While the journey of life may meander at times, the path forward is always right there. We’re going further on our way to be the best we can be — our optimal selves.
If you’re familiar with Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you know that we’re striving for what he called self actualization after our basic and intermediate needs are met. Maslow was on the right track, but even he acknowledged at the end of his life that there was one more level beyond the top of his famous pyramid.
An article over at Scientific American does a great job of summarizing what contemporary psychologists know from experimentally testing various aspects of theories related to becoming your optimal self. The piece then lays out what it takes to be a well-integrated, thriving human being.
This topic is at the core of why I started Further in the first place. Here’s a summary of the key steps:
1. Strive to balance your basic needs
It turns out that Abraham Maslow was pretty spot on with his proposed list of basic needs (although he did miss a few). A large number of studies have confirmed that humans across cultures have a need for autonomy, competence, relatedness, security, and self-esteem.
2. Set and make efficient progress toward self-concordant goals
On the path toward optimal functioning, you will want to set and pursue goals as effectively as possible. It’s important that you feel as though your self is constantly in steady forward motion.
3. Choose your goals and social roles wisely
What kind of goals are more likely to lead to optimal functioning? The research suggests that setting extrinsic goals (such as money, beauty, and status) tend to make you less happy, whereas attaining intrinsic goals (such as intimacy, community, and personal growth) tend to lead to enhanced well-being.
4. Strive toward personality integration
Many of the great humanistic psychologists, such as Rogers and Maslow (but also William James and Carl Jung), frequently talked about the importance of achieving personality integration. The latest psychology of goals confirms these seminal thinkers were right.
5. Work toward modifying problematic aspects of yourself or your world
There’s a lot of advice out there to just “be yourself”, or be “true to yourself”. But this advice is really quite misguided. Not all of our potentialities will help us make progress toward our self-concordant goals. Some aspects of our personality, like anxiety or disagreeableness, can downright get in the way of making progress toward becoming an optimal human.
6. Take responsibility for your goals and choices
A common theme of the great existential philosophers, such as Jean-Paul Sartre, is that we must take responsibility for our choices. Similarly, Sheldon argues that optimal humans take an “intentional attitude” toward life, by consciously aligning their sense of self with their life choices. Ken Sheldon argues for the importance of taking ownership of your self-concordant goals, as only you can truly alter yourself and your life, and follow-through on your initiatives with good faith
7. Listen to your “organismic valuing process” and be prepared to change your goals if it seems necessary
Central to Carl Rogers’ notion of the fully functioning person was getting in touch with your “organismic valuing process” (OVP). According to Rogers, the path toward becoming a fully functioning person requires developing increasing trust in your own ability to know what is important to you, and what is essential for you to live a more fulfilling life. Rogers believed that the OVP evolved to help us evaluate our experiences and actions and to determine whether they are leading us toward self-actualization. As Ken Sheldon notes, all of us have experienced that “nagging sense that something isn’t right”. Optimal humans listen to that nagging.
8. Transcend your self
During the very end of his life, Maslow proposed a new need right above self-actualization: self-transcendence. He realized that many of his self-actualizers weren’t self-transcenders, and even some of his self-transcenders weren’t even self-actualizers. Unfortunately, most introductory psychology textbooks don’t mention Maslow’s updated theory.
Our intrinsically-motived personal projects and quests allow us to not only grow, but transcend ourselves. All it takes at each step is to figure out what you want to do next so that you can become who you’re meant to be.
Read the whole article over at Scientific American:
Keep going-
Brian Clark
Further
further: health
Fat for Fuel
Most of us run on sugar. We consume tons of it throughout the day. But think about this — you have about 160,000 calories’ worth of energy in your body at any given time. Of that, only 4500 to 5500 calories are in the form of sugar, and a lot of that is reserved for your brain and nervous system.
How to Burn Fat Instead of Sugar and Never Bonk Again
Speaking of Sugar
You may know there’s added sugar in your Coke or cookies. But did you know that it’s in your salad dressing, pasta sauce, and bread? The Food and Drug Administration came out Friday with its new template for nutrition labels. One big change was the addition of a line for “added sugar,” to be placed below a line for total sugar.
You’d Be Surprised at How Many Foods Contain Added Sugar
Cling Free
Stress is a killer. It contributes to health problems, unhappiness, depression, relationship problems, and more. We’re always going to have some stress in our lives, but how can we manage it?
Let Go of Stress: Nothing to Cling To
further: wealth
Empathetic Leaders
In a recent study of team performance, small groups of strangers were tasked with completing creativity and decision-making tasks. Some groups proved to be more successful than others; they were the ones led by high-empathy individuals who were focused on others’ emotions, asked questions of others, and conveyed interest through subtle affirmations and head nods.
The Secret to Being a Better Leader: See and Hear Others
Share Your Vision
Not long ago, the ability to create smart data visualizations, or dataviz, was a nice-to-have skill. Now visual communication is a must-have skill for all managers, because more and more often, it’s the only way to make sense of the work they do.
Visualizations That Really Work
Non-Compete
A good leader, and a good parent, should have an attuned radar to when competition crosses the line from something healthy into something else. “When it becomes toxic, you have to see it, and you have to stop it.”
Competition Is Good—Except When It Isn’t
further: wisdom
Late Adopter
Research suggests about 20 percent of the U.S. population is chronically late. And unfortunately there’s no easy fix. “Most chronically late people truly dislike being late, but it’s a surprisingly difficult habit to overcome,” explains time-management consultant Diana DeLonzor.
Always Late? Here’s How I Broke the Bad Habit in One Week
Only Happy When It Rains
Randy Paterson offers a counterintuitive counterpoint to our national happiness obsession: Focus on the bad. “Between the influences of our culture, our physiology, and our psychology,” Paterson writes, “it appears that striving for happiness is a tiring matter; we’re swimming against a powerful current.”
To Get Happier, Focus on What Makes You Miserable
Choose to Decide
According to one estimate, adults make as many as 35,000 decisions in a day. Most — like picking a show on Netflix — are “throwaways,” with few long-standing consequences. Others — a big move, a career change, a new relationship — can shake up the trajectory of your life.
How Your Brain Picks and Sticks With Winning Decisions
further: sharing
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