couldn’t come up with accurate questions that would deepen the question itself. His scientific research is lost in question of why we want to be happy. The meaning of life is not just based on happiness. Sometimes, however, the suffering and torment teach us the meaning of life better than optimal experiences.
Jesus was not always successful in terms of acquiring optimal experiences. Rather, he wept for the world, endured ignorance of his disciples, suffered and died. Without self-sacrifice, it would be very hard to find the meaning of life because life is mostly not getting but mainly giving, even life itself. If the author focused more on the spirituality and religion in terms of flow, the book would be much greater, I believe.