183state that we get in when time disappears and we are
thoroughly engaged in what we’re doing.
Csikszentmihalyi distinguishes what we do for plea-
sure (routine sex, eating, drinking, etc.) from what we
do for enjoyment. Enjoyment is deeper. Enjoyment al-
ways involves the use of a skill and the facing of a chal-
lenge. So sailing, gardening, painting, bowling, golfing,
cooking, and any such activity involving skills meeting
a challenge constitute enjoyment.
People who get clear on that difference begin to put
more enjoyment into their lives. They reach the happy
and fulfilled psychological state known as “flow.” In-
creasing their skills and seeking challenges to engage
those skills are what lead to an enjoyable life.
There are many stories and accounts about the win-
ners of lotteries who are jubilant when they win, but
whose lives descend into a nightmare after acquiring
thatunearned money. (No challenge, no skill.) The lot-
tery looks like “the answer” to people because they as-
sociate money with pleasure. But the true enjoyment of
money comes in part from the earning of it, which in-
volves skill and challenge.
Watching television is usually done for pleasure.
That’s why so few people can remember (or make use
of) any of the 30 hours of television they have watched
in the past week. In watching television, there is no com-
bination of skill and challenge.
Contrast that dull pleasure hangover we get from
watching television with what happens when we spend
the same amount of time preparing for a big Thanksgiving
dinner for friends and relatives. In looking back, we re-
member quite vividly the entire Thanksgiving endeavor.
Despite her run-ins with Wall Street and the law,
one of the most intriguing people on our national scene
has always been Martha Stewart. Throughout the 1990s,
Put more enjoyment in