Find out why self-actualization starts with you, not a job

When you wake up in the morning, do you immediately think that this will be a rewarding day? Do you look forward to what’s ahead and know you’ll be able to feel good no matter what happens throughout the day?

It seems like this would be the ultimate goal, to have a life that flows easily from day to day, and one where you can feel a sense of purpose no matter what. However, for most people, this is not the case. There is always a sense of struggle for many, looking for something to give them hope, looking for happiness in things that can be acquired, basing how they feel on external circumstances, or any number of other similar factors. In other words, the sense of self-fulfillment is low and is often tied to a state of happiness, is related to circumstances, and fluctuates frequently.

I’ve thought about self-actualization a lot, as I have a milestone birthday this year, and I know these kinds of birthdays can be thought provoking. I think about the difference between milestones, starting with the difference between my 20s and 30s. The focus was on professional development and growth. As time has passed, I have evolved more into a desire to engage in work that paves the way for self-fulfillment for me. As an educator, I encounter this every day when working with students, even those who challenge me, as I have to continually learn and grow.

Then I began to think about finding personal fulfillment when working in less than desirable conditions. Consider the person who works in a demanding, long-hour job who rarely receives recognition or recognition for his or her hard work. Does this sound familiar to you? Is the type of work in itself enough to create a sense of accomplishment, despite the conditions? What I have come to the conclusion, through time and experience, is this: if you take responsibility for the development of your own self-realization and base it on his own achievements, he will always find fulfillment in his life. I will share with you some strategies that I have learned along the way.

What is Self Realization? Does it matter?

I have mentioned the concept of self-actualization because it has become important in my life and at my age. Now if you are younger, this may not be that important to you yet. If you are familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it is the highest level, the achievement of your true potential. This is after all other needs have been satisfied, including self-esteem needs, which are related to status and recognition. I know of many people in their 50s and 60s who are still pursuing their self-esteem needs, which means they are still seeking status and recognition in their career.

Updating usually happens later in life, although there are no set rules and you can start experiencing it at any age. You’ll know you’re on the path to self-fulfillment when the thought of chasing the next big promotion or job is no longer enough to make you happy, and instead you want to do something every day that connects with you from the inside. many stories of people who have changed careers later in life, to pursue something they had “always thought about doing” and were “too afraid to do”. You’ve probably heard that too.

Often when we start our careers, we don’t always know what it is that we want to do. It is a major transition from high school to adulthood, and the expectation is that you will go to college and/or know what kind of career to pursue. I started a career paying bills and it evolved over time based on what I naturally enjoyed doing. I had another career transition in my 40s, from the corporate world to higher education, and that’s when I really found what I thought was my calling. I have worked like many online educators, who spend long days, nights, and weekends helping students, and yet I find such immense satisfaction in my career that I cannot imagine doing anything else. This is what it means to find and live self-realization. You do the work you love and you love the work you do.

How to develop an attitude of self-actualization

It seems that many people are waiting for circumstances to improve, or for the right job to come along, before they can find and know true happiness in their career. If this is you, you may be waiting quite a while, as you cannot predict when circumstances or situations will be perfect enough for you to feel good. More importantly, if you link your personal happiness and well-being to external events or conditions, you are certainly setting yourself up for disappointment. Why? Surely there will be people who will disappoint you. There will be managers who will recognize you for your hard work and others who will only contact you when you have done something wrong. More importantly, there will never be a perfect job or set of working conditions.

What this means is that you should base your needs, at least the most important of all needs, on what you can control. If you go back to the definition of self-actualization within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you will find that it involves the realization of his talents, abilities, and skills. More importantly, it is the awakening of his true potential. Now you may be thinking that this indeed depends on the conditions of his work or the external environment, and it can, if you allow it. But if you want to experience the full essence of your own awakening, it’s time to turn within. You make a transition from depending on someone else to only yourself. Maybe these strategies will help you.

Self-reflection for self-awakening

If you feel the need for more than just career advancement, waiting for recognition, or any other form of external validation, something is already happening within you that indicates a transition is taking place. Now is the time to begin self-reflection, and you can do this deliberately for a few minutes at a time, rather than seeing it as a long process of long periods of meditation. This can be as simple as using a journal, writing notes in a Word document, or any other method you can think of to record your thoughts.

Why is this important? During a time of transition, there are many thoughts available that you may want to examine, and there are some that you may want to question, challenge, or discard. Writing those thoughts down on paper, in some format, will help you begin to address them. You do not have to worry too much about what all this means, but you must allow the process of awakening yourself to begin. This can allow you to discover what is driving you now and perhaps what is motivating the desire to change right now. You are likely to discover something new about yourself in the process.

Self-awareness to create self-reliance

Once you have started the process of starting self-awareness, you can now see a clearer picture of who you are and who you want to become. It will now be much easier for you to determine if the next phase of your life, and possibly your career, will involve a shift from self-esteem needs to self-actualization needs. If this is the case, you can also begin to shift from thinking about the conditions and people who need to do things, say things, or create situations for you to feel happy and fulfilled, to considering how you can create your own sense of fulfillment.

This means that you are now making a shift towards self-reliance for your happiness. At this point, you can think about the activities that you are involved in each week, or the duties and tasks that you would like to participate in, that can bring you the most satisfaction. This may not be a quick or easy process either, especially if you haven’t thought about your work, life, or daily activities from this perspective. But when you’ve decided you want to experience a sense of meaning in your life, now is the time to look at what you’re doing each week and from that list determine what’s most satisfying. This does not mean that you can or will make immediate changes; however, you can begin to learn more about yourself and who you are becoming.

Self-development to nurture self-actualization

The process of awakening to self-actualization is transformative in the sense that you are now determining what is most important to you, in terms of creating value for your personal and/or professional life. For many people this happens over time and as a product of age. But once it happens, you can start thinking in broader terms than just changing jobs. Now you can fully examine those aspects of your week that bring you satisfaction and compare them to what you have been thinking about for your life. Perhaps your transition to a new self-awareness involves simple steps, like a new hobby to complement your life, or leads to a career change.

Chances are you have already evolved naturally like I did and are working in a career that you enjoy. If so, you may want to find other means of expanding your talents and abilities. I find that writing for myself is another form of satisfaction, as I am sharing with others and connecting with a larger audience. The opportunity to share what I have learned with highly experienced and educated people is always an exciting prospect. This also leads to the prospect of opening an intellectual dialogue as well. Perhaps you can also find an extension of your talents, as you continue to self-develop in pursuit of your purpose. Whatever it is, it will surely help you find purpose and meaning.

A job is more than a job, when you make it meaningful

When you have finally gone through a transformation process and reached the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you will find yourself living life in a renewed way. This is not to say that he will live his life without challenges, or that every job he is employed in will be perfect. But what it does mean is that he can have the best job and find meaning, and he can also have the most demanding job in the most difficult circumstances and still find purpose in the work he does. It is not the work itself that is significant, it is the work that you do and the disposition about the work that you have that determines how you connect with it.

If you are in a job and decide that there is something there that brings you satisfaction, the external circumstances of that job will become much more manageable. There may still be days that are hard to get through and yet you will still find your purpose through it all because you have awakened to the knowledge that you seek a life of purpose. The way you approach the tasks you do will be very different, and even the most mundane tasks can now take on new meaning. Even if you have to find a new job or career, the realization that you are now working towards a new future, one that you are now in control of, will give you hope. When you decide to find meaning in your life or career, and base it on your needs rather than your conditions, then you will find greater long-term purpose, happiness, and satisfaction.