Prof. Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi is one of the pioneers of positive psychology. His most seminal work Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience is an international bestseller. His research on happiness and creativity in particular, played an important part in raising worldwide interest in positive psychology.

I was fortunate to interview this legendary psychologist for my documentary Innovation Movie (www.innovationmovie.com). One of my favorite questions to all interviewees was “What is the purpose of our life?” All of them answered elegantly, but none gave me a profound and convincing answer like Prof. Mihaly.

Prof. Mihaly said “The purpose of life is the great mystery of existence. The real underlying purpose of life is hard to discuss without falling into this exploitative education. The Catholic Church said, “The purpose of life is to be good and suffer right now, and be happy when you go into heaven.” However, the priest didn’t suffer much. He had good wine and everything was provided to them. The normal people could suffer because that was supposed to be good for them. This has always been the problem.”

When he started talking, I had an intuition that Prof. Mihaly is going to talk something interesting that I never heard and my intuition was right.

He continued, “We cannot say that the purpose of life is to do what you can do in the best way possible, so that you feel as good as possible. That would be good, if it weren’t for the fact that we aren’t alone. We are in a system and we have families and communities around us. You have to find the compromise between how much personal growth and satisfaction can you do without compromising other people. How much should you help your parents? How much should you help your wife and children? How much taxes should you pay to ensure that everything runs smoothly.”

Prof. Mihaly concludes this clip with the most convincing answer for my favorite question “What is the purpose of our life?”

“It is a question of finding a compromise between what creates the least misery for the community of mankind. That is not easy, but that should be the purpose of life. To live as fully as you can without hurting other people. It is very difficult.”

After watching this video clip many times, I believe it’s high time to share this wisdom to our youth. Otherwise, their purpose of life will be imposed on them by the people in power.

Bio:

Satheesh Gopalan
Satheesh Gopalan is the director of the acclaimed documentary “Innovation: Were Creativity And Technology Meet.” This documentary shows how Creativity, Innovation, and Technology are changing the way we live and work in the 21st century.
Many world-renowned entrepreneurs, professors, psychologists, and leadership thinkers share their wisdom and strategies to unleash the creative force within us and explain how to pursue a more successful and fulfilling life in a dramatically changing world. 
You can find more free inspirational videos at www.innovationmovie.com

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