Maslow’s concept in Motivation and Personality, published in 1954, was a game-changer since he had been a pioneer in the study of the positive aspects of human nature and positive psychology since the 1940s. Maslow’s new methodology centered on emulating the best specimens of people. He even went so far as to conduct a “good humans’ study,” after which he modelled a group of self-actualizers whom he had selected as being fully human, matured, and psychologically healthy.
Most people are familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which he developed to shed light on what drives people, but how does this knowledge allow us to realize our full potential? To what end might we employ the Hierarchy? To what end would doing that be useful?
The experience of self-actualizing and peak experiencing does not work automatically, instead, they require a special attitude.
1) An open attitude. Open to the possibilities and potentials that clamor within, open to the changes that may bring, open to giving up inauthentic roles and becoming real, open to being more vulnerable as a human being.
2) A willingness to ‘become.’ This is part of the open attitude. Becoming occurs best from being and refers to developing and orchestrating your inner gifts as you make informed decisions about your destiny. It is the adventure of becoming your real self and your best version of you.
3) A self-authoring attitude. To be and to become requires that you primarily own your own “authority” and not defer to others, to authority figures, to external rules, etc. As a meta-program of self-referencing this means that you become the author of your story, your experiences, and your values. Doing that gives you a “circle (locus) of control” over your innate capacities.
4) A transcending passion. This passion for life starts with being the best you and then transcends to seeking to making a difference in the world by contributing your uniqueness. As you get this attitude, you experience a never-ending motivation, a compelling reason to get out of bed each day. You fall in love with an ambition that drives you.
5) Playful curiosity. In all of this, instead of getting really “serious” about things, you continually see what is humorous in being human—what is silly, ridiculous, incongruent, etc. and this keeps you playful. This is important. After all, passion without playfulness invites the demonic—the hellish rigidity, dogmatism, and perfectionism that plagues so many high achievers.
6) A restless attitude. Self-actualizing people are forever restless because they live in the realm of “the more, the more.” That’s the being dimension. Unlike the deficiency dimension of the lower needs which operates by “the more, the less,” this works by the reverse principle. The more you satisfy the being-needs and values, the more your capacity and passion grows. The new discontent that then arises typically means that another higher level being-need has opened up.
7) A beginner’s mind. Because self-actualizing people have a passionate learning state of curiosity and playfulness, school is never out for them. They are constantly learning and developing. Out of that comes a never-ending flow of freshness and creativity.
8) A self-challenging attitude. Knowing the dulling effect of boredom, familiarity, and the comfort zone, self-actualizing people have a hunger that makes them long for a challenge. To be “put to the test” is a thrill for them.
9) A mental agility. With a beginner’s mind, they are naturally flexible and so they easily adapt to changing conditions. No wonder then that they can shift perspective, learn so quickly, and become the pioneers of tomorrow.
10) An embracing of change. If we ask, “Who are the change embracers who are not put off or threatened by change?” the answer is, “those who are self-actualizing.” They are the ones Gary Hamel described, “the future belongs to the agile.”
11) A resilient spirit. Self-actualizing people are forever unleashing more and more of their potentials because whenever they experience a set-back, they immediately (or quickly) bounce back. That’s because they have bounce inside of themselves. This attitude prevents obstacles from sapping their energy.
12) A discipline of follow-through. This persisting attitude gives them stamina and tenacity to maintain their course. Ego-strength empowers them to create and follow a discipline practice and it is in that persistence that they succeed.
13) A decisiveness. Because so many people wait for “something to happen” and only react to the events of life, they suffer from the torments of indecisiveness. Not self-actualizing people. They decide and then persist and if things go south, they bounce back, learn, and readjust.
14) An audacious dreaming. They dare to dream—and to dream big. They tap into the powers of the imagination in order to create, first in their mind, a bright future that draws out all of their powers.
15) A total engagement. With all of the previous attitudes, they live in the here-and-now and are fully present to whatever they are engaged in. They do it whole-heartedly.
16) A risk willingness. Not expecting absolute safety or secure, they secure themselves in ability to learn, to be resilient, to be connected, etc. Consequently, the risks they take are intellect and well calibrated.
While specific actions enable you to do what needs to be done, it is attitude that makes your actions energized with the particular qualities that the action needs. Just “doing what you need to do” is not enough. You have to embed your actions within a larger frame of mind—a meta-state. And because all attitudes are comprised of various combinations of meta-states, knowing how that works gives you the tools for supercharging your attitudes just right.
Curated by Danielle Tan.
Reference:
- [Neurons] 2022 Neurons #38 THE SELF-ACTUALIZING ATTITUDE by L. Michael Hall, Ph.D. Executive Director, ISNS.
- https://www.neurosemantics.com/psychology-of-self-actualization/
