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- The 5 stages of self-actualisation
The struggle is great, the task divine, to gain mastery, freedom, happiness, and tranquility.
Society has designed a one-way path to success for everyone; go to school, get a job, get married, get kids, and retire at old age.
This laid-down path does not even begin to scratch the surface of human potential. Only one in a million persons will ever maximize their talent and discover the full potential of their body and mind.
WHAT IS SELF-ACTUALIZATION?
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. Life is long if you know how to use it.
The major difference between success and self-actualization is that the former is partial, while the latter is holistic. Success means that a part of your destiny has been achieved. An outworld quest has been fulfilled, but the inner quest has been ignored.
No amount of wealth can quench the thirst of the soul to self-actualize. Even if you attain all your desires — riches, power, prestige, fame, anything — you will constantly feel an inexplicable emptiness. You may ignore or repress it with pleasure, but it will follow you like a shadow and haunt you at the very moment of death.
This is why Maslow placed self-actualization as the highest level of human psychological development.
Self-actualization is a lifelong journey. To become fully actualized, you need to nurture your talents, achieve your goals, fulfill your purpose, awaken your soul and create a legacy that outlives you. Consider this article your guide—a map leading you to discover your greatest treasure: yourself.
5 STAGES OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION
STAGE 1 - REHABILITATION
Humans are creatures of habit. They move, talk, reproduce, and even sleep in a habitual state of unconsciousness. Sleep, in this context, signifies unawareness. When they are idle, they reach out for their phone, unlock it, hop on social media, and start doom-scrolling. This is one of many automated processes that have become second nature for most people. All their actions and reactions are automatic, which creates a life of endless frustrations and regrets.
A sage is someone aware of their habitual patterns and lives with immense mental awareness. The by-product of this awareness is the power to choose and act consciously.
Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny…
Analyze the lives of two friends;
Friend A: Struggles with gambling addiction, indulges in smoking weed, spends entire days playing video games, and excessively drinks every night.
Friend B: Dedicates time to reading and writing daily, prepares healthy meals, practices prayer or meditation regularly, and prioritizes quality family time.
One can immediately assess the quality of their life, even without knowing either of them.
Your current life is the result of your past choices. Your future life will be the result of your current habits.
You can change the trajectory of your life by taking one step in the right direction.
Write down the type of person you want to become in the next 10 years. Now write down the habits you need to make that possible, or re-engineer the habits of that future version of yourself and make it your modus operandi.
Deep down you know the habits that are destroying your life.
If you are ready to change your life; take the self-mastery challenge.
You will get all the tools you need to build sustainable habits: habit trackers, goal-setting worksheets, affirmation databases, and dozens of enlightening articles.
STAGE 2: RECONDITIONING
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
Overthinking is one of the subtle symptoms of a dysfunctional mind. The average human experiences 6,000 thoughts a day, most of which are recycled garbage. It is practically impossible to be happy when you are constantly tortured by your thoughts.
The voices in your head aren’t yours, but the combination of everything you’ve picked up from your friends, teachers, parents, and society at large. These voices, directly or indirectly, influence how you think and act.
Unlearning the limiting beliefs that society instilled in your consciousness is the first step to self-discovery. The quieter your mind becomes, the clearer you can hear your intuition and the happier you become.
To calm your mind, take away the 3 things it feeds on:
Your attachment
Your attention
And your identities.
The easy way to practice this is through mindful awareness.
Awareness has layers, similar to the layers of an onion. At the basic level, you know you're reading this article. To go deeper, try to notice your awareness itself. Then, notice being aware of your awareness. Unlike concentration, which requires focused effort, awareness demands relaxed attentiveness. While concentration focuses on one thing, awareness allows you to observe multiple things at once. Silence is the innate quality of Awareness. The deeper you go, the quieter your mind becomes.
For more effective techniques to achieve mental calmness, check out the path to self-discovery.
STAGE 3: FINANCIAL FREEDOM
Happiness is free, but freedom has a steep cost.
Money without freedom isn’t wealth. Happiness without money isn’t freedom.
There are two ways to break out of the matrix -
Attain generational wealth and become financially free.
Renounce the world and become a monk.
Genuine peace comes when you can live, travel, and spend time as you desire, without unwanted obligations. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life meditating in a temple, attaining financial freedom should be your top priority.
Only fools think money is evil. Money can't buy happiness, but it can solve 90% of the problems that make you unhappy. More money means more confidence, better opportunities, and stronger connections. You can live a healthier lifestyle and have more time to spend with people you love.
The industrial age is over. Traditional jobs are becoming obsolete. Creativity & competence are now more valuable than a college degree. Anyone with a smartphone can build as many streams of income as they want.
A personal brand is a monopoly. It gives you the power to attract like-minded people and digitally print your own money. The internet gives you the leverage to build and scale your business to limitless revenue. Any business with an online presence will outperform one without a social media brand, even if all other conditions are kept the same.
For marketing consultations, book a discovery call with us @WealthyWriters.
STAGE 4: LOVE & LEGACY
No amount of money or power will bring you true, unconditional love. It's not something you can buy.
Parents often feel unconditional love for their children, a feeling no one truly comprehends until they become parents themselves.
True unconditional love is rare—it's not based on who someone is or what they do for you. Experiencing this kind of love is life’s best gift. Building a lasting legacy through love brings deep fulfillment.
Relationships provide invaluable lessons in empathy, understanding, and personal reflection. Every interaction provides an opportunity for self-awareness and improvement, nudging you closer to enlightenment.
Only in Relationship can you know yourself, not in abstraction and certainly not in isolation. It's the mirror of your consciousness; this mirror will reveal its content, the images, the attachments, the fears, the loneliness, the joy and sorrow. Relationship is a mirror in which you can see yourself, not as you would wish to be, but as you are.
STAGE 5: ENLIGHTENMENT
Man is something that shall be overcome. Man is a rope,tied between beast and overman - a rope over an abyss. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end.
Enlightenment is the ultimate awakening to reality.
Abraham Maslow, the man who coined the term “self-actualization,” also coined a synonym for it: “peak experience.” This implies that only a self-actualized person can enjoy the peak experiences of life.
When one attains enlightenment and awakens his soul, he reaches a peak of bliss. All desires dissolve because every other experience pales in quality.
He becomes perfectly at peace with existence. Everything he does, even just existing, fills him with so much bliss and joy that nothing else matters. This bliss is a by-product of the inner transformation.
Enlightenment represents the pinnacle of human potential, the ultimate achievement. When all your potentialities have actualized, you experience life, love, and existence at their peak.
Self-actualization is the core desire of the human soul. Without it, you will always feel empty inside, even if all your other needs are taken care of. Conversely, if you attain self-actualization, you will feel completely fulfilled, even if you are the poorest person in the world.
Our search for fulfillment never ends because we search for it in worldly desires. Every desire creates a dozen more desires in its wake. This cycle of desiring and achieving perpetuates our inner dissatisfaction with life.
An enlightened person discards all personal desires and attachments, thereby achieving a permanent state of bliss.
After Buddha became enlightened, a King went to visit him.
Upon meeting Buddha, the king marveled, "I see nothing but a beggar before me, yet I feel humbled in your presence. You laugh and carry yourself as if the whole world is your kingdom. Even your gaze is majestic. How can you, an ordinary beggar, exude such regal authority? What is the secret to your power?
Buddha said, “I have no desires. I have attained desirelessness. I have nothing but myself, and that is more than enough. I am fulfilled.”
Every human should aim for this level of transcendence.
Stay Mastered
Marv