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In interviews, famous people often say that the key to becoming both happy and successful is to “do what you love.” But ________ a skill, even one that you deeply love, calls for plenty of drills. Any challenging activity —from computer programming to playing a musical instrument to athletics — requires ________ practice. A perfect golf swing or faultless butterfly stroke (蝶泳) takes countless hours of practice and repetitions to perfect.

Anyone who wants to have a good command of a skill must go through the ________ of practice, critical feedback, polish, and increasing improvement again, again, and again. Some people seem able to concentrate on practicing an activity like this for years and take ________ in their gradual improvement. Yet others find this kind of focused, time-intensive work to be ________ or boring. Why?

The ________ may depend on the ability to enter into a state of “flow,” the feeling of being completely involved in what you are doing. Flow states can happen in the course of any activity, and they are most common when a task has definite goals and where the individual is able to ________ their performance to clear and immediate feedback.

Csikszentmihalyi suggested that those who most ________ entered into flow states had an “autotelic personality” — a tendency to seek out challenges and get into a state of flow. While those without such a personality see difficulties, autotelic individuals see opportunities to build skills and they have low levels of self-centeredness. Such people, with their ability to focus on tasks rather than rewards have a great________ over others in developing their innate (天生的) abilities. But how can we get into flow state for an activity so that we enjoy both the process of improving skills and the ________ of being a master？

________ for those of us who don’t necessarily possess an autotelic personality, there is evidence that flow states can be ________ by environmental factors. For instance, in Montessori schools, students do not study by following direct instruction. ________, they are encouraged to develop and pursue personal interests. Competition is ________ and grading is not emphasized. Students are grouped together according to shared interests, rather than separated by ability.

While there isn’t yet a pill that can turn dull practice into an exciting activity for anyone, it is comforting that we seem to be able to advance into flow states. By giving ourselves unstructured, open-ended time, minimum distractions and task set at moderate level of ________, we may be able to love what we’re doing while we put in the hard work practicing the things we love doing.