Self- actualization is fulfillment of one's potential combined with the realization of who one is. I believe I have reached my level of self-actualization, that is, for this year of my life, because in my opinion, there is a new level one must achieve intermittently. Correlating with self- actualization is the name, Abraham Maslow. He is a humanistic psychologist who proposed that each soul has a hierarchy of needs. I agree with him. He simply says that in this hierarchial structure, one must first satisfy psychological needs including, breathing, food, water, sex, homeostasis, and excretion. Second on his list was to satisfy safety needs including, securement of the body, health, family, employment, morality, and property. Thirdly, one has to sate the feelings of love and belongingness, through friends, family, and sexual intimacy. With the first 3 levels satisfied one would go on to having esteem, meaning Self Confidence, achievement, and respect for and or by others. Finally, there is the level of self-actualization! One knows and controls morality, creativity, spontaneity, can solve problems, isn't prejudice, and can accept facts.
But Maslow wasn't the first to have such an idea. Thoughts on self-actualization dates back in Africa. The land of the living. The dark continent, yet the start of bright ideas. I think back on my last lecture and remember Ma'at. The Ancient Greek god who represents the concept of truth, balance, order, law, morality and justice. He represented the ideas that Maslow expressed and conveys for us today. So I feel as though we come into this world with a purpose, a potential, that we must reach before the end of our days; to say that we are self-actualized. Along with wisdom and knowledge one must know that you must appreciate and learn how to use what you have in order to obtain what you want and or need. There's no time to envy, be jealous, hate, or put down others. You must focus on yourself and fulfill your life because in the end that is actually all that matters. Whether you take it from the perspective of Ancient African values or todays' psychologist, its necessary to understand and value these views to make something out of your life.
