The Ratio Between Challenges & Skills

Kauai HI - Apr 2012

"Engaging in enjoyment comes at a very specific point: whenever the opportunities for action perceived by the individual are equal to his or her capabilities."

A good example is two people playing tennis who are not equally matched. The player with less skills naturally feels anxious and the better player will likely become bored quickly. Mihaly went on to say that "enjoyment appears at the boundary between boredom and anxiety, when the challenges are just balanced with the person's capacity to act.

When all a person's relevant skills are needed to cope with the challenges of a situation, that person's attention is completely absorbed by the activity. There is no excess psychic energy left over to process any information but what the activity offers. All the Attention is concentrated on the relevant stimuli.

As a result, one of the universal and distinctive features of optimal experience takes place: People become so involved in what they are doing that the activity becomes spontaneous, almost automatic; they stop being aware of themselves as separate from the actions they are performing."

So what was my take away from this? I've decided that I should definitely take more opportunities to evaluate the balance of challenges and skills (and make the appropriate alterations to the challenge) to yield maximum enjoyment of all involved in the activity. This can be pretty difficult, especially in a large group. What are some examples you have of altering challenges to match the skill levels of those you are participating with in an activity?