Aurelius and Csikszentmihalyi

From Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Book V.

It was this first piece that initially caught my eye. Some, who are near and dear to my heart, have a profound reluctance to leave the warmth of bed in the morning. They do, but it is difficult for them. In his opening comments of Book V, Aurelius will dismisses the allure.

At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work – as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for – the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?’

But the full section, particularly the second half brought to mind Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?

—But it’s nicer here. . . .

So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?

—But we have to sleep sometime. . . .

Agreed. But nature set a limit on that—as it did on eating and drinking. And you’re over the limit. You’ve had more than enough of that. But not of working. There you’re still below your quota.

You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat. Do you have less respect for your own nature than the engraver does for engraving, the dancer for the dance, the miser for money or the social climber for status? When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.

I don't recall Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi mentioning Aurelius but a little googling seems to indicate that indeed he did. Interesting to find the connection between two fine minds engaging around the same insight - the capacity to lose oneself in concentrated, engaged effort.