A is for Actualization

Posted on April 13, 2020 by Sudhanshu Mishra, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

A is for Actualization
A is, perhaps, the most powerful letter of the alphabet. It is the first letter of English alphabet, and interestingly most other languages have a similar sounding letter as their first letter.
People with names starting with A tend to be ahead of others in any roster or roll-call. For this reason, at least in India, there is always a clamour to name one’s new-born with the letter A. We are a competitive country – with our large population and limited resources – there is always a competition for everything. By giving your child a name starting with A, you get her ahead of the line, at least in some places.
So my theme for the #BlogchatterA2Z challenge is to pick a word starting with the letter of the day, and look at the thoughts it triggers and how it can lead to a progressive outlook, a compassionate personality, a growth mentality and other positive thoughts.
The letter A lends itself to this task, quite naturally. There are so many words starting with A in all realms of life, which can help one become a better person if one were to adopt them in one’s thinking and actions.
Some of the values that I try to live my life by are – Acceptance, Abundance and Assertiveness. There are a host of other positive and empowering words starting with A. These includes compliments like adorable, amazing, attractive and one of my favourites – awesome. There are some other words like affirmative (and affirmations), amusing, authentic, accomplished – which also give out a positive vibe or energy to the listener. They are strong and powerful words, and must be used frequently in our day to day conversations.
But this post is about another powerful word, which I first heard about in my MBA class – Actualization. The dictionary meaning of this word is “to realize in action or make real”. It means to bring to life what is possible but hidden or latent.
The real power of this word is unleashed when it is prefixed with “self”. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Self-actualization is a term that has been used in various Humanistic psychology theories, often in different ways. The term was originally introduced by the organismic theorist Kurt Goldstein for the motive to realize one’s full potential: “the tendency to actualize itself as fully as possible is the basic drive … the drive of self-actualization.” Carl Rogers similarly wrote of “the curative force in psychotherapy – man’s tendency to actualize himself, to become his potentialities … to express and activate all the capacities of the organism.”
The concept was brought most fully to prominence in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, in which self-actualization represents the highest level of psychological development where the “actualization” of full personal potential is achieved, which occurs only after basic and mental needs have been fulfilled.
Maslow defined self-actualization to become everything that one is capable of becoming. He used the term to describe a desire, not a driving force, that could lead to realizing one’s capabilities. He did not feel that self-actualization determined one’s life; rather, he felt that it gave the individual a desire, or motivation to achieve budding ambitions. Maslow’s idea of self-actualization has been commonly interpreted as “the full realization of one’s potential” and of one’s “true self.”
In the current situation, when most of mankind is under a “quarantine” or “lockdown” of some sort, many of us are struggling to fulfil our basic needs. However, this is a temporary phase and soon we will be back to the old normal, with a set of new learnings and perhaps an improved lifestyle.
It will become important for us to look at our lives with a new perspective. Questions like “what are we living for” ,”what are we capable of” and “what difference can me make to this world?” will become important questions in our quest for happiness and success.
I have a strong belief that all of us have a need to feel happy about what we do, but many of us spend a long time just groping for it in the dark. If we are in touch with our innermost aspirations and start working towards fulfilling them, the process of “Self actualization” will start. It is that journey which will give us the power and satisfaction that we constantly seek.
It may be our desire to create something – a piece of art, a book, an object, or to scale new heights in our profession – reaching the pinnacle of organizational hierarchy or make a certain sum of money, or to achieve a higher level of business results in the business we are in, or to make a difference to other people’s lives by sharing our time, our knowledge and our resources with them, or just working on a hobby, an interest like music or dance or a fitness routine.
When I think of people who have achieved the highest level of “Self-actualization” , a host of names come to mind. These are usually the GOATs (Greatest of all times) in their respective fields like Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar, Mother Teresa, Swami Vivekananda, Roger Federer and the like, who have already left an indelible mark in the history of our times, through their focus, hard work, commitment and love for whatever they did. While reaching such heights is not realistically possible for everyone, it always helps to have a role model or a mentor from your chosen area of pursuit, to motivate you towards excellence. Getting a coach to work with you in the planning and execution of your pursuit is one of the surest way to get on this journey.
It is never too late to start your journey towards your self-actualization, and take small steps towards it. Believe me, if you spend even five minutes on it everyday, you will start seeing yourself making visible progress in a matter of days. Five minutes per day will add up to thirty five minutes in a week, two and half hours in a month, and thirty hours in a year. Just imagine how much you could achieve if you spent thirty hours focusing on what you love doing.
Let me tell you another secret, when you decide to spend just five minutes on an action, it is an easy decision to execute. But over time, as you start seeing yourself making progress, you start enjoying the process, and you actually end up making much more time for it, quite happily, which naturally leads to much better results, more happiness and a higher level of “Self-actualization”.
So, begin your journey towards your self-actualization today, and thank me later. ;-)