Weekly Word: Autotelic

Autotelic is an adjective that means “having within itself the purpose of its existence or happening”. It’s some obscure, philosophical term that apparently shows up almost nowhere, aside from a book about Flow by positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. (If you can pronounce that, please show me how!)

Apparently he used the word autotelic to refer to people who are motivated by internal rather than external purposes. As I understand it, an autotelic person finds enjoyment in the process of doing something, as opposed to focusing on the end goal. And that ties into the idea of “flow”, which is all about being completely focused on what you’re doing at the time. Interesting stuff. Check out the article on Wikipedia.