Natural self, transcendent actualization

Maslow’s “self-actualization” has often been seen as some lofty and sophisticated aspiration reserved for those who have had their so-called “lower needs”—food, shelter, and job—met, only then to proceed “upward” to the top of the pyramid of needs where “self-actualization” sits. In fact, Maslow never represented his system of needs with a pyramid and never focused on the hierarchy of those needs. In his own words: “We have spoken as if this hierarchy is a fixed order but actually it is not nearly as rigid as we have implied.” (Maslow, 1943) If we consider any successful leader, we can see that one’s self-actualization and career progression are not mutually exclusive. They in fact advance in tandem, since the creative process in one’s career—or “calling”—is at once the fulfilment of one’s (multiple) potentials and the actualization of self. Which explains why one’s creative outputs are stamped with qualities that belong distinctly to an individual; qualities that differentiate, vitalize, and bequeath value upon one’s created products.

Beyond the purpose of personal creativity, self-actualization provides an inner “flourishing” and personal fulfilment that are necessary for one’s psychological health. For Maslow, as well as for a host of other psychologists and philosophers through the ages, from Aristotle (300’s BC) to Carl Rogers (1950’s), self-actualization is a human need. “A musician,” says Maslow, “must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be happy.” (Maslow, 1943; italics mine) Of course, self-actualization is not only for these “creative geniuses,” but for any human being endowed with self-actualizing potentials.

But which self?

Human Transcendence

A natural foundational drive in Man is transcendence: we cannot not transcend. For evidence of our transcendent nature, we need look no further than how we, as humans, build our homes—from the strawhuts of prehistoric times to today’s soaring skyscrapers—how we, as humans, communicate with each other—from messengers riding on horsebacks for days on end to today’s instant messaging systems—and how we, as humans, travel—from horsebacks to boats to taking to the skies on jetliners. And then there are the everyday transcending that take place in our homes and at work; where we battle an illness, a misunderstanding, a project gone wrong, or a faulty faucet or a blown bulb, etc., in order to transcend an unwanted situation. “Transcendence” also means that we are an ever self-transcending species; individually, as societies, and globally. The anthropological historian Yuval Noah Harari speculates that the future of Man lies in a science that aims to transcend our mortality. Humanity, he says, is divinity: we are gods; for better or for worse. (Harari, 2017)

All achievements, from fixing a blown bulb to inventing the iPhone to flying to the moon, are acts of transcendence. These acts of transcendence are in turn motivated by our personal IDEALS, be it “job security,” “love of family,” or “personal ambition”; which are transcendent entities as they are each a principle that lies in the future, beyond the here and now. Our natural self, in this respect, is radically transcendent.

Eudaimonia

There are two words that are worth all the googling time, as they are ancient wisdoms that concern our personal well-being: eudaimonia and ikigai; one Greek, the other Japanese. Both pertaining to the question, What sustains, preserves, and flourishes the self ?

In recent times, Aristotle's ancient theory of eudaimonia (translatable as “happiness” or “well-being” or both) has advanced into the field of science, particularly psychology, as researchers recognize that eudaimonia is central to the study of psychological health, that is, “well-being.” Per following psychologists, eudaimonia is attained through one's “fulfilment of individual nature: self-realization” (Alan S. Waterman), or, one's “striving to use and develop the best in oneself, in ways that are congruent with one's values and true self” (Veronika Huta); both of which appear to be “footnotes” to Maslow's “self-actualization.” (Huta and Waterman, 2013)

Be that as it is called, we are progressing toward our personal well-being whenever we act at the natural—that is, neither forced nor stressed—behest of our personal IDEALS, our natural core values and potentials. 

Ikigai

Numberless publications had been written on “Ikigai,” an old Japanese philosophy for “reason for being,” or, in Okinawa, “a reason to get up in the morning.” It is meant to guide a person to an holistic well-being, whereby one’s passion, mission, vocation, and profession intersect to form the basis of all that he/she does; providing thereby in his/her everyday labor a source for emotional, spiritual, cognitive, and practical needs. The Natgeo journalist Dan Buettner suggested that it is one reason why the people in Okinawa hardly wants a retirement, and lived long lives. (Buettner, 2017) Our super-trio of IDEALS can supply reliable information to the concept of Ikigai; we can identify “What I Love” (our triplex of Core Values), “What I’m Good At” (our triplex of Core Competencies), and “What the World Needs” (our triplex of Value Creativity) quite effortlessly. Perhaps our Ikigai, one’s “reason to get up in the morning,” lies in the actualization of our super-trio personality—be one THE SAMARITAN,  THE SUPERSTAR, or THE SAGE; or any one of the eighty-one inventories of collective capabilities, values, motivations—that is the “self.”

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Maslow, Abraham. 1943. “A Theory of Human Motivation.” Psychological Review 50, no. 4. Washington: APA.  370–396.

Harari, Yuval Noah. 2017. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. London: Vintage.

Huta, Veronika, and Alan S. Waterman. 2013. “Eudaimonia and Its Distinction from Hedonia: Developing a Classification and Terminology for Understanding Conceptual and Operational Definitions.” Journal of Happiness Studies (November): 1425–1456.

Buettner, Dan. 2017. “Finding Your Ikigai: the Japanese Secret to Health and Happiness.” In Blue Zones (July 19).

Identify your super-trio of values