When I was in college and I saw on the syllabus that there would be a paper involved in the class I was taking, I was over the moon. Everyone else was groaning and grumbling, and I just sat there, giggling to myself, already planning how I was going to approach the research. First day of class, I was nerding out. I love research. I love learning.
One of the best parts of being a journalist was doing research. I loved interviewing musicians and actors and artists and writing up profiles on them based on the interview, but I also loved doing research. Getting into magazines and books, the older the better because they would smell AMAZING, reading about the subjects of my interview. I had learned how to research, what to look for, where to find the best quotes that would stand out in the small space a newsprint journalist would have to write in.
And when I had to write a paper for a class, whether it was about frogs and how the impact on their health and numbers spelled danger for humans as well, or about how The Merchant of Venice was a comedy in it's time (then it was, but now, not so much), I got out my note cards and I had an elaborate way of documenting which source was which, and made stacks and stacks of them. Then I would go back to my outline and pull out cards, stacking them all together, forming a paper I would write from the stack of cards. I went to the University of Iowa, and I enjoyed the fantastic library they have there. I would prowl the stacks, inhaling deeply the scent of books and knowledge, enjoying being in the large open room full of tables and chairs and people learning. We were working together, but seperate, and it was just exhilarating. I would spend way more hours than I would ever need to even on the shortest of paper. I should have bought stock in index card companies.
Of course, this was more than 20 years ago now, and there's lots of different ways to do research, and if I had to do research now (I still do! A lot! And it's not even always just an avoidance technique to keep from having to actually work on my writing), I would do it in a similar way except now I use notebooks instead of index cards (sometimes). But each source gets a designation so I can remember where I got the information and document properly (this is always very important).
What does that have to do with Be Autotelic? Because I had to do some research because I had NEVER heard that word before.
Back in December 2023, there was a post in the Star Trek Wholesomeposting group on FaceBook, featuring the following picture.
It's of Nana Visitor, the actor who played Colonel Kira Nyris on Star Trek Deep Space Nine. The poster had compiled a number of photos that had been autographed for his daughter who was graduating from college as a gift for her.
Visitor wrote: Be autotelic, be passionate about what you choose, speak kindly to yourself, your brain never stops growing if you focus it.
Be Autotelic. What the heck is that?
From Merriam Webster, autotelic: having a purpose in and not apart from itself.
And from Wikipedia, we learn that autotelic is from the Greek autoteles, "having an end in itself, having one's own authority, final and unconditional".
Mihaly Robert Czikszentmihalyi, the Hungarian-American psychologist, describes people who are internally driven and who exhibit a sense of purpose and curiosity as autotelic. This differs from being externally driven, having comfort, wealth, power, money or fame as their main motivating forces.
Czikszentmihalyi further writes that an autotelic person doesn't need things like wealth, fame, power or entertainment because they experience flow in all areas of life. They don't depend on external rewards. They are fully involved in living life. They are more independent and less vulnerable to manipulation.
In other words, autotelic people are like kids when they are creating. Austin Kleon, an artist who draws who wrote Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work and the book I am quoting from, Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad, wrote in this book about how his son when he was quite young would draw constantly. And he would make piles upon piles of drawings, and would just toss them aside when he was done. He didn't care what happened to them. Creating these drawings was the most important part, the doing.
I do have some issues with some of the ideas Czikszentmihalyi espouses. A lot of it is quite esoteric and high falutin' and feels like it's too smart for anyone to deal with. And while it sounds nice, it doesn't really jive with our world and its view on art.
And I am going to get to THAT in another post, but what I want to say here is that Be Autotelic is about creating for the sake of creating. Not to sell something, not to entertain, not to impress someone and make them fall in love with you (although I am certain that is what some people do try, particularly as a writer in Iowa City, at least 20 years ago anyway). You create to create. The end.
