“What one can be, one must be.”
I fancy you have
played a game in which you are a character, perhaps a hero, whom at first is
given a “basic” skillset. Per se, a default one. As you go through the game,
you encounter various levels. In those levels which you have to conquer, you
can gain important improvements that can improve your default skillset. On the
way, you can achieve or unlock you full potential once you have garnered the
required levels and be the best version of your hero.
Now, imagine life in
that way. Actually, life is more like that way for real. The difference is, the
game was instructed and synthesized by the codes, with some interaction from
you. You have some preloaded templates which you can follow in unlocking the
full skillset of your hero. In life, you have to do this by yourself. No codes.
Especially cheat codes. You first need to realize what you can and what you
want to be. And then you go for it.
Of course, there
will be some people you will meet along the way, who can possibly lend you some
help. But, mostly, it is just you.
When you have
successfully conquered all of this, you can now say that you have achieved
self—actualization.
Abraham Maslow
popularized the concept when he introduced his hierarchy of needs, in which
self—actualization ranks as the highest. It is therefore implied how important
it is to master the previous levels in the hierarchy before one can achieve it.
We need to first
make ourselves physiologically stable in order to survive. This includes the basic needs of a person like
food, shelter and clothing.
When this is
achieved, an individual proceeds to the level of safety, which in a sense is a
feeling or state which you will feel once you have met your physiological
needs. This is where one feels either physiologically (can be financially, for
instance) stable.
The next level
focuses on our abilities to form and maintain emotionally significant
relationships. This involves the feelings of belongingness—to love and be
loved.
When one has
conquered these three levels, there goes a feeling of having self—esteem and
self—respect, which comprise the fourth level. What follows is called
self—actualization. This is the moment of truth, where everything comes down
and boils up. You know what you are and what you can be. You dream it and
achieve it.
It is truly amazing
how we, people, tend to have different perspectives on the lives we are living.
Maslow, for example, had his hierarchy of needs as his implied meaning towards
life. We give various meaning on events and things in life, but we still end up
being on the same plane.
