I once was obsessed with the concept of self-actualization. This is a state of being that figures at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs:
Around Fall of 2006, I delved into self-actualization theory, and became convinced that it would be my path to work-life fulfillment. I kept making inventories of my skills and potentials and would then try to push myself into careers that would satisfy that.
At the time, I had what could have been considered a dream job as a video game designer, a job I felt actualized my skills in design, programming, and the arts. And yet I still wasn't happy. Somehow I was applying the model too narrowly. Only with further introspection did I realize that I really just wanted to be independent.
But I still have always clung to the self-actualization ideal, even before I read about Maslow. I keep thinking, "man, if I could just figure out the proper switch and somehow turn all this inward potential outward, I'd find work-life bliss."
But then I had a thought a few days ago that sort of threw a curve into this thinking:
By "meta-potential" I'm referring to the skills you have to actualize your skills. For example, let's say you were born of a really good physical stock, and in middle school, everybody kept saying you could an Olympic athlete. According to Maslow's theory, then, your highest goal should be to fully manifest that potential. However, let's say you don't have the discipline to do all the work-outs. Or let's say your resources are limited because you have to work extra jobs to pay your bills. Or let's say you seem to have trouble working with authority, and therefore always have bad relationships with coaches. So while on some level you do have the potential to be an Olympic athlete, you don't necessarily have the potential to turn that potential into a reality.
I've struggled for so long to turn what I perceive as being my intellectual potential into a reality, and I just can't seem to figure out the best way to do so. And that's always frustrated me, and I think I'm very unhappy because I mythologize self-actualization. For example, some people have what it takes to turn their music talent into pop hits, other people just don't have that sense. Who can blame them. Should one be unhappy and the other happy?
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Tenzin said on May 12, 2009 1:19 AM
It's a very interesting stream of thought Phil. The concept of self-actualization.. makes me think.. do we not first need understand what the "self" is, so you know what it is you are actualizing? I suppose by your post, the "self" is the personality self, or the self that you think of as the collection of your thoughts, your memories, your preferences, your creativities and so forth. Both your mention of the athlete example and your own creative example seem to point to this construct. But.. there is a "self" that exists that can observe oneself having those thoughts.. or even just experience the moment of stillness without any thoughts.. the space or field of the "now" as Echkart Tolle describes. If this was in fact one's definition of "self", this being-ness that is an awareness outside of thought, what could actualization of such a "self" be? Is it not unlike Aristotle's concept of "potentia" then, the field from which all creative existence manifests from, and from where there is endless potential? Perhaps when we reach that level of self-actualization.. we would be so at peace with outselves, that therein we will "be" the potential of all things?
amymwright said on May 12, 2009 9:52 AM
My vote is that any conception of yourself that tries to fix you as an actualized self is probably going to make you unhappy because it's either based on the past or the future, when we're all different every day. We are actualiz*ing* selves really, and sometimes that means we need to be a webmaster for two years, or quit that job to paint dorms or teach sunday school or something. Freedom IS free. And so are our many selves. At some point, the career becomes less a way of identifying that than how you speak to your neighbor in the grocery store.
Philosophistry said on May 12, 2009 10:01 AM
Yeah. A mind trap I often get into when thinking about self-actualization is obsessing too much over my past successes, when so much of living the good life is jumping into unknowns and discovering new potentials.
Jane said on May 20, 2009 5:07 PM
Read Maslow's posthumous book "Beyond the reaches of ..." to learn that achievement and talents are not the "self" of actualization, but rather one becomes the best human possible, actualizing meta-values like Plato's truth, goodness, beauty OR "learning for learning's sake", one of Maslow's favorites.
Philosophistry said on May 20, 2009 5:11 PM
Thanks for that recommendation Jane. Added to my reading list!
Jane said on May 20, 2009 5:18 PM
u are welcome--I got the title slightly wrong, so note the correction please: "The farther reaches of human nature"
ISBN 0140194703