By: Motivational Speaker Jeff Katz – February 2013
As a child, my Dad once shared with me that there are things you do simply because they are the right thing to do. You’re not looking for a trophy or certificate. Your soul, he said, will be made richer for having taken the right path. You’ll experience a joy and pleasure simply for having done good for the sake of doing good. But not just good things, he counseled me; things that make you feel full and complete. The lesson stuck with me, but it was not until many years later as a student of psychology that I began to understand the implicit message.
My Dad had never studied psychology nor read the works of Abraham Maslow. He was not schooled on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, but he had given life to the concept of self-actualization. Without getting too psycho-babbly, Maslow pointed out that human beings have a punch card of things we try to address and keep updated. Our “lower” needs such as breathing, water and food need to be handled before we can move on to slightly higher needs such as safety and security, then love and self-esteem. But at the very pinnacle of this pyramid of human potential is a state of being which Maslow called “self-actualization.”
Maslow saw self-actualization as the highest degree of intellectual development for a person. He advanced the idea that, “what a man can be, he must be.” Inside each of us exists that desire to experience purpose and meaning. We are all searching for ways to maximize our inner potential and do good things which not only make the world a better place, but make us a better person. You can, no you must reach inside and pull yourself to a level where what you do is truly filled with purpose.
Inside each of us burns the flame which can light the way to a more meaningful and rewarding life. Take care of your body: exercise. Take care of your mind: self-actualize!
Jeff Katz is a motivational speaker and is now an exclusive columnist for The Valley Patriot. He is a former police officer, former talk show host on Talk1200AM and won the Associated Press Award for Best Talk Show In Boston two years in a row. WEBSITE: www.visionaccomplished.net