# Frequent exposure to flow states builds self-motivation
The flow state is correlated to happiness and joy. When you’re exposed to the flow state frequently, that state of mind will be an experience that you’d like to get more again. This ends up becoming a motivational factor to do a task for the sake of it, building up the (Autotelic personality).
# References
The Self-Driven Child (pp. 113-114)
Just as frequent exposure to high levels of stress can sculpt a young brain in ways that are unhealthy, frequent exposure to states of flow can sculpt a young brain to be motivated and focused.
Researcher Reed Larson has studied the development of motivation in children and teens, and he’s found flow to be the secret sauce.7 In interpreting the results of Laroson’s results, the great neuroscientist Marian Diamond concluded that, “while ‘wrapped up’ in a favourite pastime, children report feeling excited and forgetting their problems. The high internal motivation accompanying those feelings is a form of reinforcement for directed effort, learning, and accomplishment that can’t be achieved in any other way as successfully.”8